Project Playset

I have been patiently waiting for the ground to dry up enough to finish the landscaping around the playset before writing this post.  I've decided to go ahead and post it though, as I sit here listening to a frog-strangling rain of epic proportions.  We have rescheduled the gravel delivery four times now due to muddy ground conditions.  Today's rain will set us back another week, the ground needs to be hard enough to allow a full size dump truck hauling 11 yards of pea gravel to travel over it.   

Very soon after we moved into the first house, we built a playset.  We built it ourselves with a giant pile of boards, a set of plans and the necessary hardware.  The lumber wasn't pre-cut and it didn't come in kit-form, so we had to do all of that ourselves.  It was a little time consuming, but we managed to get it done in a week or so.  The kids enjoyed playing on it so much that we knew when we moved to our new home, a new playset needed to be at the top of the priority list.  It took me weeks to find the right one.  I specifically needed it to be long and narrow rather than boxy and square like many of today's space-saving designs.  We have a large yard, but it's wide rather than deep.  It also needed a clubhouse, and monkey bars.  Monkey bars aren't a standard on all playsets, so that took some additional research.  I also wanted it to be sturdy and tall enough to accommodate Justice.  I found the perfect set at a great price, and ordered it.  Actually, it was even bigger than the one we originally looked at, but the price was too great to pass up.  It arrived in two days, just in time for the weekend.  It was in four boxes, and there were a whole heck of a lot of pieces.  

We decided this time to buy a pre-cut kit made out of cedar.  I think we would have both preferred to have built one ourselves like the first one, but one of this size would have taken a considerable amount of time and work.  We looked at probably 100 plans online and couldn't fine one that matched up to everything we needed and then decided to go the pre-cut route.  I'm REALLY glad that we did that.  The first playset that we built was nice, and very sturdy, but it wasn't much fun to put together.  I was glad not to have to do that again.

It wasn't until we unpacked the boxes that I mentioned to The Coach that I bought a bigger one that we originally planned on.  The amount of lumber was ridiculous.

And see that little guy messing around with the sorted piles of lumber?  He was all over the wood, moving things around.  We were constantly looking for misplaced pieces of wood.

And let's talk about the hardware for a second.  WOW.  It clearly takes a considerable amount of hardware to put one of these things together.  And again, Bo was really handy to have around to help lose bolts and stuff.  

Progress, Day 1.  On the first actual day of construction we put together the monkey bars, the ladder and the rock wall.  Sorting through the piles of lumber and then getting the necessary hardware was time consuming.

By the time Day 2 rolled around, I came up with a plan to speed things up.  During the day while The Coach was at work, Justice and I pre-staged everything that we were doing for that day.  We separated the steps into piles, and then I bagged the needed hardware for that particular step and we placed it together in one stack.  I wrote the step number (which corresponded with the step in the book) on the hardware bag with a sharpie.  We continued until we had pre-sorted twenty steps per day, since that was our goal.  

It worked great, because we made considerable more progress on Day 2 than on the first day. 

Day 3.   This particular playset has a built in sandbox and also a built in picnic table. 

We knew that Bo was going to love the sandbox.  He played right in it, in the dirt, before we even had sand in it.  

He knew something pretty cool was happening.  See how his mouth is totally round?  He's saying "Oooooooooo" over and over again.  Not like "Oh" with a long O, but the sound "oo" makes.  He does that when he knows something cool is about to happen.    When he hears the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song come on, or when I cut him up some strawberries,  and the entire week we were building the playset.  Oooooo, oooooooo, oooooooo.  Too cute.  

And yes, he's dirty.  We don't have grass down in the back yard yet.  It's too hot now and we won't weed and seed until the fall.  We are stuck with dirt until next Spring, and that means we are stuck with a dirty baby and his dirty brothers.  No one is immune to the dirt.  

On Day 4, we realized how tall this thing was really going to be.  It's hard to really get a feel for it with an internet picture.  I was getting pretty excited myself at this point.  

Yes, he's got that look.  The "I'm having so much fun sweating to death out here and building this giant thing you tricked me into building" look.  

 Day 5.  Around this day, The Coach was getting tired of the cute little extra's like the fancy sunburst cut out at the top of the roof peak.  There are also bay windows across the back and the left side that you really can't see in the picture.

"Are you kidding me?  Seriously?  Who the he** puts a bay window in a playset?"

And I think he said "You've got to be kidding me" at least three dozen times.  

And maybe he said "Yes dear" in a sarcastic tone another three dozen times.

Day six, getting so close!  We were stopped several times because of the rain.  We got some cardboard out though and kept on going.  The humidity was killer after it rained.  

Most of the work that needed to be done was above the ground though, so the muddy ground didn't hinder us too much.  

This was the worst part.  The "Crow's Nest" was a really tight fit and The Coach didn't enjoy that part a whole lot.  That plus we were both tired of working on this thing for four hours a day.  We were just ready to be done.  

And on day 7, we were finished!  If you notice Jack standing up at the very top of the "crow's nest" above the swing beam, you can get an idea of how large this thing is.  

 The very next day, I personally put 600 pounds of sand in the sandbox for Bo.  He was ecstatic.  He spent three solid hours in the sandbox and when I finally drug him out, he was kicking, screaming, and absolutely covered with sand.  He's already a pro at stripping down and being hosed off in the backyard.  

But see his face?  

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Totally worth it.  

"Oo, Oo, Oo!!!"

"Ooooooooo" 

After we finished the structure itself, we started to concentrate on the surface.  We knew that we didn't want to leave it as just grass.  The playset is 14 feet tall, and the crow's nest is a 12 foot fall if some little booger decides to fling themselves out of it.  And let's face it, it could happen.  If you've ever watched an episode of Ridiculousness on MTV then you know I'm right.  

We were going to go with wood mulch, but we were swayed at the last minute with an article we read and we ultimately decided on pea gravel.  Rubber mulch is really expensive and I'm not convinced that it's as "non-toxic" as they allege, especially in some of the colors it comes in.  So we purchased 11 yards of pea gravel.  That's an entire dump truck of pea gravel, fully loaded.  That's a lot of gravel.  Four inches thick and it will cover the entire play area.  

The Coach has put up a short cedar border around the playset to contain the gravel.  He had a big helper working with him while he was digging the holes to sink the posts.  Every time he'd finish digging a hole, Bo would test it out for him to make sure it was deep enough.

Now if only we could get the ground to dry up long enough to get the gravel delivered, we will be finished!

This project was time consuming, but it was not hard.  I kept waiting for The Coach to need an extra set of hands, but it never happened.  The lumber was cut well, pre-drilled, and the instructions were very clear.  The instructions told us it would take two, moderately skilled people 96 hours to complete.  We worked together (yes, I helped every step of the way) and it took us 36 total hours to complete.  It was nowhere close to the 96 hour estimate.  I would say though that we are both more than "moderately skilled".  

One thing is for certain, it was worth it.  The kids love it.  Justice and his friends play on it (you really aren't ever too old to play on a swing set, are you?), Jack finds solitude in the clubhouse or crow's nest, and we literally have to drag Bo out of the sandbox every day.  

We would do a project like this again in a heartbeat.  But hopefully, we will never have to!