Living in the Projects(part 2)

A little more about life in the projects...in addition to our recent travels and the previously mentioned flower pots, we've also spent a couple weekends preparing and planting the spring vegetables.  All of that has kept us busy, but the most time consuming project has been the swing set we've been building Emry for her second birthday.

Our mindset was "Go big or go home!" The sturdy, custom-built type of swing sets were what wanted, but can you believe those prices?!  After the sticker shock wore off, we decided that we would rather put Emry through college than to buy a custom swing set.  Next, we tried the frugal route and searched endlessly on craigslist to find a good deal on a used one, but every time we found a deal, all we ever heard was "SOLD! SOLD! SOLD!"  Finally, we went to the big box stores, but their "kits" were not as structurally sound as I wanted for the price that they wanted.  So we decided to start from scratch and draw our own plans.

If anyone wants to see the plans we made, just let me know!

Using our blueprint as a guide, we did a rough estimate of how much lumber and hardware we needed and made a "shopping list." After spending almost 3 hours in Lowes one evening, we had all the supplies.  Now all we had to do was put it together.

Proof that I use my safety glasses for things
other than early morning winter runs!

We did did most of the work over two days of Memorial Day weekend.  I made the sides of the tower on Saturday.

Maren, Emry and Whit were a big help!

I applied my tarp technique to clean up my tools each day...just
drug the tarp into the yardbarn at the end of each day!

All we did on Sunday was raise the sides and bolt it together.

Emry had fun climbing the ladder and playing
with dad's power tools

Special thanks to Rob, Steph and Gramps for their
help with raising the sides and the beam

On Monday we did the deck floor, ladder, slide, "A" frame and raised the beam for the swings.

Emry wanted to give an additional  thanks to Gramps
for helping all day Monday as well!

The view from the top is amazing!

That just left a couple finishing touches, like adding the swings and accessories, which I did the following week.

Finally finished!

Now we can hang in the backyard and not have to worry about
Emry running off to the neighbor's house to
play on their swing set!

Emry has had a blast playing on it so far!  For her second birthday, she had all of her friends over to play on her new swing set.  It was the first time since we've had kids that we've had a big party...the good news was the swing set didn't fall down and nothing broke!...the bad news was we had 4 incidents where kids ended up crying, 3 who stumbled and fell down, one bloody nose, and one who threw up at the bottom of the slide.  So all in all, it was a great party! 

Emry and dad enjoying an evening of playing together

Later that evening, after I reviewed our homeowners insurance policy, after reflecting on the day's events, I realized this party was pretty much the same as the parties we threw when we were fresh out of college - people falling over, getting sick, crying etc. 

Now that we've gotten the spring projects finished things have settled down and aren't quite as busy.  We've been spending a lot more time relaxing and hanging in the backyard and are trying to get back into the normal routine of running the Smiths.....That reminds me, with Father's day right around the corner, I've got several more fatherly tips and things I've learned...