Swing Set Project

Just realized I never really posted the swing set project photos here… so here ya go!

testing the layout

ground breaking

the work crew

using his tools

setting the posts

my boys working

g-pa watching kids for us

filling the sandbox

one bucket at a time

bringing out the big guns

works much faster

end of day 1

g-pa and carly

g-pa and carly

a pic of me!

end of day 2

from the back

testing sand box

mamaw putting on the roof

testing the slide

moving toys in

end of day 3

end of day 3

from the back

picnic table mode

water table platform mode

glider attached

sand box mode

window for opening

ladder attached

flower box attached

then it snowed!

All that’s left, as of right now, is to install the fireman’s pole off the back… attach the second set of swing hangers (which we have now) and maybe add some flowers (fake or real, not sure yet) to the flower box. Then Carly is getting a baby swing for her birthday from us, and Jonah is getting a big boy swing from Mamaw and G-pa, I think, that will both get hung up.If Jonah gets the steering wheel that he wants for his birthday from someone, we’ll need to attach that too… but we’re pretty close to being DONE with this project! Yay! So fun seeing it come to life!

Garage Renovation: DONE!

It all started with us getting a bunch of new power tools for christmas this year, not having anywhere to really put them, and being generally displeased with the dark dungeon of clutter that was our garage. Jason had a week off work and school between Christmas and New Years, and we typically try to tackle a major home improvement project at that point every year… last year it was Jonah’s big boy bedroom. We knew this was going to be a much bigger project, and would have to be done in phases. Our hope was to be finished with Phase 1 (the door wall) by the end of the break. We made that goal! Our next goal was to be finished with Phase 2 and 3 by spring break so that we could have it finished when Jason would have another week off school and work and we could then dedicate that week to building the kids’ swing set for their birthdays… and given that spring break starts next Friday, I am happy to announce that we are DONE! Here’s a little photo time line for you!

Door Wall Before (12/29/09)

Exterior Wall Before (12/29/09)

Cleared off, Patched, Painted the Door Wall, Built Shelves and Peg Board (12/31/09)

Rubber Maid Tub Shelves Close Up (1/2/10)

Custom Rolling Work Bench (1/2/10)

Pyro Corner... Fireplace, Grill, and Fire Pit accessory storage (1/2/10)

Back Wall Before (Taken 1/23/10)

Peg Board and "Racing Stripes" for heavy duty hooks (2/10/10)

More Tub Shelves, "Phase 2" Complete! Ready to start Phase 3! (2/15/10)

Rolling Wood Rack Built (2/20/10)

Exterior Wall After (3/7/10)

Back Wall After (3/7/10)

Overhead wood rack, shelf on the back wall for our pool off season, and shelf on the door wall for chemicals (3/7/10)

Door Wall After (3/7/10) painted the door frame, but should probably paint the door itself too I guess.

We are THRILLED with our new garage! Can’t wait to use all this new available space to start working on the swing set next weekend! It’s exciting to work in a space that works!

The Sandbox Part 2

The Completed Sandbox and See Saw Lid

I filled up the sandbox yesterday so Jonah could play in it for the first time today. The only thing left to do on it is to attach the hinges on the other storage door. Our drill battery died as we finished the last two boards on the see saw part, so we haven’t COMEPLETELY finished it I suppose. It was good enough for building sand castles today though. Check out the link to our Summer 2008 photos (also permanantly located on our side bar for easy access) for more pictures of Jonahs’ first sandbox day and close ups of my handy work!  

The Sandbox Part 1

I decided that the rinky dinky sandbox turtle I was originally going to get for Jonah was just too small and the lid would probably vanish with the first big wind storm. So my solution? Build one of course! It IS, afterall, my “career passion”… to build furniture and stuff. And by “career passion”, I mean… one of the few things I would think about trying to make a living at some day… if I had to, or got bored. So anyway. I designed a neat little sandbox that’s got a storage bench and an arched lid that doubles as a see-saw rocker!

I bought the materials to start building it a couple of days ago and finally decided I better get them out of my car before they started to warp, and just build the darn thing. So right at 12:00, when Jonah went down for his nap, I started working on it in the garage. You wanna talk about a hot box! Freakin’ 90+ degrees outside and i’m in the garage sweating like no tomorrow! I, unfortunately, was one board off in my estimation of how many boards it’d take to “deck” the outside of the arch. probably cause my autocad drawing was just a sketch and i used actual 1x4s when a 1×4 is actually only .75″ x 3.75″. Anyway…. that and a drained cordless drill battery are the only things stopping me from attaching the last two hinges and last two boards to be able to call it fully assembled. I still need to go back and sand all the rough edges too, but that’s definitely going to be another day! I am completely sweaty and gross and I am ready to do something else for a while. Maybe I’ll indulge the boy child in a bath. He only asks for one about 20x a day!