Play Set

With help from Peg-P, Gran, Mama Zo and Pops we decided to get Chase a play set for his birthday. Instead of buying a kit and putting one together, which would of required a lot of work leveling our backyard, I decided to build one. It was a lot of fun and couldn't have been done without help from Wes and Clay.

First...I dug the holes for the posts. It wasn't too bad, but I did manage to blister my "inside hands" pretty good. After digging the holes I set the posts in concrete. I did the first post one afternoon and worked up from there the following three days. It wasn't easy setting the posts square with each other and level alone, but everything worked out okay.

Chase wanted to play on it immediately, so for a few days he had to settle sliding on the ground.

Hank wanted to join in the fun as well...

 

 

Ruby was supervising all the fun...

 On Saturday before Easter, Clay and Wes came to help. Chase was very excited to see George and Julie.

We got started and things went quickly. Then, the foreman (me) realized he had not done a good job buying the hardware. We had to waste time on 3 unanticipated trips to Lowes. We worked for 10+ hours together and never got in to one fight. Wes and Clay did a lot of work and we really could not have had it all  done before Chase's birthday party without their help.

Chase waiting patiently, but really ready to play on his slide. Occasionally, Chase would come down to "help" but was quickly back up on the deck (usually crying) whenever the saw was running.

Finally Chase got to test things out!!

On Saturday we got a lot done but did not completely finish. I had to mark the spaces for the spindles in the afternoon during the week. Chase used it as an opportunity to master the ladder and really learn how to go fast down the slide.

The finished product! It was a hit at Chase's birthday party, and he plays on it almost every day.