Ah, bliss:
There are a couple of little things left to do, but witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational play structure.
There’s a telescope:
And a steering wheel:
And a rock wall:
And a picnic table, for the eating of popsicles:
Bonus non-play structure pictures: Sam is experimenting with solid food.
Specifically, a sunburn.
This weekend was one of those unexpected perfect May weekends. Perfect for building the play structure in our backyard, as structure which TDW has spent the past two months planning.
Did I mention that she is, by disposition, training, and professional experience, a very very good planner?
So: materials and a plan purchased online. A slide, purchased from Rainbow in Beaverton. Nice cedar from Rick’s in the ‘Couv — sometimes we Northwest natives forget just how much the rest of the country envies us our softwoods. Southern yellow pine just don’t cut it, son. Valley Landscape dumped 2 1/2 yards of cedar chips in our driveway. And, of course, there were obligatory trips to the Land of Orange Aprons for more hardware yesterday, and two trips today to the local hardware store for ad hoc necessaries.
TDW and I spent big chunks of the past two weeks doing prep, pre-cutting lumber, etc. We borrowed a router table from Eric, and Trina proved that she’s earning her “A” in her Monday-night “Woodworking for Women” class.
Then, today, we assembled the team. We imported TDW’s family from Salem and Beaverton. These folks know how to WORK. Grandpa Mark brought masses of expertise and my new favorite tool, an electric impact wrench. Uncle Tragedy showed up with his uncanny spatial sense. Grandma and Sarah showed up for baby- and toddler-herding. Josiah and Staci biked up looking casual and proved to be hardcore workers, though J apparently also inherited the “sunscreen? why would I need sunscreen in May?” gene that seems to afflict all us Whitman men. (Sorry Gus, sorry Sam, we’ll slather you with Coppertone as long as we can, but once you are in control, you’re in for some bad burns.) Mom said she wouldn’t be able to show, so when she did, her help was a welcome surprise.
So, to the pictures (better chronology on the flickr page, as always). Here’s the “before” picture, with the empty SE corner of our backyard being the focus.
There were piles of lumber, hardware, and misc. parts:
There were Buitrons working hard:
There was chaos in the middle there:
There was sweat, and sunburn, and an electric impact wrench:
Then suddenly, there was a picnic table:
And now there is this. It’s not done, but the rest (seriously) is easy.
It still requires attachment of the slide and ladder, and the rock wall in back. I have to put up the roof, too. But when that’s done, it will look like this:
