Playset

Jackson is now the proud owner of his very own backyard playset.  To those of you who think building a playset might be in your future...you have been warned.

This project is a beast.

Here is what it looks like prior to assembly.

Notice those little green pieces of tape on each board? 

Those are there because Drew labeled them.  Himself.  One at a time.  After measuring the pieces and matching them up with the parts list.  You didn't expect that the seven bazillion pieces would actually come labeled did you?  Ha!

He even sorted the screws, bolts, washers, etc.

I like to think it's because my freakishly organized tendencies have rubbed off on him, but I think the user reviews he read online probably had more to do with it.  In any case, don't skip this step.  It will save you a million headaches down the road.

Once the parts were labeled and ready to go, Drew got started one Saturday afternoon with expectations of a completed playset by the end of the weekend.

It's a nasty project.  The instructions are vague (and this is coming from a guy who's totally awesome at this stuff), there are a bazillion pieces to sort through, not everything is perfectly square, etc.  I had a hunch it would be a pretty tense scene so Jack & I made ourselves scarce running errands while Drew got started.  It was a frustrating project, no question, but he was making good progress.

Then he reached a step that calls for two people.  As I mentioned, Drew is a handy guy.  He's tackled countless projects on his own that are technically two-man jobs.  So he threw caution to the wind (pun intendend) and forged ahead. 

That's when disaster struck.  While attempting to conntect two sections of the tower unit, a huge gust of Kansas wind started tipping the unit over and Drew's two arms weren't enough to keep it upright.  Down it went breaking 2 pieces of wood as it fell.

SCREEEETCH.

That was the sound of project playset coming to a screetching halt. 

There's no need to relive the painful moments that followed.  Suffice it to say, it was a sad afternoon at the Elser house.

By Monday morning the wounds had been licked and tempers had calmed down enough to call customer service and speak with the manufacturer of the playset.  It turns out replacement parts were available and would be shipped to us from their factory in Canada immediately.  Whew.

For the next 3 weeks (while we waited for parts to arrive, were delayed by a business trip to Texas followed by a weekend of rain, and hosted a family celebration for Easter) Jackson's playset looked like this.

Finally, the stars aligned and Drew was able to get a couple of hours of help on a Friday afternoon.  The result was this.

As far as Jack was concerned, Drew could have stopped here.  Upon arriving home that afternoon Jackson stopped dead in his tracks at the first glimpse and shouted, "Whoa!  Mom, it's awesome!"

Lucky for him, Drew kept going.  It took the better part of Saturday to finish, but our backyard is now equipped with one heck of a playset!

Jack was awfully proud of his Daddy.  For days, every time he would play on the playset he would say, "My Daddy built this."  He also threw in several "Daddy Rocks", just for good measure.  Can you tell he was one excited little boy?

It's been up and running for almost 2 weeks now and I've got to agree with Jack, it's pretty awesome.

Easy for me to say, since my role in project playset was keeping Jack busy and bringing Drew an occasional glass of water, but I think in the end even Drew would agree it was worth the huge headache that it ensued.  I know a little boy who sure thinks so.

Here's to a summer full of climbing, sliding, gliding and swinging. 

And no strains, sprains or broken bones.



By the way, if you ever need help building a playset, call Drew.  He's an expert now!