Covid Project: Playground for the kids.

I have been wanting something like this for the kids for a long time. At first we looked at just buying the packaged products and setting it up the garden. But these days gave me the chance to look into building one for myself.

I first started with a plan drawn up of what I thought I wanted it to look like, which then allowed me to put together a shopping list and price the whole thing up.

Once I had a plan and the parts needed it was easy to cost it up. Surprisingly it required less material than I thought it would need but it was still a bit costly.

Everything arrived a couple weeks after ordering it and the "fun" part began, Building the thing. Of course I thought I would be able to do this all by myself and to a large degree I did, but on day one I almost had it land on me while trying to set it up and then that same day I had an argument with Vanessa trying to get it in place. So, I called a friend, had their family over for a BBQ and he helped me get the large structural parts in place. Without this help I would have failed at the first hurdle. My tip to anyone else planning to do something similar, just get help to do it.

The kids also enjoyed helping.

Eventually I got the main structure in place. I realise it was a bit wobbly, but as I had thoughtfully ordered too much wood I had some spare to be able to add reinforcing cross beams to shore the whole thing up.

The came the painting. I did not fancy painting it all by hand and so got a spray gun to do it faster. And as this was my first time using the spray gun, it took a little while before I really understood the settings to best use the paint I had, so I wasted a bit of paint lost into the air or painting the grass. But I eventually worked this out and it certainly made painting a whole lot easier.

After this I still needed to add a few more parts like the swings, the money bars, the climbing holds and the tyres but it was at least now at a point that the kids could play on it.

I collected the last parts that I needed, drilled a few more holes and tied a few more bits to it and in the end we had a complete playground for the kids that was about half the price of getting anything similar pre prepared from the stores. The kids are loving it and so are their friends when they come to visit.