Lulu has been asking for one thing since we moved. She was two at the time, so it started as “a park,” then “a playground,” and then once she figured out what she really wanted it boiled down to “Can we get a swing and a slide?” The DW and I had always planned on it, but looking at swing-sets can be a bit overwhelming. With the series, options, upgrades, warranties, and add-ons browsing swing-sets was worse than shopping for a new car. I stumbled upon one brand where the “basic” set was priced just shy of 5 figures. (I blocked that website on the home computer.) We needed a swing and a slide – for that price I’d expect a life guard on duty.

With the basic idea of what we wanted – a couple swings, a slide, and a loft area – we figured I’d take a couple weekends, draw up a plan, and just build what we wanted from scratch. Finding the time to pull that off was going to be the only issue, so when we found a ready to assemble kit on sale for about the same price as what I figured it was going to cost to start from scratch we ordered it. (If you’re curious, the lumber is the cheap part – it’s the accessories – swings, slides, etc – that really add up.)

We picked the kit up on Saturday night. It came in a box that measured only 11 x 22 inches and was just under 8 feet long – but that didn’t stop it from weighing almost 300 lbs. Poor Lulu was a little confused and asked “where’s the slide?” at least a half dozen times on the way home. We had a bunch of other things going on Sunday, so it was almost 7 Sunday evening before we opened the box and she got to see everything.

Lulu helped take everything out of the box. It helped both of us – she found the obvious pieces that made up the slide and I found out why the box weighed so much (there wasn’t a wasted inch of space inside).

The DW told me that a lot of the information she found online said it would take around 10 hours for two people to assemble the set. With the number of parts to sort through, I can see why.

Lulu was a great help hunting for parts and pieces still hiding in the box. That is, until she found it more interesting to just sit in the skid loader. (And don’t worry – the skid loader key was in my pocket, the park brake was set, and the additional safety mechanism was engaged. Even though she looks determined, she wasn’t going anywhere.)

I think Peanut was scouting things out as well. If you can’t tell from that image how she feels about all this, the next shot should help clear things up.

Lulu and I took the DW’s comment of “2 people 10 hours to assemble” as a challenge. At this point, we’ve worked about 3 hours on the set between Sunday and Monday night and used the majority of the lumber. I think we got this one.