Ta-Da!

As Nils likes to say (about anything and everything of note), TA-DA!

Ladies and gents, we have a clubhouse (my term)/fort (Chris' term)/pirate ship (Carolena's)/sliiide! (Nils')!

We've been talking about building something for our kids since... well forever really. Even before having kids we talked about how we would one day build something for them to play on in the backyard.

This time last year we started really talking about it more and couldn't come to a consensus. Chris wanted to build a huge ship to the tune of like 4.7 million dollars. I wanted to find scrap supplies and build "a series of platforms" to the tune of roughly the cost of screws.

So we dropped the conversation and continued to think about it on our own. Then we went to a friend's house where we saw a small platform he'd built for his kid... and the light bulb finally went off. Chris was like, "ohhh NOW I see what you mean... why would you call that a 'platform?'"

And then our idea for "platforms" grew into "with a slide!" and "a deck underneath!" and extra room on the end so that "maybe one day we'll add on a swing!"

Very little conversation actually went into the finished product. Chris whipped up some plans (because he's awesome like that). I tossed in a few ideas (very few because he looked deep in thought and calculations).

I think all of the planning happened on Friday morning, and then Chris went to Home Depot, came home with a truck bed full of supplies, and we went to work!

I committed to the project as "the brawns" and dubbed Chris "the brains." As long as he gave me clear instructions I would just work. And... low and behold... it worked! No fighting went into the making of our clubhouse. I became a master at holding up boards while Chris attached them (helllo shoulders! yikes!) and then I became a master at using the drill as I attached more than half of the boards on that bad boy. Chris was in charge of measuring and cutting as that made me nervous. So, no fighting went into it, but plenty of blood and tears (there would have been sweat but the weather was a perfect Texas spring January day). The tears were Nils' (it's hard to be two) and the blood was mine as I once missed the screw and hit my finger with the drill. Eeeww.

Chris and I had a blast building something together, we have an awesome (insanely sturdy) clubhouse/fort/pirate ship/slliiiiide, the kids are giddy, and all is right with our backyard (for now!).

We finally got around to putting out the mailbox I found in Goodwill months ago and c has had just as much fun with that thing as she has the huge "pirate ship."

There were only two snafus along the way (well, besides drilling my finger which went by with a lot of blood and little to-do). Snafu one happened on Saturday morning when I awoke worried that the structure was too tall. We weren't home that day to work on it and when we came home I confessed my concern about the height. After some thinking and talking about the height (and consulting my bro-in-law), we Chris turned the entire thing on its side and cut off a foot from the bottom! Hercules! Hercules! We hadn't built the bottom deck yet if you are wondering how that was possible.

Numero dos? Wellll as you can probably imagine Chris and I have different ideas as to what should happen with all of the leftover wood. Yesterday Chris and I dubbed our project "finished!" and while I gazed lovingly and thoughtfully at the pile of scrap, Chris was already walking into the backyard with the trashcan. Hmph. So we compromised. I gave Chris plans for two "planters" and he built two boxes. Free?! And we can put some cute plants in there?! Yes. Then I agreed to let him to throw away a bunch of stuff while he agreed to indulge me in sticking a bunch of very useful and awesome and "we paid for this already!" boards into the garage. You know, to sit next to the fence boards I salvaged from our new fence project two years ago... oops.

Man, speaking of things I've salvaged... I have four truck tires in our backyard right now. I had big plans for those tires like "sink them in the grass!" but it turns out they are too rubbery/springy for that, and "make alligators!" but none of our saws can cut through the metal in the tire (believe me I tried and tried), and now "uhh... tire swing?" crap.

I'm looking forward to hours and hours of fun in our improved backyard. Let the mint julep season begin!