| William's Playground |
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We knew we wanted to build a playground for William in the summer of 2006, but we weren't sure what direction we wanted to go. One direction we knew that we couldn't go was with a premium set such as Rainbow or Cedarworks. Nothing against those sets -- we've looked at them, they're beautiful, built like a tank, and practically commercial grade. But justifying a $3000-$5000 price tag (for the size of set we were interested in) just didn't seem to make sense for something that will likely be used less than 10 years. Instead, we tried to find a cheaper set with some of the features and quality of the better sets.
We looked at the "build it yourself" kits at several places, looked at some pre-fab kits at some other places... We came very close to buying the Pathfinder Deluxe set at Sam's Club, but at the last minute, changed to a Timber Bilt by Swing-n-Slide kit from Home Depot. The main reason for the switch was that it seemed like we could build a more substantial set for about the same cost as the Sam's. The Pathfinder set had a lot of great features, and was made of mostly cedar and redwood, but was only rated for 150 pounds. The Timber Bilt set we bought is rated anywhere from 250-350 pounds, depending on the accessory, which means that we can play along with William -- something that was very important to us. In case anyone is interested, we purchased the "Glacier Peak" kit, and basically built "Option C" which is the biggest/best option, but made a bunch of changes. Some of these changes were:
- Mirroring the entire tower. The plans called for the swing beam to be on the right of the lower deck as you face it from the front. Our yard dictated where the swing beam was in relation to the tower, and we didn't want the upper tower in front (among other reasons, it was easier to deal with our sloping yard that way), so we mirror-imaged it.
- Switched the positions of the rock wall and Turbo Slide. The plans called for the Turbo slide to come off of the back of the upper deck. Since we mirrored the tower, this would have caused the Turbo Slide to eject into the path of the swings. We didn't think it was possible to switch the direction of the slide (once we started assembling it, I think we could have, although the directions didn't address this). By making the slide come off the side of the tower, this corrected the problem. This required a few modifications to the way the tower was constructed.
- Slightly lengthened the ladder and rock wall to account for sloping ground around the tower.
- Added our own homemade "cargo net climber" to the cantilevered section of the swing beam. Someday this area will house a two-person glider swing, but we wanted a placeholder in the meantime.
- We will be adding a small ball-tent area, as well as a sandbox, below the tower. We already have a large number of balls for the tent, and it will be easy to screen off a small area for ball play.
You'll see most of these modifications as the pictures progress.
One thing I'll apologize for right off -- we tended to keep going on the project rather than take lots of pictures of each step. So there's some big gaps, but I'll try to make up for that in the descriptions.
OK, enough prologue, let's get started!
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William's Playground (2006) |
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Starting outWe started on a rainy Tuesday, fortunately mostly working in the garage. The plans gave a detailed "cut list" and we cut out and labeled all the pieces, as well as rounded over the edges with a router for safety. In this picture, you can see one of the framing pieces after assembly, some of the smaller cut-outs, and the slide. The huge box is the "Turbo Slide", which you'll see coming up.
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Two more framesWe set the frames outside after each was built to free up room in the garage. The Timber Bilt kits actually go up pretty easy. They have a unique bracket system for piecing together the larger timbers, and most of the rest of the assembly is done with some special lag screws and coated deck screws.
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Starting the major assemblyWe continued outside on Wednesday afternoon. Cathy holds up "frame two" so it can be attached to "frame one" and the base. Before this whole project started, we had to do some semi-major leveling of the area, since it was on a gradual slope down toward our pond (most of our yard is sloping in some way).
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Adding the lower deckAt this point, the three major frames were all installed, and Tim works on adding the decking for the lower deck. The special green brackets are in use here -- on the right side just under the lower deck you can see two in use (the others are still waiting to be used).
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Finishing up the lower deckSome final touches on the lower deck boards.
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William checks out the situationIn the foreground, William poses with great anticipation of his new playground. In the background, you can see the status at this point-- most of the lower deck is now complete, except for the "barrier boards" which make up the railings.
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Starting the upper deckWork proceeds to the upper deck. The timbers which support it are in place, and it's just about ready for the decking.
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Done for WednesdayHere's the status of things at the end of our workday Wednesday: The upper decking is in, and the railings are all complete except for the barrier boards. The 4x4 timber is in place in the foreground of the picture-- it will be used to support the swing beam on the fort side. Things are coming along pretty smoothly.
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Upper deckA view of the upper deck.
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Swing BeamOn Thursday, we continued on by working on the swing beam. In the garage, we assembled the "A-frame" for the end support, as well as drilled all the holes through the timber and attached the swing hangers. Here, at the playground site, Cathy checks out the frame right as we get ready to attach it to the beam.
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Attachment difficultiesTim has a minor difficulty getting the bolts lined up with the T-nuts on top the swing beam. William checked things out, offered his advice, and we were back on track.
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Beam complete!The A-frame and swing beam are now one unit!
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