The Sandbox

Last year with the help of our parents, Wilson put together the play structure! We got this one from Wayfair and we have been really happy with how it turned out! When we were looking for a play structure, I wanted it to have swings, a slide and a little house with a door (because what kids doesn't like having a door to open and close over and over again?). This one has it all, plus a little picnic table underneath.

While we love the play structure itself, we overlooked a couple potential problems. When we built it we put it directly on the grass, which has turned out to be a bit of a hassle. The lawn mower doesn't reach many spots around and under it. Cue the wild weeds! We had always thought that down the road we would put mulch or rubber mulch around the whole structure but we really didn't want to tackle that yet. So our interm solution was to dig out the weeds underneath the structure and turn that little space into a sandbox.

This was actually a super easy project, that took me just a day to complete! Here's what I did:

Supplies:

4 1x6x8ft pressure treated wood boards

galvanized screws

1 can of white outdoor paint

First, I measured the boards and cut the four boards to go on top of the pre-existing base of the play structure. We figured that would be high enough for the kids to keep the sand IN the box and not too high that they can't get in by themselves.

Once the boards were cut, I painted them to match the rest of the play structure. I learned my lesson last year, that it is much harder to paint the play structure after it is already put together. There are so many nooks and groves that are hard to get in between and it takes a very long time to get it all painted! Painting before assembly is KEY!!

After the boards were all painted, we started digging out the weeds. This was the most labour intensive part of the project but actually went quite quickly. We took off one of the picnic table benches to make the sandbox larger.

With everything dug out, we laid down weed cloth and stapled it to the base. Then, screwed in the new boards.

And last but not least we poured in the SAND! We still need to get more sand but for now it's ready for the kids to play! Emilia and Jacob have been building and smashing many sand castles!

I'm so happy we did this project, not only is it fun for the kids to play, it eliminated the eye sore of crazy weeds! Win, win!