Roberts Family: Building the Playgym of Happiness

One of our summer projects was to built a playset for Ainsley and Durham. She's getting old enough to be able to navigate climbing, sliding, and swinging with just a little assistance, so we made the jump.

After shopping around, we decided to go with a playset from Lowe's. We would put it together ourselves even! We enlisted the help of Grandpa Roberts in getting the box back to our garage. At this point, our garage has officially been taken over by kid things. There's no room for our cars. (We'll be rectifying that situation through the building of a shed later in the summer though).

How bad could this be? We both have college degrees.

My first hint that this might be difficult was upon opening up the directions. They were mostly pictures. Where were the words to guide me through this process? Ah well. I can do this. We can do this together.

The first page of directions explained that we would need a drill, hammer, level, and four hours of time to put this bad boy together. Looking good. We have all of this.

I began unpacking the boxes and identifying pieces. Each piece of wood had a different code on it, and I cross-referenced the code with the checklist of materials. Hmmm. One integral piece of wood short? I'll just make a call to the manufacturer...

Once everything was checked off and placed in a proper spot,
Ainsley proceeded to move it to a new and better spot. What a helpful girl!

After only one hour, all the wood but the one piece had been accounted for. It was now time to check off all the hardware.

Good thing it only takes four hours to assemble.
It would be terrible to have this take over my garage for WEEKS.

I began collecting and counting all the hardware pieces. And matching it to the pictures. There were no less than 14 different types and sizes of screws. There were 8 different types and sizes of bolts. Methodically, I moved on, only interrupted by the occasional bottle feeding, potty break, a NEED FRUIT SNACK break, and a diaper changing or two.

After only another two hours, all the hardware had been accounted for. Except the package of bolts they had forgotten to pack. I sent Tim up to the hardware store to fetch the missing bolts. No need to call the company on this one.

All of this was done with Durham strapped to me.
Imagine how THAT felt on your back.

Huh. Three hours in. Nothing is assembled. The building of this bad boy must take only one hour then. Good thing. They kids were ready for a nap.

By the time Tim got back from the hardware store, the kids were napping and we set to work assembling the first pieces. I easily fetched the labeled wood and hardware parts needed in step one. He stood ready and waiting with the drill. We deftly went to attach the first two pieces before we realized we didn't have the correct bit. We needed some sort of fancy star bit.

Another trip to the hardware store.

And NOW we were ready to begin. The clock was ticking on how long we had until the kids woke up. We needed to get going. Unfortunately, the bit was a bit too small for the screw.

Another trip to the hardware store for a better fitting bit.

And we were ready to go! Trying to keep our spirits high, we grab some caffeine and get to work. This bit fit perfectly! Yes! On to step number two. Step number two required screwing into a hole deep within the wood. So deep, our bit couldn't reach it. Huh. Is there some sort of bit extender do-hickey? We weren't sure.

Another trip to the hardware store. And by this time, the kids were up. And guess what? We were over four hours and were on step TWO. This was only day one of this adventure.

After the kids were safely tucked into their beds that night, Tim and I sneaked into the garage for some kid-free building time. We proceeded swiftly past steps 2, 3, and 4 before the whole thing started to get rather big for the garage. We moved the preliminary structure to the back yard and turned on the light on the back side of our house. It wasn't quite enough to see with, so I held a flashlight while I read the directions and shined it on the hole that needed screwing.

It was at this point that our patio door burst open. Ainsley began yelling, "I GET MY SHOES ON! I COME AND PLAY TOO!"

That was the end of our kid-free work time. I convinced Tim that we'd keep Ainsley strapped safely in her stroller and let her watch us. It was summer. Let the girl stay up late. She sat in her stroller, covered in a blanket as we attempted to move on to the next step.

"I want to hold the light!"

This presented us with a dilemma We had only one flashlight. I had the great idea to give her a crank-it-up camping lantern. She cranked it twice before she was fed up with that new toy.

So we gave her the light, while I used the crank-it-up camping lantern to give enough light for Tim to drill with. This lasted about 10 minutes before we realized the full ridiculousness of the situation and threw in the towel for the night.

The next morning we started afresh with renewed energy. All four of us were in the garage. Durham was in the exersaucer, Ainsley was rearranging the organized pieces of wood and hardware, and Tim and I began where we had left off from the night before.

The first thing I noticed was a neat little baggie with the exact bits we needed the day before. Apparently they had sent these along, but I had failed to notice them the day before. I struggled with whether or not I wanted to tell Tim about these extra bits. In the end, I did. It was nice to have them, as we might lose the ones we bought from the store.

Hard, dedicated work lasted about 4 minutes until Ainsley was running for the road after a ball. She was retrieved. Hard work lasted for another 6 minutes until Durham was unhappy with his exersaucer. He became strapped to Mama again. As soon as we began again, Ainsley had to go potty.

Four hours you say? Ha.

Seriously. This device is meant for children. The only people who would buy it have children. How can you assemble it in four hours with children stopping you every five minutes? It was a conundrum.

We eventually got to the point that we could move the structure to the back yard and fence the two year old in away from the road and other hazards.

Ainsley needed to test it out.

We soon decided that in order to preserve our marriage, we should take a day off. It was that kind of a day. We all went inside to cool off, get a drink, and call for reinforcements.

Grammy and Papa came by the next day to lend a hand. Grammy followed Ainsley around the yard, deterring her from any further "help". Papa and Daddy decided to proceed in a way that sometimes followed the directions, sometimes freestyled. This was all too much for my Type A personality.

Me: "I think that piece of wood was supposed to go on the other side."

Guys: "Yeah, but we figured it didn't matter."

Me: "Doesn't that interfere with the integrity of the structure?"

Guys: Blank stares. "It'll be fine. Go get piece 2943."

I soon learned to just keep my mouth shut and fetch necessary materials and drinks.

Grandma and Grandpa Roberts came the next day. By this time, most of the structure was finished. We still needed to purchase a slide and were still waiting on the shipped missing piece, but everything else was done and ready to play on. Grandma and Grandpa Roberts even brought supper with them. I suspect they've been in this position before and knew what we needed to de-stress ourselves from building this playgym of happiness.

First time in a swing. HIS swing.

Ainsley was too afraid to go on the big girl swing.
She wanted to go on Durham's swing.
After a quick weight limit check, she was flying through the air.