Dutch's New Playground

We have a large side yard separate from our backyard where the pool is, and we never have any reason to use it.  The dogs go out there to handle their business and bark at people or cars going by. That was the extent of its use.  Earlier this year we put down new sod in it because one portion of it would become a muddy pit after each rain.  During our massive plumbing repairs (post still forthcoming), a huge portion of the yard was disrupted and left in shambles.  The workers had to dig trenches and place the uprooted dirt on other areas of the yard, so when it was all said and done, we were left with a dirt yard.  We weren't too keen on paying to re-sod a yard we had just done that to a few months prior, so we figured it would be a good time to research play sets.  I'd much rather cover the yard with something useful than just put down more grass. The other reason for wanting a play set was so that Dutch would have a great outdoor activity to participate in, while I'm dealing with a newborn in a couple months.  I want him to get out and be active, but getting to a nearby playground will be more of a hassle with two in tow.

We honestly didn't do much research on where to purchase the play set from, mainly because I'm big and pregnant and don't have the luxury any more of taking my time!  We visited the Beyond Backyards location in Carrollton and found a model that we liked.  We also found out they did some great barriers, filled with mulch, to section off the area where the play set would go.  That definitely appealed to us since we didn't want our dirt yard to be the base of the set. We selected our options and paid for everything on 10.04 and the unit was installed on 10.13. I love not having to wait very long for something like this!  We were all excited about it.

It took the guys about 4 hours to complete everything, which is impressive considering the size of the structure and the square footage they had to fill with mulch. The area it takes up is 24' x 36'.  Here's a couple of pics during their installation:

And here's the fully finished product:

I absolutely love it!  It's got three swings, a trapeze, a tire swing, a rock-climbing wall, three types of ladders, a slide, and binoculars and a ship's wheel in the tower.  We invited a couple of Dutch's cousins over to give it a test run.

We had talked about it a little bit with Dutch ahead of time, but I was wanting it to be a surprise, so I didn't tell him what day it would be installed.  I wanted to walk him out to the yard and see his reaction for the first time, but the structure is so tall, that he could see it as we drove by the fence!  I heard him from the backseat ask, "Is that my new playground??"  I still managed to video his reaction as he got to see it up close and personal:

I love making this kid happy!

Project costs:

Play structure: $3,299

Groundcover: $3,240

Delivery/installation/tax: $863

Total: $7,402