Swing Set: Day 1

Gus refused to pay for someone to install our new swing set. And despite our initial disagreement on this subject, I have to admit... we had fun today! We are good at working on projects together. We're still not finished, and have quite a bit left to do (refer to the catalog photo in my previous post, ha!). But the "bones" are all there, and the worst part is over: getting everything level and square. After tomorrow, the kids should be able to play on the swings and the glider, and possibly the slide (it's not bolted down yet).

Anyway... Gus and I are both reasonably handy, and perfectly capable of completing a project of this magnitude. At the same time: Oh my gosh!! It was so overwhelming to see a billion pieces of nearly-identical-but-just-slightly-different pieces of wood, all labeled with very user-unfriendly numbers, such as "1875-11" or "1729-06". And the hardware! Oh, the hardware! Bolts and screws in every size imaginable! Such a pain to dig through them all in search of the "2-inch deck screws" and only finding a baggie of "1.5-inch deck screws" or the "3-inch deck screws" or the "1.5-inch lag screws". Sigh. We're doing just fine, though. We will get there!

I am pleased to report, too, that the temperature was a spectacular 70 degrees today, and the kids enjoyed being outside with us for most of the day! They played up on the deck with cloud dough (making a HUGE mess, by the way), and spent a lot of time basically climbing on us while we worked. They had a lovely picnic lunch, too, just feet away from where we were working. Here are a few pics from the afternoon!


And finally, one last photo from when we finally stopped... We worked all the way up until dinner, and then Gus called to order a pizza from the place across the street (literally... he and Nikos walked over to get it). By the time we stopped, we were being eaten alive by mosquitos... yuck! But it makes sense. There is SO MUCH water around here, and the warm temps must have really excited them! Anyway, note to self: buy mosquito repellant.

And that was our day, in entirety. I'm tired! Goodnight!