Excitement!!!

"Tripper" (tripe46) 04/30/2020 at 15:22 • Filed to: None

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My kiddo turns two in a few weeks. She LOVES the outdoors and climbing in particular (I heard other kids like that too). So we decided to get her something SUPER neat!

I’m about 45 minutes or so from Lancaster, PA. Amish country for the uninformed. Places that sell these sorts of playsets, sheds, garages etc... are all over the place up there. So last weekend we took a drive up to have a looksie/to get the fuck out of the house.

I just called the place that has the set we like to finalize everything and the woman asked to you want to add any “fun things like...”

I was already prepped to say “no” but I heard her say “steering wheel”...

“O h yeah, we’ll take one of those!”

“with or without a horn?”

*thinks about kiddo standing in the old bimmer honking the horn and saying “BEEP BEEP!”

“with, please”

I cannot wait to see the look on her face when we show it to her!

Chariotoflove > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 15:28

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Fun times await! Make sure the screws for the swings are high quality. They are the stress points that will go over time. Also, try to not put the wooden feet directly onto the dirt or mulch. Try to put a barrier between. They are prone to rot. I dealt with the play set we bought for our community playground, and those were the  things that went bad first.

Tripper > Chariotoflove 04/30/2020 at 15:34

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Thanks, that’s good intel. They offered some kind of plastic surrounds for the feet which I went for.

Chariotoflove > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 15:36

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Worth it, good call . Turns out the warranty for residential sets is much less than for commercial sets.

thatsmr > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 15:43

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Sweet! I dug out and framed 8x10 for sandbox when i had a 2 yr old and a newborn. Humped two yards of washed sand in a 5 gallon bucket! We graduated to an inflatable hoop pool, and then the 14' x 42" above ground. Enjoy the backyard fun with kiddo(s). Mine are now teens and buried in my cavey house playing animal crossing!  

Tripper > thatsmr 04/30/2020 at 15:45

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A sandbox is definitely on the docket with one of the backhoe things!

TheRealBicycleBuck > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 15:52

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As Chariotoflove said, watch how you set up the feet and make sure it is anchored properly. One method is to dig a footer, fill it with concrete and top it with a cast-in-place base, then connect the feet.

Another way would be something like Level Dry.

All of the posts for our kids’ fort were vertical, so I treated them like fence posts. I dug the hole, put gravel in the bottom, placed the post, then filled it with concrete.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 15:55

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Sick! This is great idea with playgrounds being closed. I’m still working on our mini skatepark. 

Cash Rewards > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 16:01

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Lay everything out and organize the parts prior to assembly. That will save hours

Cash Rewards > thatsmr 04/30/2020 at 16:04

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Greatest typo ever

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 16:06

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One thing to look into. River  pebbles, easier to clean up and less tracked into the house

Tripper > TheRealBicycleBuck 04/30/2020 at 16:07

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They asked if I wanted some sort of plastic footers to cut down on rot. I said yes but am not sure exactly what they look like

Tripper > Cash Rewards 04/30/2020 at 16:07

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That’s how I do everything, but I’m letting them do this one, they made it hard not to.

thatsmr > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 16:07

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My little postage stamp city property made it easier to have the dump truck put it in the neighbor's drive and put it over the fence 5 gallons at a time. Thanks for great neighbors! I want a home playground for me now! The pool did almost a decade before finished off by hail. Now a firepit but already too hot to use!

Sovande > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 16:26

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Counterpoint: Just start putting it together. Time is but a construct.

Jim Spanfeller > thatsmr 04/30/2020 at 16:34

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“Humped two yards of washed sand in a 5 gallon bucket!”

I must admit, my mind went to some strange places when you said that...  

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 16:39

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Brain fart, pea gravel. 

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 17:43

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That’s so awesome - our daughter turns 2 in a few weeks as well and we’ve been contemplating the same. But don’t have Amish country near us so the only options are really just crap from the internet. Probably just going to wait it out and maybe build one next time grandpa visits from the east coast (he’s built fancy wooden boats his entire career so is the exact opposite of me when it comes to stuff like this). 

Tripper > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 04/30/2020 at 18:02

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Yeah I spent significant time on the internets before my wife was like “let’s just drive up to Dutch Wonderland (an amusement park for young kiddos) I definitely saw at least 5 of those places last time we went.”

There are some really good plans out there which was my original plan. However, when you throw in the swings, tire swing, rock wall and slide. It’s nearly as expensive or more!

We are going to build her a play house attached to my wife’s garden. She’s got it all done up “secret garden” style with plants that will grow up and cover the fence that surrounds the garden. The back door of her little house will open to the garden. Hoping to run power to it and put in little windows etc...

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 18:31

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Wow that sounds amazing, just the kind of stuff my wife and daughter are in to as well. We have a vegetable patch on the side of our yard and they spend hours getting muddy “planting seeds” out there and right now are working on planting some stuff that attracts butterflies. Not sure where we would put a playhouse but I’m sure such a request is in the works someday in the not too distant future! We have a chicken coop we built at home (looks like an old traditional red barn) under a maple tree..maybe a matching “farmhouse” in that same area will be a fun spot. 

Tripper > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 04/30/2020 at 19:14

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That sounds awesome.  we have chickens too! The coupe is on the opposing side of the yard, we built it from plans, but my wife customized it with a old shop window she found, and some other bits. We just got six baby chicks. We’ve got 5 adult chickens and one duck.

shop-teacher > Tripper 04/30/2020 at 21:54

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Very cool!

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Tripper 05/01/2020 at 11:34

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Wow that’s quite the flock. Do you have any restrictions on how many you can have? Here we’re limited to only 3 without a permit...we ended up with 4 (long story, involves one chick not having turned out to be a lady and a shady deal with a farmer in a grocery store parking lot).

So yeah we’re the neighborhood criminals - have an ongoing argument as to what happens when they stop laying. Wife grew up on a farm so to her the answer is “what do you mean what happens? chop chop!”. My response is “But we gave them names and our toddler likes cuddling them !”

We have the space to expand the coop so I’m hoping she comes around to the idea of just making it bigger, and letting our current ladies retire in peace and to get some new ones when we need new layers ...and either go through the permitting process, or just up our illegal chicken game.

Tripper > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 05/01/2020 at 11:48

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I believe were limited to 3 as well, we just cleared it with the neighbors on either side before we got into it in the first place. I do the same thing when I need to build something that requires a permit, haha.

In our municipality its more of a noise issue, so no roosters etc... The coop is close to the back of the yard which is a couple hundred feet from the houses. The duck can be noisy when she wants to be let out (or if something is trying to get into the coop) , but there is a kennel near by that is generally more annoying than our duck could ever be.

My wife and I are both big time animal lovers and I agree with you...they have names, our kid plays with them, even our boxer is pals with the duck. No way I’m killing any of them, and I don’t think they’re any good to eat once their the age where they stop laying. So we’ll probably let them live the good life until they can’t anymore.

It’s funny watching the intelligence difference between the chickens and duck. If there is a hawk or other predator around the duck heads for her  duck house (inside the coop) and quacks her face off. The chickens would get picked off so quick if it wasn’t for the dogs. However, we get almost no wild animals in the yard anymore since our Mastiff is full grown. She is a 160lb truck of a dog. The duck will also chase the frisbee with the dogs, but backs off when they get into it.

ttyymmnn > Tripper 05/15/2020 at 18:38

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Repost for the May 15 crowd!

Looks like fun!