My son's birthday present

**Booba5185** · 04-03-2015

My boy's birthday present is done. He turns 4 next Friday, and I had previously worked a deal with my neighbor for a swing set. We built onto it today, and it came out great. I used all treated lumber, and I've had 1,000 pounds on the new level and it didn't move. Here's some before pictures, before we even moved it.

Then after we were done. New level, ladder\stairs, and reworked the rock wall. I have about $180 in it total:

Over the next few weeks we'll sand up the old wood we used, oil it up and stain\paint it. What do you guys think?

**1fastam** · 04-03-2015

great job man!!

**REDCRAPGP** · 04-03-2015

Awesome. Can't beat being handy and building onto it yourself and making it work out.

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**idrivejunk** · 04-03-2015

Thats huge! Serious- what a cool thing for the kiddo. Better establish a "neighbor kid" policy right up front, you might have a busy yard. Play safe, all of ya.

**Booba5185** · 04-03-2015

Thanks guys, I always wanted one as a kid, and now I can fit on this lol. It was pretty easy to do, and I have some finishing touches but I'm happy with the way it came out for sure.

I need to mow, but the grass was wet all day from a rainstorm last night. Wood was HEAVY too. Took 5 people to move the tower originally.

**Scottydoggs** · 04-03-2015

looks good. it needed the addition for sure. them little rock wall climbing mounts are pretty cool too. i see a lot of them set ups when im working for my landscaper friend.

**CrazyGuy03** · 04-03-2015

I would be happy as heck with that - great job!

**FordMan77** · 04-03-2015

Looks like fun to me! I have a similar swingset that I got for my 5yr old daugter given to us by a family member. After scraping/painting it with some oil based green paint (that she picked out) it's still holding up 2 years later. I turned the part of the frame that is under the platform where the soccer balls were shown into a sand box by lining it with some thick plastic sheeting and then filling it with playsand. A couple of well placed staples from the gun to keep the liner in place and bags of sand later-whallah- instant sand box. Only issue I have is to make sure no one is on the swing when kids are playing in the sandbox or it's a life lesson waiting to happen, lol...

**Booba5185** · 04-03-2015

Too many stray cats for the sandbox, but I has the exact same idea. What would happen if someone was swinging when another kid was in the sandbox? I had 3 adults swinging and it never moved. The 2x6s across the top flex a bit, but not too bad. They'll get some "upgrades" later on.

**Fivefingerdeathpunch** · 04-03-2015

What grass are you going to mow??

Looks like weeds and dirt to me.

**Booba5185** · 04-03-2015

There's grass in there somewhere, the dirt was burying my dog's holes so no grass there yet lol. I'll spray some Weed n Feed at some point or something of the sort.

**FordMan77** · 04-04-2015

Originally Posted by Booba5185

Too many stray cats for the sandbox, but I has the exact same idea. What would happen if someone was swinging when another kid was in the sandbox? I had 3 adults swinging and it never moved. The 2x6s across the top flex a bit, but not too bad. They'll get some "upgrades" later on.

If both the boxes underneath were a sandbox and a kid was playing on the outside edge of the one closest to the swing, well, we can imagine what could happen, lol... Sucks about the stray chinese food. Don't have that around here since the coyotes take care of that issue

**Booba5185** · 04-04-2015

Oh I see what you mean, lol. I'd only do the new section as a sandbox. I mowed my weeds downs laid some grass seed, and weed n feeded some areas. I took the rasper to the edges and put a few more braces in, this thing is freaking solid, lol. I do need to replace wood above the swings, my neighbor's ex can't build worth a **** and used 2 2x6s...I'll have to take pics to explain it, lol.

**BrandonHall10** · 04-05-2015

Looks good!

We had one like that at our old house. Our boys loved it. So did the bees and wasps. Had to inspect every couple days, but it was worth it.

**Turbocharged400sbc** · 04-05-2015

your addition needs a diagonal or a shear panel.

as it is i dont see much to keep the whole thing from parallelogram'n now that the climbing wall is no longer a shear panel

**Booba5185** · 04-06-2015

I added some braces on the outer part the other day, and under the floors, above the rockwall, and the base have braces to hold everything square. I also put multiple screws keep it from parrallelagraming (nice terminology, lol), a LOT of screws would have to pull\break out for it to change shape. I know what you're saying though so I did add the braces a few days back for good measure. They aren't very big, but they'll hold it square. In the pictures it wasn't quite done yet. I called around and apparently it's hard to find a 12 foot 4x6, but I can get a 16 foot 5x5. I'm going to go that route and add a tire swing on the outer most part. The guy who built this thing originally was an idiot. I've found screw tips poking through wood and kid's height...next to the SWINGS, jagged wood sticking out, etc. He used 3 inch screws going through a 1x6 and 2x4...dumbass. That's all fixed now though...except for the wood above the swings. I also picked this up today while I was at the junkyard for $10. Not sure where I'll mount it, it'll probably be up in the new section, facing the rear:

**Booba5185** · 04-07-2015

Steering wheel on, Mario flag mounted, and a few days of playing. It gets used ALL the time, lol.

**Booba5185** · 04-10-2015

Today is his birthday, I took the day off from work and took him to the zoo. He had a great time, got to ride the train, feed fish, feed goats, and his favorite...Feed giraffes. BBQ Sunday for an actual party type thing.