Every princess needs a castle!

Here is the first of the playstructure posts.  Nick and my dad designed all of it from scratch.  I gave a few suggestions, but they do amazing work.  Construction is complete, so I will post through completion, but you will have to wait for the final pictures after painting and swings and such.  I did not get a picture of the area before Nick and my dad cleared all the plants out.  But here is what it looked like after, this is on December 21st, several days in that involved some really huge root removal, hole digging and plastic placing.  Many of the other early pictures look just like this.

One of the first things Nick did was build the floors to line up the holes for the posts (12/19).

I helped here and there, but my dad and Nick did most of the work.  My mom was wonderful at watching the kids, so I did get to be involved a lot.  I did help with concreting and on the first night of concreting we worked past dark (12/21).

We bought rubber mulch that was delivered early in the project (12/23).  Nick and I hauled all 1900 pounds from the street to the area.  Yikes!

I picked a multi-colored one.  It is pretty cool.

The frame for the playhouse went up (12/24).

More framing (12/24).

We wanted Sam to be involved, so she got to hammer some carriage bolts (12/24).

We took Christmas day off and we were back at it 12/26. Nick installing the second floor.

It swayed a bit too much to support swings, so cross supports and such went it (12/27).

The plywood going up.  Nick tried to jump out of the way, but you can see him in the corner :) (12/28).

Stairs were built, but not yet installed (12/29).

More plywood (12/30).

Stairs installed with sides (1/2).

And the slide (1/2).  Boy, did that take some effort.  The slide was supposed to go on the other side, but the box and write up online did not indicated that it needed to go a particular direction.  So we all were involved with putting it together and taking it apart.  I think in total it was together and apart at least 20 times.  Nick finally got it with some fun turns and level with the ground.  What a chore.

Framing the garage (1/2).  We needed another support for the swings and decided a garage would be cool for the gator.  And we made it bigger since it did not cost much more and we can store some stuff out of our garage in there.

The garage taking shape (1/3).

Sam was so excited to be allowed to climb the stairs after the concrete cured (1/4).

And she got to go down the slide after the concrete for the support post cured (1/4).  Although I went down it first and Nick followed to test and be sure it was safe.  Just don't tell Sam :)  She does love her slide, lots of trips down and lots of wheeee's!

The garage building is not as cool, so I am skipping ahead to near completion with shingles on the roof.  We slanted it for rain.  Notice the cut outs on the play house to add to the castle effect (1/9).

And a view from straight on to see the slide, swing bar, and all.  Although the door to the castle had not been installed at this point (1/9).

Since then it has been caulking, which Sam and I helped with some and lots of sanding.  Nick has now even started painting.  He was delayed a bit with school starting and rain.  We are getting so close!  Nick, I am amazed at all you do.  And a huge thank you to Nana and Papa who made this possible.  Dad has been over everyday after golf and sometimes between tennis and golf.  Such a huge help.  And Nana should have just moved in she was here so much.  We are so blessed and I am glad we could all give our princesses their castle.  I know they will enjoy it for years.

“Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesn’t taste good” Lucia Capocchione