The Sandbox

We knew that once Fall classes started for Seth (and my belly got bigger) our progress on the house would seriously slow- hence the house madness that was August/September. We've done lots of small projects since then, some I've managed to photographed. All I'll put up... eventually.

For today I thought I'd show off Seth's mad skills and showcase the sandbox he and Eli (or maybe just he) built one September Saturday.  It has a lid that folds out into two bench seats. Seth installed it just outside the kitchen window so I can watch and hear Eli play with ease. Seth schemes of one day incorporating a grand tree house in that space with an escape slide and draw bridge. In the meantime, I love that sandbox- and so does Eli!

Seth based his plans off of ones like these online, making a few small changes. They took one trip to Home Depot, filled a cart full of lumber and fence slats, and then assembled, sanded, and Thompson's Water Sealed the whole thing in our garage all in one day. There it sat "drying" for a week and a half.

(Such a great helper)

We bought a few bags of play sand at Lowes- and were totally disappointed in the product. We've happily purchased play sand before but this stuff was rocky and gravely so we decided that instead of paying for more of the bagged stuff (which we needed a LOT more of since the amount we bought was... eh um.... not near enough) we'd call a guy that was selling construction sand in bulk, just up the road. One call. We asked to buy one cubic yard. He said help yourself, don't bother paying, and tell the kiddos to have fun in the sandbox. Hard to beat free so Seth spread a tarp out in the back of the fourrunner and shoveled the free- slightly less gravely sand than the expensive "play sand"- into the back. And just like that, Eli had his sandbox!