Play set construction

This past week Scott took off of work and Jen's parents came to visit.  All week Scott and Grandpa van der Horst worked on building this play set.  Here it is day by day.

Day one- we built the platform for the tree house and incorporated this old stump into the structure. 

Day two- we built the adjacent structure and put in the decking.

Day three- we added the slide and the 10 foot high swing beam.

Day four- we put in most of the railings.  These railings are made from the branches of the same tree that contributed its stump on the first day.

Day five- we finished the railings and put in the swing hangers.  We decided our ten foot high swing beam will probably call for some extension chains.

Day six- we finish

We built the drawbridge- operated by winch.  We properly installed the swings including the board swing we built.  We built the sandbox and hung the hammock.

Ready for play

Swinging in the hammock

Inspecting the bridge

Surfing the board swing

Here is a close up of the deck and rails.

And this is how the rails look from the outside.

Later I added some animal designs on various spots of the play structure.  This lion pops up when the drawbridge goes up.

There was some extra dowel, so we made these chessmen and imprinted a board on the floor of the tree house.