Why I Oughta...

Last week, I posted a photo showing the mulch being dropped off at the new playground in the Randall Park neighborhood of Downers Grove.  Recently, while we were at the school working on riding bikes in the big parking lot, we found the fence down in a big section (it was still up on part of it), so we naturally went in. The kids had a lot of fun.  I only had the two youngest savages with me, but it seems scaled perfectly for all three kids - some areas for the little ones and with the climbing apparatus, I'm sure kids like The Babe will find themselves at home. All in all, a nice addition to Whittier Elementary School.  Kudos to the Moms and Dads behind the Whittier PTO for all their work and dedication to raising the money needed .

In June and July I posted about the new playground going into Whittier Elementary School in the Randall Park neighborhood in Downers Grove.  It is right up the street from our new place.  You'll recall, that this was built with private donations brought together by the Whittier PTA - which is really great!  And...you might remember that I pointed out the WRONG playground . I've been watching the progress the past few weeks and noticed that the playground closest to Grand Avenue ( the one I first posted about ) is complete and has the pea gravel and mulch laid down to complement the new, refreshed concrete curb that they installed .   Earlier this week, I was out in the early morning hours and noticed that a large truck had arrived at the *other* new playground as was busy dumping down new, steaming hot mulch to get installed.  From the looks of the situation, this appears to be the final step required before they can re-open the new playground to familie...

Whoops!  A week ago, I posted about the new playground going into Whittier Elementary School in the Randall Park neighborhood in Downers Grove and talked about how the PTA worked to raise money to install new equipment.  That part...was all true.  But the rest?  #FakeNews!   I posted a photo of the wrong playground.  Sorry.  Still getting my bearings. The one I posted showed a new concrete curb going in, but oddly, all of the equipment was staying put.  And the shape wasn't quite the right shape as the one in the rendering . Earlier this week, I was walking by the school and noticed that there is A SECOND playground!  See the red arrow.  *That's* the one that is getting overhauled.  Whoops. Here's a zoomed-in look at the progress they've made.  Much of the equipment has been installed and while the fencing is still up, it looks like they're just awaiting the play surface. The playground in the foreground is like...

If you walk by (or drive by) the playground outside of Whittier Elementary School on Grand Avenue, you'll see a bit of a construction site taking place on the playground area.  When I snapped this photo, there were concrete forms set up and a new perimeter curb was being poured and set.  They had also dug up quite a bit of earth in what looks like a perfectly-timed summer project for the school. I poked around a bit and it turns out that this is a major project that has taken five years to ideate and fund and now they're moving on to the construction phase.   From the Downers Grove District 58 site : Over the years, Whittier’s playground has received regular safety maintenance and minor changes, such as the removal of the teeter-totters. However, the playground itself is decades old and was built when Whittier’s enrollment was half its current size.  This discovery prompted the moms and Whittier PTA to launch a four-year planning and fundraising effort to up...

Tears and tantrums were in full effect as we walked by, stopped and then moved on from this Princess fairytale castle at Costco.  Both of the girls were doing their best to make me bring this monstrosity come home with us.  It is meant to be used outside, but in our old house, we had a plastic version of a building like this in our basement, so I suppose you could easily bring this inside and use it your basement. At $429.99, it seems pricey to me, but your kids will love the styling and details.  It has a bunch (9!) of turrets and even a musical door knocker.  At 78" long and 95.5" tall, you need a pretty good size spot to keep this thing in or else you'll be squeezing past it whenever you go by it in your basement.   It comes in a pretty bib cube of a cardboard box that doesn't appear to be able to fit into most cars but would probably fit into most SUV trunks with the 3rd row down or our minivan with the 3rd row down.   Alas...this didn't work f...

As I've done in years past, I try to check out the annual cedar playset that Costco is rolling out in the Spring.  In fact, they're always some of the most popular posts here on the blog for folks coming via search.   Here's a post from 2012 showing that year's version with some plastic parts.  Then...right after that, they came out with a different version in 2012  that had less plastic parts.  And here's the one in Costco back in 2011 that we ended up buying .  I spent a bunch of weekends (along with my father-in-law) putting it together - which was a lot of fun. Since we sold the house, we left that playset behind.  It was a one-of-a-kind due to the location we placed it, we had to make a pretty major modification in terms of orienting the swings . This year's version has a nice little upgrade:  two slides.  One being a tube slide that winds around and the other being a open slide that has a few undulations in it.  Otherwise, i...

I've spent a bit of time covering the Costco Cedar Summit playground sets and the Costco Suncast playground set in the past here on the blog.  They're chronically at the top of the 'most read posts' almost every week.  They rank well in search and because there's such limited information on the Costco site about the sets, it seems that parents and potential buyers go online and seek out some answers.  They end up here. But, this year, Costco has a new product.  Or...at least...new to me.  It is there pictured above right in front of this year's edition of the Cedar Summit playground set.  It is a "Lifetime 4X4 Bouncer Teeter Totter".  It is priced at $189.99 with a $40.00 instant rebate at our Costco in Oak Brook, Illinois.  On the Costco site, they list a different Lifetime bouncer - an airplane one.   That one has really strong reviews, so it seems these things are built well. This one is a two seater, so at least two kids could get ...

Last week, I posted a photo and description of the Suncast Wood and Resin Playset from our local Costco in Oak Brook Illinois and commented that I was pleased that we purchased the Cedar Summit version last year because I preferred the looks of all-wood version over this year's edition that has a lot of plastic panels and elements.  I was surprised that Costco eliminated the Cedar Summit folks in favor of Suncast - it seemed odd to me that they'd take out a nice (seemingly) higher-end product and replace it with something that I perceived as being lower-end with increased pricing. A few days later, I received a nice note from the folks at Cedar Summit that set me straight and provided some good news for Costco Playset/Swingset shoppers around the country.  They, indeed, are selling this year's Cedar Summit edition and it is called the " Mountainview Resort '.  He also laid out the facts: The Suncast plastic/wood playset is ONLY available in the Midwest an...

Over the weekend, we hit up the Oak Brook Costco and came across this behemoth.  This is the Suncast Wood and Resin Playcenter - Costco Part #588674.  It is priced at $1299.99 (see the bottom photo for pricing details). This is the 2012 version of the VERY popular Costco backyard playground/playset series.  Last year, they featured the Cedar Summit Panorama - which we brought home.  This year, they've gone with the Suncast Wood and Resin Playcenter which has many of the same features as years pasts. ***Update on 2/28/12 - If you are looking for the Cedar Summit Mountainview Resort Playset you can find the details here .  Turns out Costco is indeed selling a Cedar Summit swingset, but just not in Texas or the Midwest.  *** The 2012 Suncast structure is made up of both wood and a lot of plastic parts - unlike the Cedar Summit.  There are certainly plastic elements in the Cedar Summit version, but they're mostly highlight/enhancement pieces...

You bet we are.

With a HUGE assist from my father-in-law, this swingset is finally assembled.  Without his help, the slide most likely wouldn't be installed because both my limited skill set AND I would have likely used the wrong bit in the drill.  Nat bought a special baby swing - which I put up on the right - and I installed just one of the 'normal' swings.  Next up is leveling of the ground, the installation of some timbers and then piling on a bunch of mulch to make the play area nice and safe. 

I was able to haul both roofs up the ladder by myself and secured them into place - not without a bit of a struggle.  The cupola looks great up top, but turns out to be purely ornamental as it is completely closed in.  My Dad tells me that cupolas are meant to vent out the accumulated heat in roofs, but in this case, I have a feeling the the Babe isn't going to notice the heat up there. I also was able to get the door on the clubhouse, the sunburst details in the gables and the bay window (facing the backside, unfortunately) installed.  Tomorrow, Nat's Dad is coming over to give me a hand and we'll get going on the swing bar assembly, the crowsnest and the slide.  3 hours First Day 8 hours Second Day 8 hours Third Day Total so far: 19 Hours by myself

I put in 8.5 hours today and got through step 23.  Total of 12 hours and here's the progress: We moved the clubhouse portion into place - and yes - we've re-configured things a bit.  In order to make everything fit, we rotated the clubhouse 90 degrees and made some other changes to the swing bar and the entrance.   I'm back at work tomorrow, so the entire project will have to sit for a few days until I can find some extra time.

I put in a few hours this afternoon (after installing a gutter on our garage) on the Cedar Summit Playground from Costco - at long last.  We bought it back in March, but it took me until the end of May to crack the containers and get started.  This is through step eight. I have tomorrow off from work, so I'm going to put in a few more hours and (hopefully) by the weekend I'll have a good bit of this done.  Based on the comments on my original blog post - it seems that this is a 20ish hour job.