Project: Clubhouse

ou know how every project you take on always takes 10 times longer and is 3 times harder than you anticipated? That pretty much sums up our day, and the initial plunge into Project: Clubhouse.

That's right folks, our newest project is a clubhouse for the kids! I am living my childhood dream through my kids and can freely admit it without shame.

I remember wanting a clubhouse or tree fort of some kind so bad as a kid, and I never got to have one. So when I saw friends of ours advertising theirs as up for grabs on Facebook, I had to jump on it. Special thanks to Joel and Debbie for passing it on to us, and extra special thanks to Ken and Terry for allowing us the use of their truck and spending the better part of the day helping us load it from point A to point B and then some. :) You guys are awesome!

Here it is in the truck - it was so top heavy it flipped upside down when they were loading it, and they were unable to move it after that. (I would have paid money to see Ken hanging on to the end when it flipped up in the air and he went air-born with it hehehe).
Turns out the clubhouse was quite a bit heavier, larger, and more unwieldy than any of us anticipated, but with some finagling and a few last minute modifications, they made it to our yard, in several pieces, but usable nonetheless. This thing was build solid out of very heavy materials, and even 4 grown men couldn't lift it. It was pretty entertaining to watch to say the least. :)

(I love how his leg is out like he could catch it or something if it fell...right.)
...and crash!
Yes... the roof came completely off on impact. Luckily it came off in one big piece so it just needed to be screwed back on top. Phew.

It originally was built up on very tall posts (more like a tree house- it was 5-6 ft off the ground), so you could climb the steps up into it and then slide down the slide. But, rather than take out all the phone wires and bridges on the way to our house, they ended up having to cut off the posts.

Smart move.

So we are going to take the stairs and platform and build a separate section for the slide and leave the clubhouse as is, closer to the ground. There is no way we could ever lift that thing that high, so we are just going to leave it.

Another smart move, I say.

The next phase of Project: Clubhouse will involve sanding the inside, replacing the walls and roof shingles, painting the walls, possibly staining the railings, and building a couple steps. You can bet you'll be seeing more photos when the next phase begins!

In Riley's words (and I wholly concur), "This. Is. So. Cool."