I’m thrilled to share our latest project we wrapped up just in time for summer fun with the boys. Graham and Harrison have turned into little explorers and have started to really enjoy playing outside and going to the park in recent months. We live in a wonderful community filled with kid friendly spaces, but we had our hearts set on creating a fun space of our own where the boys could run free, play and explore. After checking out several stores and websites, Sean and I both agreed that the Cedar Summit Lookout Lodge Playset from Costco was the most budget friendly option and also the best fit for our little guys. Here’s the before: One of the features that drew us in was the yellow tube slide. Graham is fascinated with this style of slide and the squeals of excitement he let out during our last trip to the park confirmed that this was a must have on whatever playset we purchased. The Cedar Summit playset retails for $1,299.99 and we were lucky to grab it during a sale for only $850.00. I’d say that Sean is super handy and skilled when it comes to assembling and building things. Y’all, we were doubled over laughing with a small amount of fear in our our eyes as we pulled out the LAMINATED instructions and saw what seemed like thousands of small wooden pieces to this set. At that moment, I finally understood why people pay big money to have playsets assembled for them. Unfortunately, that was not in the budget for this project. Thankfully, it was not as overwhelming as it first appeared and the manufacturer included very detailed instructions. Each piece was also numbered into groups making assembly much easier. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality and thought that went into this playset. Sean is not typically an instruction follower but highly recommends following each detail for this build. Full assembly took us about a week, working in the evenings only after the kids went to bed. Sean assembled while I painted. We worked well past sunset several nights and had to break out Sean’s handy work lights. My vision from the beginning was for our playset to have a white modern farmhouse vibe with a black tin roof. This particular playset comes with a shingle roof covering half of the playhouse and a tarp that slopes over the other half. We scrapped the original roof and tarp and Sean constructed a tin roof big enough to cover the entire house. Sean used a paint sprayer to give the roof 2 coats of Sherwin-Williams Tricorn Black. After consulting with a neighborhood painter, we decided to use a solid stain on the house rather than paint for durability and weather resistance. I brushed 3 coats of Benjamin Moore Simply White onto all of the cedar surfaces. I just want to point out that Sean is indeed wearing flip flops while standing on the swing set to mount the roof. I was anxiously standing in the alley while he insisted that this is totally safe practice. Anyone else have a husband who likes to scare you while working on DIY projects? After a little back and fourth, we decided that black windows would help add the farmhouse touch we were going for. I painted each window black with high heat matte black spray paint. We also swapped out the door hardware for a gold cabinet pull purchased from Home Depot and added house numbers spray painted in my favorite gold spray paint. We chose numbers that had meaning to us (the boys birth months). We replaced the original swings and acro bar with these yellow swings. I love the rubber coated chains that prevent little ones from pinching their fingers. Sean also built a cute window box and filled it with these zero maintenance potted plants. During a recent trip to target, I hit up the dollar spot and found the cutest lemonade stand accessories. They’re the perfect touch for summer. We are so excited to be done with this project and have a feeling it will be the source of countless memories for the boys. They’ve already enjoyed several trips down the slide and beg to go play at “their backyard park” every chance they get.