The gift (actually, another diy)

soon after we discovered i was pregnant with our third baby, Phil offered to send me away on a trip, a gift before i'd be tied down again. after some thinking, i declined (i know! can you believe it?) and instead requested he build me a play structure for the girls in our basement. my reasoning? it will keep me sane when i have to put the baby down for a nap or when i need some minutes to "escape" - i'll send the girls down there and they can make as much noise as they want.

my vision for the play structure began last summer, when i started dreaming of a tree house for the girls to play in. unfortunately, our backyard doesn't have an appropriate sized tree. and then, the girls complain so much about the mosquitoes, i wondered if building them a tree house in the backyard would be worthwhile. i still envision a tree house and perhaps we will still build it one day, but for now, i am happy to have our play structure in the basement. with such long winters here, we'll be sure to use it.

building the structure was a major test of my communication skills. Phil is SO not a visual person! i drew a sketch and he could not visualize it!! in the end, i ended up having to draw out where every plank and screw went. and in the end, Phil did a great job of putting the structure together, don't you think? :)

my sketch of the structure:


the structure starts to go up!




this is what it looks like now