Our New To Us Outdoor Play Set

Where do I begin with this one? 

I guess I'll start by writing how this blog began. LoveOlympiaJune was born 4 years ago as my way of sharing online the process of flipping furniture pieces.
While my blog has changed over the years as I began to write about more than just refinishing furniture, I've started to return to my original focus.  However, today's post will not be about that.

Recently, a neighbor and I were chatting about whether to buy new or used items for our kids. This particular friend mentioned she uses Facebook Marketplace.
My husband and I had been talking about the possibility of building some kind of outdoor play space for our family and ran the numbers on what it would cost to do so. We concluded that it would cost somewhere between $500-$700 for all the tools, materials, and lumber to build. I really didn't want to spend anywhere near that amount, so I thought this was a good chance to check the FB Marketplace out.

When I started to look I found a Rainbow Play Set that was listed well below our build cost just hours before. I wasn't sold on the price and this play set was located in Richmond. Not really what we had in mind. However, something in me said to just write the lady who was listing the swing set.  I contacted her and we negotiated on the price.  Afterwards, I told my husband about our FB exchange and he wasn't too happy about it, ha! I understood though...I mean, I didn't want to have to rent a trailer AND drive to Richmond just to get a swing set. Long story short, this lady and I agreed on a price that we thought was fair. We rented a trailer and hauled to Richmond one Saturday with our kids.

Once we got to Richmond, we were pleasantly surprised when we saw a Publix down the road from where we would be, so we decided to hit that up later in the evening. That alone should make this all worth it, right? (we really love Publix!)


Now before actually meeting this family, I got the impression they were believers. Something about the way the lady wrote, how quick and responsive she was, and how kind she was just gave me that impression.

Once we got to the house, we all got out and got to work. We thought it would only take a couple hours to take this beast apart...but boy were we wrong!! It took 6 hours!!! 6 hours!?! 
My husband was pretty patient with everything and even said to me that normally he would get really frustrated given the circumstances, but something about being at this family's house put him at peace. That was comforting!

I don't know if you are wondering what our kids did during ALL that time, but I'll tell you anyways. ;) The family who was selling this play set has 2 girls, ages 12 and 14. They took to our kids right away and played tag with them, raced around the yard, ate snacks and watched a movie together. Our kids were sooo happy playing and running around that day that they didn't even seem to mind that mommy and daddy were busy trying to figure out how we were going to take this thing apart and get it home safely. 

Another blessing was that this lady's husband did end up helping us, and one of their neighbors even came over to let us borrow some extra tools which helped speed things up a bit. Once we thought we were home free, we got what we thought we needed apart and got ready to put it in the trailer. Well, come to find out we had to take even more of this thing apart because it was too big to fit. Womp, womp!! 

Thankfully, our kids weren't ready to leave yet so we kept at it and finally got the last piece apart around 7:30pm. We noticed that there was a little bit of wood rot along the bottom of the boards on the tower and some of the bolts were rusted enough we would have to buy a couple more. Upon seeing and hearing this, the family insisted we take some of our money back. They generously refunded us half of the price.

Once all the pieces were inside the truck and we were ready to leave, the man began to share how he reads the Bible with his girls and how he went through it cover to cover with his daughter in 4 months. That was so encouraging! It felt like we had known them before and couldn't help to think how much God's hand was a part of this.

Even though it ended up being a long day, we had a lot of laughs with this family and seeing our kids run around happily with their girls made it all worth it. We exchanged numbers and some pictures of our kids playing (I won't share those here, but we do have one of them printed and hanging on our wall at home). The lady even gave away some toys to our kids including a toy airplane, skateboard, and other little goodies.

That day left such an impression on me, it's weird. I don't know, but the whole experience had both my husband and I pleasantly surprised because this was something we normally do not do. It's not like me to message someone I don't even know and head to their house to pick up something. I've almost never done that with furniture. I always meet in a public place. In saying all of this I wouldn't necessarily recommend someone do this on a regular basis by the way.

I sent some pictures to this family of the play set during and after setup and am now ready to share them on the blog. Get ready for lots of pics!

Before we (or shall I say my husband) could begin setup, we wanted to lay out all the pieces to see how they would fit between our 2 crepe myrtles. 

To keep our kiddos entertained, we busted out another thrifted $10 find- our Melissa and Doug easel. Tessa loves any Mo Willems book, so she got to work writing and drawing.

Lydia and Gavin found a few ladybugs and also played with the chalk wall that came with the swing set.

We did a little bit of reading. ;)

We wanted to stain all the wood, so I taped up any areas we didn't want to be sprayed.

  Staining in progress!

Putting up the roof!

I even got in on the job while little Miss Lydia snapped some pictures for us. :)

Almost finished!!!

Have to say, it looks like a brand new play set! 
Our kiddos have been using it whenever they can and we've already had a few families over to play on it with them.

Here's to many more days like this in the summer!

And They're Off....

the training wheels, that is!!!

One day, after school, my kids wanted to play outside with our neighbors (something we've been happily doing a lot since the weather has been pretty nice). My oldest asked me to take her training wheels off, and I was pretty hesitant...mainly because I didn't think she was ready yet. However, she was pretty persistent about it, so I took them off. With a little help, she was riding without training wheels in about 10 minutes. 
I couldn't believe it! 
So, of course, like any happy mom, I had to take tons of pictures and a couple of videos- because it was a pretty exciting!!

This little booger was trying to catch up with his big sis- but also making mama a little nervous with how quick he was to run out onto the road!

She just loves riding her bike even more now than she did before. It even encouraged her sister to give a try riding her little bike without training wheels. But, she is still pretty young, and can't do it yet. :)

Here is a picture of her after she first learned to ride her bike without her training wheels:

You can see from this photo that it was a pretty warm day...which is unusual weather for late February. Needless to say, we are having pretty cold weather this week...but as soon as it warms up again, you can bet this girl will be back on her bike riding around like a boss! ;)

Kids are pretty amazing, I have to say. It always seems like they can do the unexpected. And I'm not saying that riding a bike without training wheels is unexpected...but it wasn't something we encouraged her to do that day....she just decided she was going to learn how to do it and with much determination, did! 

Where does the time go?!

Outdoor Fairy Garden

I don't know what it is about fairy gardens, but I find them so cute and fun! You can find a variety of them along with their accessories at different craft stores and garden centers. In fact, one of the first places we spotted our very first one was at a local garden center in our area several years ago...this particular garden area also offers workshops on how to create one. Although we've never done this before, it did plant some ideas of how we could create one of these at home.

After searching thru some pictures online and remembering what the ones from the garden center looked like, I starterd with the basics and looked around our home to see if there were any items we already had that we could use for the garden...because, let's face it, accessories can add up in cost!
My best advice to how you can stay under-budget is to shop your house and yard.

Please don't mind the shoes on the wrong feet. At this point I'm pretty convinced she does it on purpose. ;) Personality, this one!

Here is the breakdown of items we had combined with items we purchased:

We had the following items:
1. wooden bird house ($1) painted. Bought at a craft store.
2. rocks/pebbles (free)
3. blue gems (several years old) Used in our wedding which is a fun little fact!
4. dirt (probably an obvious one and free)
5. seashells (free)
6. popsicle sticks

Purchased these following items:
1. drain pan ($1) from Dollar Tree!
2. small figurines (from a previous project and about $4)
3. pumpkins (2 for $1) from Dollar Tree
4. Bridge ($1) Dollar Tree

We also added some seeds to the dirt in hopes that we would be able to grow some grass/greenery...along with some acorns my daughter found at a park one day. :)

Overall, this project cost about $10!!! I'd say that is pretty darn good. The girls and I would also like to buy a little fairy figurine for the garden, so we hope to do that soon. :)

In the meantime, the girls are having fun adding a few more pebbles here and there that they find on the road and they also enjoy playing with the little bunny (who is sadly missing his ears because my son broke them off) and a mushroom figurine in the garden. :) We are still waiting for some grass to grow as well. It's been a fun little lesson in plant growth for the girls and myself since I do not have a green-thumb!

The Beginnings of a Fairy Garden

Now that a lot of our indoor spaces are decorated, I'm trying to move on to the outdoors.

There is a little spot on our porch where I wanted to put a fairy garden. After seeing some pictures of them online and reading just a little bit about them, I knew it was possible to make one on a budget.

I plan on getting to all of that later in the week, but for now, we are having fun decorating ours and figuring out what goes where. :)

Springtime in Colonial Williamsburg

It has been a while since I have posted some pictures of Colonial Williamsburg (without the horses, that is) so I thought I would share some pictures of my findings there. 
Springtime is among one of my favorite times to go and visit...fall is probably at the very top, but in the spring, everything is in bloom and the weather is just amazing. I find this place particularly calming and serene which is why the girls and I have such a good time here. We always look forward to visiting.

I have a thing for gates which is why I was drawn to the one above. Just something about the worn look that makes it authentic and very colonial.

All of the buildings are picture-worthy...but I only had time to snap a few shots of some of them. 
Wouldn't it have been fun to have lived in one of these?
I hear that those who work in Colonial Williamsburg get to rent out some of the homes which would be quite fun.

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Thanks for stopping by!