It all started with some stumps

With spring around the corner (I hope!!) and no snow in the forecast (I hope!!), we're all itching to go outside without having to wear 10 layers. It's especially annoying to dress a little person. 

We love our deck and we love "our" shared grassy yard. Kent has a tendency to wander towards the big rocks and the water, and I wish there was more for him to do closer to the safety of our deck. 

See how boring that is? 

There is a big sand box in the middle of the grass and our neighbor said we could probably get the maintenance team to move it closer to us. I hope he's right. I'm anxiously waiting an answer from them. Meanwhile, there's this eye-sore of a playhouse whose roof blew off last winter. I had never really looked at it, but I did just the other day and it's structurally sound with a ladder in the back. To the right of it, however, is a huge soggy marsh from some water run off and the water table in general. I've asked if maintenance had any old pallets or old gravel we could dump there. I can find free pallets on my own, I'm sure, if they can't help. Underneath the structure is what could be a sandbox, but it's pretty mossy/muddy down there, so I think it would be better to fill it with pea gravel. I just found some free pea gravel on craigslist. Now I need to find a bunch of buckets to bring them home in. Meanwhile, all of those sleds and tubes will go underneath the deck. The broken roof (on the left) needs to go too.

Here's the whole view. If the sandbox can be in the middle of the deck and play house, we need a little more, right? Turns out, Pinterest has a billion ideas. And luckily, I know a lumberjack! I asked his wife if he could cut me some stumps of varying heights so Kent can climb and jump off of them.

Now what to do with the deck? Surely there's potential there for another type of play house.
Look what the World Wide Web led me to???

Of course, that's all plywood, and who has the tools to work with that? Especially since the ground and grass slopes? And what about the strong winds? Wouldn't it just rip away? How would I attach it? Too many issues.

Sewing to the rescue! I could TOTALLY make something like this out of drop cloth. I'd weight it at the bottom with tension rods (removable) and cut it to work with the slope in the ground. Easy peasy!

Now, if only I can carve out the hours to do all of this before nephews and nieces arrive, I would totally win AUNT OF THE YEAR!!!