Building 2020 Costco Outdoor Play Structure

I worked diligently to clear the backyard of snow this April, so that we could build the playground in the backyard for the kids. I had zero intention of building a playground, but then COVID 19 hit and the playgrounds were closed, daycare limited, and my job disappeared – so, here we are with a playground in my big beautiful garden back yard.

I was excited to see that the play gym this year was not a wood frame. I would have bought it either way, but I feel like plastic would hold up better? As I write this, I begin to wonder the environmental impacts but that’s probably not the anxiety worry I need to be focused on right now. This play gym is going to hold up great.

We opted to just build it on the grass because isn’t that what everyone else does? I had a dream of it fitting in the back corner next to the garden but the swing set is MASSIVE and after shuffling a half dozen times it’s now in the one place I didn’t really want it. It’s almost too big for our small back yard, but we gonna make it work.

I thought about a trampoline but because the kids are still little and we like having friends over, this felt like we would get more use out of it. They climbing, swinging, sliding, and the tree house feature all mean that my kids can play with it a few more ways than jumping on a trampoline. We will probably consider a trampoline in a few years – but not now because there’s no room in the back yard with the garden beds and I like my garden beds.

 

Building the Costco Play Structure

1. It took us all day with several breaks because we kept getting rained out.
2. It wasn’t too bad to build, we had a few mistakes but quickly found our groove.
3. Putting the railing bars and then the roof was a pain in the arse.
4. The panels along the outside was a nuisance – this felt like it took forever and was such finicky work because there are five bolts to screw them all in. I’m also a little bummed I didn’t think through some of the placement and prior to make sure we wanted the slide and the ladder in the right spot.
5. The swing is massive – you build this before the panel and the roof, but I still can’t believe how big it was. There was also one piece that we were completely confused on and we are still not sold we did it right but we tried and followed the direction.
6. Yes, power drills will be your friend.
7. I might also recommend a few more Allen keys.
8. Definitely a 2 person job, and a third hand would have been handy but COVID 19 y’all.
9. Think about that slide! We kinda goofed and the slide definitely gets the evening sun and can get very hot. I’m not sure if we could have rotated it somehow to get the slide into the shade but it is where it is.

Someone asked me if it would come apart easily?- errr, I know you could take the swings off easily and just have a tower. We had to unscrew and rescue a few pieces, but a few of the metal bars that slide into each other might not ever come apart again.

Do my kids love it?

They love it. I love that I don’t have them swinging inside anymore. I know that the BrainRich Kids Indoor play gym is meant for indoor swinging but Walter was getting INTESNE on that thing and it’s nice to be able to kick them outside for more energy burning and fun. Anna likes to slide and Walter loves to swing.

The swing is a little high for Anna, so she has a milk crate. We bought some things to try to make the swing a little lower for her and will try that out this week.

They both always comment how lovely it is to not get wet inside and they do spend a good portion of the day on it. They can’t wait to show their friends when this is all over. I agree.