We’ve lit a home improvement fire under our behinds. We are dreamers and love looking forward to what is next. Recently we came to the conclusion that we need to put some conscious and focused energy into creating the space we initially envisioned for the house before we could move onto new horizons.
You already know how we laid the foundation for the first phase of our front yard re-design and now I can show you what happened next.
The Sandbox
We toyed with how the best way to go about the sandbox was and decided we would buy a small piece of landscaping fabric to avoid the sand mixing with the dirt. Stone and Solshine did a great job of using a rubber mallet to pin the fabric down around the perimeters of the box.
.:. I absolutely love the way our diy projects are a family affair. The kids love being involved and make sure they have access to tools and jobs. It is an empowering experience for everyone. We avoid plastic and pretend toys because we think it is important for children to learn how to use real tools.
.:. It was sweet relief to get those little toes in the sand. Koala is 22 months and not only is the sand a great sensory experience for him, but it is a magnet on a busy street. Before he would start running down the sidewalk (or even into the street) as soon as he got outside and now he runs straight for the sandbox.
.:. So far it’s been a community inducing phenomenon. The boys play quietly side by side while we pack up the stroller, bikes or car and neighboring children stop to play while we catch up with their parents.
Our philosophical dilemmas/challenges were the liner for the sandbox and the actual sand. Unfortunately I didn’t see it coming and we found ourselves at our local Agway realizing that the sand comes in 50 lb plastic bags and we couldn’t figure out where it came from or how it was processed(and neither could the store employees). We bought enough to fill it halfway and decided to do a little research before we finish filling it. We went with a landscape material that was made out of mostly natural material over a plastic liner. In this case, the lesser of two evils.
Overall a great success for moving forward with diy home project list. We’re not finished with the front yard either. I’ll show you the semi-finished results soon.
Related posts:
- Front Yard Project :: Phase III We are making the very best use of our tiny...
- Front Yard :: Phase I We live in an urban area of a small city....
- DIY Disclaimer I’ve realized that I talk a lot about our do-it-yourself...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m loving the new front yard. Just FYI, cats LOVE sand to do their “business”. A cover would help.
love it!!!!
we’ve been doing a lot of family projects around our yard lately – so satisfying!!!
exhale. return to center.´s last blog ..where do you want to go from here?
Miranda, we totally have a cover! Just a tarp and some rocks, but yeah, we pretty much created a giant litter box. :-)
Erin, it does feel good!
love the sandbox. that really is a great sensory experience for your young one. i finally let my son play in some sand last week and he loved it. i had no idea how much fun he would have.
Alisha´s last blog ..Rainy days and Mondays
I’d be interested to know what you learn about the sand. Funny that I never assumed it could be “processed”. Hmm..
~Tara
TheOrganicSister´s last blog ..Sweet Child of Mine
What a wonderful project to have your children involved in, this makes it that much sweeter for them knowing that they helped and just what went into the ‘making’ of this new play area : )
garedenmama´s last blog ...: In Blueberry Land :.