As I mentioned in a previous blog post here, we recently moved into our first house. It's a 1960's ranch style house that had previously been inhabited by renters. They kept the place nice, but it needs some updating.
My husband and I have been slowly doing things to this inside, like changing the flooring, painting, etc, but the backyard is also in need of some attention. We have a three year old son and really wanted to make a fun place for him to hang out and play.
I was perusing Pinterest for ideas and kept seeing these awesome natural sand boxes. I figured this would be a great way for us to stretch our DIY muscles and get our hands dirty.
Here are some of the images I was looking at.
Look! Dirt! And logs! What could be better?
Every boy's dream.
I had the concept in my head of what I wanted, but decided I would challenge myself to find everything I needed to make the sandbox at Lowe's, with no additional stops. I like instant gratification and I hate waiting for things to dry. The drying thing has nothing to do with this post, but I feel like I need to share that.
So, we went to Lowe's and here's what we found!
{ Disclaimer! I don't photoshop my pics. What you see is what it is! No fancy filters or whatever for me. So if you need that in your life, I won't be that girl for you.}
I LOVE these little edgers. They gave me the log look I wanted, but already had little sticks in them to keep them in the ground! They are also flexible, so you can curve them. Super easy.
We cleared out the area where we wanted to put the sand box. That little log cabin was left by the renters, so score one for us! Our new log edgers work perfectly with it. Hi husband!
We bought a super cheap (but heavy duty) plastic paint tarp and placed that in the area where the sand would be. The vine behind it tends to creep itself into the yard from underground, so I thought the plastic might help that from happening.
The edgers went down, as did the sand! Tip, buy at least 1 more bag of sand than you think you will need. We had some large rocks around the yard, so those went around too, to help finish off the border. I left one section open to allow a natural transition between the sand and the grass.
Spread sand out, add toys, and VOILA! This was seriously one of the easiest things ever to make and our kid LOVES it. I like it because it looks like it's always been there.
Hope you enjoyed this quick post! We've got a lot more work ahead of us. Stay tuned!
xo vb