Why Don't You Swing On By?

Good day friends! 

Before sitting down to write this post, I was actually having second thoughts. Is this topic interesting enough? Would anyone actually care? It's not a mind-blowing transformation with epic before and after shots like the thousand of other design and DIY blogs out there. Should I even write? 

In the world of Instagram, Reels, Snapchat, and TikTok, blog posts today feel like they have to be professional style magazine quality to stick out and seem "worth the read". Massive home makeovers that can't be anything short of an HGTV episode. So it's easy for small crafts and DIY's to seem unimportant, even if they were a lot of work and took a lot of time. 

But then I stopped. 

My husband just refinished, repainted, and rebuilt a BEAUTIFUL swingset for our children to enjoy and grow up with. THAT is currently the most exciting project in our life, THAT is extremely impressive to me, and THAT should be the only reason I need to open my computer and write a fun little blog post.

So let's get into how we took an almost decade-old battered swingset and turned it into this beauty!

When we first moved in, we noticed the giant swing set right away because it was only a few houses down from ours. After getting to know the neighbors and finding out their kids were high school age and older, Eric asked me one day, "Do you think if I brought it up, they would be willing to give us their swing set since the kids don't use it anymore?". He was only partially joking, but for real, what harm could come from asking? 

Time went by, and we kind of forgot about it. That and we had a baby, so our minds were a little occupied, but one day while on a walk we ran into those neighbors and got to talking. After a few minutes we somehow ended up on the topic of backyards, and without ANY prompting from us, they said, "Well do you want a swing set? We have one!". I kid you not. 

We laughed and told them how we've had our eye on it for months. So one weekend we invited our friends over, the guys deconstructed, walked the pieces across two lawns, and dropped it into its new home. 

I wish I took a picture of its original state, but although in decent condition, it definitely had seen some wear and tear. That's why Eric's first goal was to give it a proper bath and strip away some of the original finish with a power washer. 

Once the job was inspected and approved by our resident swing set professional *cough* Harrison *cough*. Eric used a power sander and wood stain and finish stripper to remove any remaining color.

Once the wood was back to its original state, it was time to paint! All Eric needed was three consecutive dry days for everything to cure. This doesn't sound like a lot to ask for, but Springtime in Ohio can be pretty damp. Lucky for us though, it can serve up some incredible rainbows too. 

When the skies finally cleared, it was time to paint. We didn't use actual paint, but a full coverage wood stain. Our color choices were Red Mahogany for the main structure, and black for the roof. I thought this would give the treehouse portion a bit of sophistication...and match the new black roof we had put on the house. To make the job go even faster, Eric moved everything out on the lawn and used a paint sprayer. It took just a couple coats and a few hours for the whole job to be complete. 

After MUCH anticipation, it was time for the grand reveal! I don't know what we thought Harrison would do, but he wasn't quite sure what to think at first. I think Mom and Dad were way more hyped up than he was. 

After we showed him around and guided him up the ladder, he quickly figured things out and was up at the crow's nest in no time. And only a few days later he mastered climbing up the slide, all three swings, and how to maneuver the monkey bars (with our help of course). 

We used to spend hours swinging outside at our old house, so it's wonderful to have a place for Harrison to play again in our own backyard. You could tell how much our neighbors family adored this swingset, and by refinishing the entire piece, we hope this old girl can provide our kids a place to climb, swing, and let their imaginations run wild for years to come. 

Check out all of our home improvements, by visiting the OUR NEST page.

Pergola Pergola Pergola!!!

Remember that Summer To-Do List I was JACKED about at the beginning of June? Well as much as I'd like my next words to be "We totally KILLED IT!"...that didn't quite happen. 

Eric did get most of our ceilings painted, but instead of finishing the guest bedroom, I decided to give our little awkward kitchen bathroom a makeover. Fingers crossed those final details will be coming together in the next week or so! But the dinning room chairs are still brown, there are zero headboards on the beds, and our mattress is still frame-free chillin' on the floor. 

One thing we were determined to at least BEGIN before the first day of school was the pergola in our backyard. We may have started building Saturday, and school commenced on Monday...but it still counts. 

Friday night, Eric's parents came down to lend a hand. I've mentioned before how handy my fantastic father-in-law is, and his construction expertise plus incredible attention to detail helped us out a LOT in this whole process. 

Bright and early Saturday morning, casa Wellman looked like this.

Since there wasn't much that Eric's mom or myself could really help with at this point, we decided to go shopping! Watson's was having their annual parking lot sale, and I've never been, so off we went to scope out some outdoor furniture. 

I'm finding myself drawn to the more modern style, but I still want it to have an eclectic boho type feel. Collected, and not too matchy matchy. We'll see what we end up buying. It's too early, but just thinking about all the places I'm going to have to throw pillows and decorate with accessories is making me all giddy inside.

When we arrived back at the house, this was the scene that greeted us.

But an hour or so later, it had progressed to a more pergola-y looking structure.

One thing that my mother-in-law and myself COULD do while the men were working their butts off, was stain the beams and rafters. 
And stain we did!

So much wood. 
To add a bit more style and interest to the cross beams, Eric cut an angle off each end with a circular saw. 

As Saturday came to an end, Eric and his dad screwed each end-beam, plus the center one, into place and called it a day. 

Sunday's goal = get the remaining beams up and set! 

We've still got a long way to go before everything is complete. Those four main posts need covered, we're going to touch up the stain, and (hopefully in the near future) pour concrete and apply a stamping technique to give the illusion of stone. 

But for one weekend, I think we made some definite progress! 

In other house news, I FINALLY pulled the trigger on a hallway table. Which then of course meant I could hang the mirror that's been hibernating in our dinning room since we moved in....TWO YEARS AGO.

Better late than never I guess.