One of the things we wanted when we bought this house was add usable space to the backyard. Don’t get me wrong–we love having a pool. However, when we bought our house our yard was all pool, hardscape, planter beds, and hillside. We knew there was potential though. Finally, in the summer of 2021 we were able to give our backyard playground a makeover. Or rather, create it out of nothing. Keep reading to see how we created usable play space for our kids for a fraction of the original estimate.

getting our backyard playground

the problem

We actually have a decent sized yard, but it’s a little hard to tell. Our house is on a hillside and all of the yard that was developed was already spoken for. A good portion of our backyard is the pool and hardscaping around it. We also have a lot of planter beds with various bushes and flowers. The portion of our yard that’s undeveloped hillside is actually a lot of space. So when we bought the house we assumed we’d eventually be able to terrace it out and make it really usable. What we didn’t think about was access.

| DIY backyard car track |

The access to our yard is horrible. Trying to get any equipment down to our yard would require us to take out fences. We’d also potentially destroy retaining walls and who knows what else. Quotes that we received from contractors were so disheartening. We knew that if we invested that money into our backyard project we’d never get it back when we sold. So we put a pin in our backyard project for awhile while we tried to think of another solution to give our kids a better play space.

the solution

It was actually one of the contractors that came who gave us a great idea. He looked over at a large planter bed we had and asked if we’d ever considered putting a playground there. Truthfully I’d always hated the planter bed, it was just wasted space that was full of weeds and unmanaged plants. Why hadn’t we thought of that before?? It was a lot of hard work but Mike was able to rip out a few plants and stumps that were in the way. He also leveled the space out better and then hired a company to come out and lay artificial turf.

| plant your own garden teepee |

The pandemic meant that procuring a playground was tricky. Any type of outdoor play equipment was hard to come by. Even more so after that infamous blockage of the Suez Canal and resulting supply chain issues. Oy vey, 2020 and 2021 were rough, huh? When our local Costco finally got in some playsets Mike rushed over to purchase one before the space was even ready for it. All the hard work and frustration paid off though! We have a great space for the kids to play at a fraction of the cost we were quoted for our original plans.

special touches

This backyard playground is especially meaningful to us and we wanted to honor that. For years Mike’s grandparents had sent the kids birthday and Christmas money. Being the type of “less is more” parents we tend to be we tucked it away. We saved that money for years for a playset for the kids, including more money that came when his grandmother passed away. Unfortunately, his grandfather passed away just a few months before we were finally able to give the kids this wonderful present from their great-grandparents. Mike’s grandparents used to own some markets in the Sacramento area. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out a sign as a memorial to them. It’s sad that they never got to see it but we think about them every time they play on it!

Do you have a backyard playground? Where did you get yours?