Saturday, August 15, 2009

12 to 16 Hours!!

When you decide to purchase a new playset for your kids and the instructions inside the box says that it will take 12 -16 hours for 2 adults to put it together... put the instructions back in the box and return the entire set to the store!

I think this is what happen to the previous owners of this playset before we found it at Costco for a "great price". Only the instructions and one of the other 6 six boxes had been opened. I was not smart enough to take my own advice. When I read that it would take 12-16 hours for two adults, I thought to myself, "Hey... I am a fairly mechanically inclined guy. I bet they are just being conservative. I am sure it will only take me about 6 hours."

15 hours later (over the course of two weeknights and a 10 hour friday) the set was complete. You might be thinking that is pretty good for one person, but please don't be mistaken, without the help of my wife and father it would have taken much longer.

If you decide not to take my advice and want to embark on this adventure, here is some advice:
1. Make sure that your wife is willing to help out. Mine was a life saver. She stayed 2-3 steps ahead of me the entire time, locating wood and hardware so it was ready when I needed it.

2. Make sure that your wife is perceptive enough to know when you are over your head and is willing to call your father to have him come help you, because you are too "manly" to call for help yourself.

3. Make sure that your 5 year old daughter isn't sitting near by with her play cash register and makes you "buy" everything before you can assemble it. It's very cute, but will also add significant time to the process.

4. Wear lots of sunscreen and drink lots of water because you are going to be out there for a long time.

With all that said, the kids love the new playset, and I am a sucker for seeing my kids having fun. Given the choice, I would probably do it again, but I'm sure this time I could do it faster.

3 comments:

Denise said...

I was telling Seth about this and he had in his mind that I was talking about one of those big blowup water slide things and he could not figure out how or why you would have to put one of them together. Once he figured out what I was talking about he was impressed. I don't think we'll be putting anything like that together.... EVER. But the kids are excited to come play on it.

Alex said...

This is Alex. I built one for my kids a few years ago but not from a kit like yours. Took me about as long, just had the hardware and bare redwood. I think it's almost easier to cut the wood yourself and just have the hardware because there is no sorting of the pieces or purchasing of the pieces. Lots of cutoffs though and no warranty.

Min said...

Ha! We have that exact same playset. I think I remember it took Adam DAYS as well. It's worth it in the end, but sheesh! Seems like they could make it easier...kids love them!