We have a pretty nice fort in out backyard. I'd like to call it a treehouse, since there technically is a tree supporting part of the structure, but somehow it just doesn't feel like a treehouse since the tree stops below the level of the platform, so fort it is.
In any case, for the past 12 months or so, its been a repository for all our yard waste, in addition to growing some pretty good weeds of its own. After our big yard clean up (which I will post on once I get my computer back and can get to the pictures) we had about 30 bags of yard waste in addition to the ones under the fort from last year and we knew we had to do something. Neighbor Mike to the rescue! Turns out, he has both a large bobcat like tractor and a dump truck, so Matt and Mike just emptied the bags into the bobcat thing and Mike lifted them into the dump truck and in about 20 minutes all the bags and waste were gone.
Of course that still left us with the sandy mess that was originally under the fort. Again, I forgot to take a before, but here is one from last year (complete with the bags of yard waste that sat there all winter. You know, for easy clean up in the spring. yep, thats why...)
In any case, once we got all that cleaned up, we figured we should do something to keep it looking nice. We knew we wanted to cover the sand with weed prevention fabric and the put something else down, but the question was what. Originally, I was set on rubber mulch but when we went to the store and saw the price, we started thinking more creatively. Maybe regular mulch or gravel would do? We went round and round for a bit, talked to a bunch of our friends that had babies, and finally the choice was clear. We'd have to bite the bullet cause rubber mulch is where it's at. So we went to the store, loaded up on supplies and set to work.
First Matt drove some extra stakes into one of the logs that lines the perimeter of the play area (the one at the bottom of the swing in case you are interested) because it had started to lean out of place. Then, we covered the whole thing with the black weed prevention fabric, cutting carefully around the tree and staking it all down.
Then we covered it in 3 inches of rubber mulch. In the end I think the extra money was worth it. It has a 10 year color guarantee, is super springy to walk on (great for spills and falls) and wont' decay down into dirt like regular mulch. Matt put the slide back up and it felt really nice to know that one area of the lawn was pretty much done (well, except for sealing it, which Matt wants to do before the next winter, but lets just pretend for a moment that we've completed something, shall we :) )
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