From Jungle Gym to Pirate Ship – an outdoor DIY

The wonderful people at BOSCH SA sent us a whole box full of tools to try out and I couldn’t wait to get my hands dirty! The jungle gym in the back yard had been crying out for a make-over for a while so I worked up a few drawings, got the toddlers’ approval and got to work.

The jungle gym consisted of a basic elevated structure made from gum poles, with a ladder to the one side and a slide to the other. It also has a couple of well used tyre swings.  I converted the space underneath to a sand box 2 years ago – it’s perfect because it gives the kids shade in the summer and provides a nice soft (ish!) landing in case of a fall. The rest of the area around it is covered with soft bark chip for the same reason.

Jungle Gym 1

For an exterior structure, it is important to use tanalith-treated timber to prevent rot. Lucky for me, the local fruit packers throw out quite a lot of treated pine when their crates are being repaired so a quick visit to them gave me a whole car load of 150mm wide boards for free!

Jungle Gym 4

I first had to extend the structure to create the bow: I simply planted another pole and used treated timber batons to make the triangular structure. Using one of the 22mm thick boards as a spacer, I put down the floor – that’s it: bow in place!

Jungle Gym 2

I then clad the sides, roughly spacing the boards so that they fill the area.

Jungle Gym 3

Next, I made the side panels. I drew out the length I needed on my deck and lay out the boards accordingly. I then lay some old tongue & groove planks over and screw fixed them in place to create a fairly sturdy panel – it’s much easier to router it and carry it this way. I trimmed the boards into a straight line using a jigsaw. Turning it around, I marked out where the portholes should go and used my router to cut out the circles. You can use a jigsaw for this as well, but a router makes perfect circles so it’s much easier. Use 3 or 4 depth settings to router out the circles otherwise it becomes quite challenging to maintain the circle when the central board suddenly falls away. I only figured this out after the second porthole and then had to use my jigsaw to trim the circles anyway! Then I sanded everything to make sure there aren’t any splinters for little hands to get caught on.

Jungle Gym 5

The panels were screw-fixed through the 22mm pine to the gum poles. I fixed each panel individually just to make sure that it stays put!

Jungle Gym 6

So there she stands! The boys absolutely loved it, but Margaux and I weren’t quite done. We’ll post the rest of the transformation this week – keep yer eyes peeled, Matey!

Jungle Gym 7

Happy buildling!

germarie 200px

This was not a sponsored post although the following tools were kindly provided by Bosch SA:

PLR Laser Distance Measuring Tool

POF 1200 AE Router

PSR 18 LI-2 Cordless Drill Driver Combi

91 Piece V-Line Accessory Set

You could win this same set of tools by entering our competition here! For more great DIY ideas, get your copy of our DIY & Styling e-book!

 

3 responses

  1. Goeie more.

    Ek love dit!! En lekker om te sien die elektriese klitser is nie al wat daardie vaardige hande kan gebruik nie. Geniet!! Dink ek moet vir jou ‘n kwotasie vra vir die koffietafel wat ek wil hê 😉

    Liefde

    Mariaan Ellis

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