the ultimate fort, phase one.

When David told me he was taking Wednesday through Friday off work, I was skeptical, “Do you really think you’ll be able to take three whole days off?” I wasn’t worried that our church wouldn’t let him — I was worried he would go crazy.

But to David’s credit, he really did take three days off — because he planned a huge project for himself: the Ultimate Back Yard Fort.

I had to laugh because when I called David’s mom to chat the day after Christmas, she texted back: “I can’t talk, Steve has us pulling everything out of our kitchen cabinets so he can paint them over the break.” I guess David comes by it honestly.

Not that the kids and I are complaining. They are so thrilled with their “play house” even though it’s just a platform for now, and I’m living my dream of saying, “Run out to the backyard and play.”

[I should point out here: If you know our children at all, you know that they are both cautious people, therefore an unfenced four-foot platform does not pose a danger to our family; friends point out to us often how rare this is. Not to worry, our ultimate fort will be fenced!].

We got the plans for phase one from here, which you can download for free. Ours is going to look a little different, but will include the play house, and if David has his way, a watch tower. The slide was a freebie my parents got a few years back and fits perfectly. This platform took David probably 8 hours which included the trip to Lowe’s. The day after, I sealed the whole thing which took 1-2 hours. We’re hoping to begin phase two, the playhouse, this weekend.