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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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Play Time

May 1, 2014

We shook on a self-imposed goal to finish all of our outstanding projects before starting something new. That lasted for all of… 48 hours? Sometimes that happens because we get damn lazy, or bored, or simply lack the energy required to clean more paint brushes (I’d usually rather just throw everything out and buy new). Plus, all of a sudden it was bright and 60-degrees outside, and after the longest winter ever, we were quick to want to abandon ship house and get some fresh air. For our most recent undertaking, it’s time that’s of the essence.

Our backyard is only barely starting to show signs of springtime, little buds popping, and the grass quickly returning to its lush state. Before the green leaves exposed themselves completely, we knew it would be in our best interest to begin clearing more brush from our backyard to make way for our biggest springtime project: building a big ol’ playset for the girls to enjoy.

Making space for a new playset.

Without leaves to get in the way, the job isn’t nearly as overwhelming as it could be. It’s dense, but transparent enough to feel manageable. A photo doesn’t really do the task justice; the area we are clearing is about 30′ x 30′ and presents like a giant hair tangle, each bush/weed tree/fallen branch intertwined and then bound together with vines the size of my bicep. I liken it to a human-sized tumbleweed.

We know from this photo of Pete that come June, we wouldn’t have been able to see 5 feet into the brush. In this post, there are a few more photos that show just how dense it gets back in there. On the day I got started, it was this:

Clearing the backyard for our future playset.

This is a project I’ve been anticipating for a few months. I couldn’t really get down on the chopping and sawing and lifting last summer when we moved in because I was pregnant (see some of Pete’s progress here and here). Yard work is one of those exercises where you can just tune everything out, rage, and enjoy immediate DIY satisfaction. Love it.

Kobalt sent Pete a bunch of new 40-v Lithium Ion outdoor products to try this year. Two of the tools that I had really been looking forward to testing out were the chainsaw and pole saw. I’ve always viewed the pull-start gas/oil-combo tools as a bit intimidating, so these battery-powered tools rank really high in my book, and helped me to clear a lot of brush in only a few hours. The chainsaw worked really well for cutting through branches both green and dead that were only 1-2″ diameter. It was a little slower for trees like what I was cutting below, but still did the job nicely.

Me, using the Kobalt 40v Lithium Ion Chainsaw

Clearing all this brush also coincides with the town’s brush pickup week; I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to see that there’s a pile 10 feet tall waiting for them.

Our goal is to clear 30′ back to a ravine on our property, and create an area dedicated to play and exploration. Right now we’re about 80% of the way to the ravine. It has been raining all week, which gives definite pause to the next stage of the mission, steps which involve using the super-powerful leaf blower I bought last fall to clear up that debris on the ground.

Clearing space for the playset: one weekend's progress.

The play set we’re designing is still in sketch form, but we hope to have construction underway before school’s out. Modest goals, that’s all we can hope for these days. I hope they love it.

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Backyard  / DIY  / Tools

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

Comment


Harper
May 1, 2014 at 9:25 am
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Can I come live with you, play and explore? The girls will love it. I have fond memories of doing similar things growing up and I’m sure they will too. Can’t wait to see the finished swingset.



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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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