Homemade Sandbox

I have a love/hate relationship with sandboxes. I love how they keep the kids entertained outside in the fresh air for so long, but I hate sand in my house, all over the patio, and on heads and in diapers.

We built this sandbox a couple years ago and the kids loved it.

However, we moved several times and it never got set up again we just hauled the sand around in a big tupperware storage bin.  The problem with that was that the kids didn't like bending over to play in the sand and so they brought the sand out to where they could play with it comfortably (meaning all over my patio).  Also, when they wanted to add water, it stayed wet forever in the tub. Our sandbox has a canvas bottom (the same kind of ugly canvas as the lid -we got it at the thrift store for really cheap) so the water can drain out easily.  Overall it wasn't working for us and we either had to give up on sand altogether, or we had to rebuild the sandbox.

So this Fall we moved into a house that didn't have anything but grass in the backyard.  It's nice and big, with plenty of room for the kids to run around, but they were bored and wouldn't stay outside for very long. So we finally decided to resurrect the sandbox, adding in a new feature that we hoped would encourage the kids to play in the sandbox but not "in" the sandbox if you know what I mean (see above).

Benches!

not that they always use the benches...

  Not only that, but the benches are also the lid!!

This was taken a different day than the above pictures. It was raining. Otherwise they would have been playing in it.

We are also planning to add a lock for when kids lose sandbox privileges for doing things like this:

This was when it was in that blue tupperware. Apparently wet sand is fun to throw.

  or this:

  

 

  ...and thus continues my love/hate relationship with sandboxes.

Heaven.

The other place.

Ah sand.  Can't we just get along?

DIY Corner Play Kitchen

So, we made this for the boys last Christmas, but it never really got the attention it deserved.  In fact, when I started this blog it was in storage in another state.  Right before we moved back to Idaho, to get the kids excited about the move, I mentioned all their toys that would come out of storage including their play kitchen (we didn't have the room for them in the one bedroom apartment we had in Wyoming over the summer-- and yes, I said one).  Well it worked, and every time the move came up in conversation, they went on and on about getting to play with their kitchen.  So here's its official debut to the rest of the world.

And if you're wondering why I would make a kitchen for boys, just remember that most of the great chefs in this world are men.  I made it as un-girly as I could with no frills or pink or anything, and I still think it's super cute.

I admit, I'm quite proud.  Although, I also have to admit that although I came up with the design and did all the thrifting, my Dad, brother-in-law, and my husband did all the wood work and assembling.  Oh yeah, I painted the shelves.

I don't have all the DIY steps pictured --in fact I'm not sure I even remember them --it's been a while.  but we started with finding a basic furniture piece that we could repurpose. I searched forever for some little nightstand or something but when I saw this, I thought "Why not?" It would fit perfectly in a corner an take up less room by filling that awkward space.

It's an old appliance garage taken from someone's renovation/demolition and donated to Habitat for Humanity.  It was 12 bucks.  (The scroll door is still there, it just stays up all the time).
I also scored a piece of green laminate for the countertop, a small faucet, a handles for the drawer and oven, and a small hand towel rod or something (I'm actually not sure what it was supposed to be used for) to hang the dishes from. Total spent: about 8 bucks.

The corner shelf was designed by me and custom made by my dad in his workshop out of MDF scraps that he had around.

We added top and bottom boards to cover the missing part of the counter top and to enclose the base and make it sturdier, then we added an oven door on hinges (also MDF scraps and extra hinges my dad had lying around) which my brother in law cut a hole in for the "window." We intended to cover it with plexiglass, but never did, and probably won't. We also added a little wooden trim that you can only see in the picture of the entire thing at the top,

I thrifted a little rack and some other small cake pans and cookie sheets and my grandmother sent me some mini cupcake pans for use in the oven.  Every once in a while when I'm baking I'll save a little extra batter to cook something in these pans and we'll have a tea party.  (Don't worry, no one wears dresses, hats, or gloves to our tea parties, and there are no lace doilies. In fact, there's usually a lot of grunting and feet on the table --although I do try to use these tea parties to teach manners.)

I have three boys, so no flowers for us. That is why we use a gravy separator for a teapot.
Now that's a MAN's teapot! 

I wanted a drawer for some kid utensils we already had from ikea, and found an old cigar box or something at savers and incorporated it into the shelves (we actually use the ikea silverware to eat with and replaced them with plastic ones for the play kitchen).

Isn't that the cutest handle?

I also found this great old-school hand mixer that the kids love using to make pudding.  I'm not sure what the wooden box was for, but I decided to use it to hold utensils for now. 

 As for dishes, my mother bought the kids a "green toys" dish set on Amazon from this company that makes their toys out of recycled milk cartons, since they were the most unisex colors we could find and super sturdy. I found the rack for the dishes  at the DI, and although I have no idea what it is really used for, it worked perfect for the cups and saucers.  

Also from Ikea was the stainless steel pots and pans and utensils pictured.  They were actually the inspiration for this project --they were so cute, and sturdy and could probably be used cook real food if I wanted to! 

We had a lot more mini food items on the shelves before including those tiny cans of V8 and apple juice.
The kids loved it.

I tried finding a silver bowl for  the sink, but found that the shape of a large silver dog dish worked much better.  5 bucks.

I also added the "hot" and "cold" by hand with some paper and diamond epoxy for jewelry on top.

Now for my favorite part:  Drumroll please.....

The flat-top stove! Yeah, I could have made it really easy on myself and just glued some coasters on there, but where's the fun in that?  I'm all for interaction.  So I designed and hand crafted out of an old black three ring binder and some red vinyl a stove that you can turn "on" (red) and "off" (black) with little sliding buttons.

I used the same technology that many "pull the tab" books use, and it turned out great!  However, I suggest you use something a little stronger than hot-melt glue to attach the "stove" to the countertop --I ran out of time on Christmas Eve and didn't have anything better, so the stovetop was the first thing to fall victim to my (then) 20 month old.  Still, it'd didn't keep them from "cooking" things in the oven (including each other?  Maybe they were playing Hansel and Gretel?  It's a great hiding spot anyhow).

 Yeah, maybe they were a bit young for it at the time, but it keeps them busy anyhow, and they play more and more with it now that they're older.

So there you have it!

DIY play kitchen --30 bucks; 

Handmade, one-of-a-kind, heirloom playroom furnishing --priceless.