It only took me 400% longer than the box indicated it would (and only 200% over my original guess), but the swing set is finally all done. Except for sanding, and staining, and mulch.

Anyway, here's our picture gallery of the whole affair:

By the way, here are my modifed swing beam plans if anyone is interested. The original plans were not satisfactory to me, with the swings much too close together, and also too close to the overall structure.

And here's the layout diagram with dimensions, etc. 

My oldest daughter (she's 8 and a half right now) came up to me about 2 weeks ago as I was browsing the net, pointed to an online ad for swingsets, and asked if we could get one for the backyard. I've been meaning to build one for years, really, but the fact that the image displayed had some 4-5 year-olds playing on it made me realize that no one is getting any younger, and if I didn't do something soon, as in this summer, she'd never play on one in the yard.

Even though we have multiple projects going on right now, including a newly redesigned bathroom for the aforementioned daughter, my wife and I discussed it, and figured we could work it in somehow. So... the research began!

Our requirements:

• Wooden
• High-quality & safe
• Fort/club-house
• Monkey bars, a tube slide, a rock wall, 3 individual swing locations, and a 4th swing hookup for rings or trapeze. Rope Net optional
• Affordable

We decided not to go with the regular metal-style swingset (something like this) because they get boring, quickly, and I've never liked the idea of sharp edges on my kids' playthings - especially the slides. Besides, why go with just a swingset, when we could go with a play set, including a fort, rock wall, etc.?

I plucked a couple of "20% off and free installation!!!" coupons out of our regular "packet o' coupons to local businesses you've never visited" collection, and set off one Saturday while the kids were at Karate to visit the stores. I'd already seen some wooden kits for sale on-line at reasonable prices (I roughly set our budget at $1800 or so), like the ones offered at Gorilla, but thought that a local dealer might have some better offerings.