Figuring out what to do with your children’s swing set after they’ve grown out of it can be difficult.
You all of a sudden have a bunch of spare space on your lawn for something else to go, but deciding what can be difficult.
Well one crafty user over at Instructables named hodgepodgerama was facing the same predicament. He mulled over what he would use the yard space for. Perhaps just leave it and grow grass back? Nah. He thought and thought until he came up with the perfect plan.
The place where the swing set had stayed for so many years would instead be reused for a hanging porch fire pit. Sound crazy? A little bit but just wait until you see the results!
So after the father was able to sell his family’s swing set online, he then used the money to purchase supplies for his new project.
He found the absolutely perfect swings for his hanging porch and ordered them online as well. As he awaited their arrival, he began work on the structure that would hold the swings and also work on the concrete fire pit. The crucial parts that he couldn’t just buy online.
You absolutely won’t believe what it looks like now! His family absolutely adores it and they use it constantly for all sorts of family gatherings or just a nice relaxing night away from it all.
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When hodgepodgerama’s children finally stopped playing with the play set their father had them so many years ago, he knew that it was time to give that area a make-over so that the family would once again meet outside all the time and spend time together. The question was, what exactly should he build?
That’s when he decided that a fire pit would be an excellent idea, but not just any fire pit, but one surrounded by porch swings that you could easily relax on. He imagined sitting out there on a warm summer night with a cool breeze blowing through the air and how great that would feel. That’s when he knew he had to make it.
The very first thing hodgepodgerama built was the hexagon that would sit on top of the whole thing. A simple but important step.
The next step was to position the six posts that would support the entire structure.
It was key that he put them in the exact right spot, so he used a central rod to measure and make sure he got the right placements for each post.
After that, it was time to dig into the earth so the poles wouldn’t move. He actually found that if he covered the areas immediately around where he was about to dig, he could protect the grass from being destroyed from his work. A neat little trick! So he used a power auger to dig the holes for each of the six poles.
Now with the six poles correctly measured and placed, it was time to make sure the entire structure was level and correct.
So he put the wood hexagon he made earlier on top and moved the poles until the whole structure was level. The overall structure being level mattered more than if the posts themselves were a little crooked, so he did everything he could to make sure that the structure was level.
After he did that and screwed all the pieces together to make it fairly sturdy, hodgepodgerama then began to pour some gravel into the hole for each post. The gravel is meant to help water drainage and prevent issues further down the line.
Then he poured concrete on top of the gravel and then left the structure alone overnight. He was sure to make sure the structure had additional supports so that it would stay still and in place while he left it alone.
With the concrete all placed and dry, it was time to remove the wooden supports. After that, he wanted to sand down each post so he could work with them later.
After all of the sanding word was finished he then went on to add cross beams across the top which would improve overall stability of the structure. Safety first, after all!
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Next he was ready to stain the wooden structure so it would look absolutely gorgeous! He also made sure the ground itself was level underneath the structure because the last thing you want is someone accidentally tripping when they’re getting up.
Next was the main part of this structure, the fire pit! He built the fire pit out of normal concrete landscape blocks. He also secured the blocks with an adhesive to make sure the fire pit stands the test of time.
Now the part that brings this whole thing together is of course the hanging porch swings. Now he has an absolutely gorgeous and unique fire pit in his yard instead of an unused swing set.
Everyone in the family has absolutely fallen in love with it and they use it all the time, even without the fire sometimes!
His children will often bring their friends down to the porch to chat and talk, do their homework or just some relaxing time.
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Thanks to one dad’s creative genius, he managed to evolve the swing set which was once the highlight of his children’s young lives into an area that they will use for many, many more years and have fond memories of.
What do you think of this DIY project? Would you ever do something like this? Have you done something like this before? Be sure to tell us down below!