Backyard DiscoverySkyfort II Cedar Wood Swing Set with Wave Slide, Raised Clubhouse, Crow's Nest, Monkey Bars, Balcony, Belt Swings, Trapeze, Rock Wall, Picnic Table, Sandbox, Ladder, Outdoor Playset

Finally got this set completed and wanted to share the best of the tips gleaned from other reviewers, plus a couple of my own.- First off, to the reviewer(s) that recommended separating hardware into sandwich baggies, THANK YOU! This was probably the best thing that saved a bit of time, but mostly frustration. Separate all the hardware by step, then when you get to a step, just grab the wood and the baggie.- Something to add here is to look at your hardware as you're separating it. You're looking for screwheads that have been filled in with molten metal. I had to stop five or six times as I am assembling to dig through the spare hardware bag looking for a screw that the bit would go into.- Also, we decided to hit this with Thompson's Water Seal before assembly. All the wood from all the boxes at once. It was a bit tough to store it while drying in the garage, but doable. We started to use a deck sprayer (looked like a good idea in Lowes), but it was putting it on too thick. Just get two gallons of sealer and a decent 4" wide brush. Vinyl gloves help and you can seal the edges of several boards at once.- Assembling the slide can be difficult. You'll need some helping hands. Laying the slide sheet in the sun for a while helped with the bends you need to make.- Once you're ready to separate your boards, the piles for the M and H boards are the biggest, so leave plenty of extra room for them.- Get some Level Dry Blocks, especially if your play set location isn't perfectly level. I bought six large ones and ten small ones for about $170. I needed to get four more small ones to cover all the feet in the uneven areas. The Level Dry web site has a dealer locator, and there's online sellers.- I had a few wood pieces that were missing labels or mis-drilled, but no big deal. Some of the letter stamps were also hard to read.- Some of the steps are hard to tell the orientation of the boards. You can skip ahead in the manual to figure it out, but you need to do it carefully. Something that helps is to download a PDF version of the manual and you can zoom in better.- I used a Dewalt cordless impact drill with two batteries to put everything together. I used a magnetic quickchange bit to swap between the Torx bits that come with the set and a #1or #2 Phillips.- Something not covered in the manual is when you put the crows nest deck on the swing arm, there is no step that says to put two screws in the board where it attaches to the clubhouse. There are spare screws and I used two of them that were about 2 inches long.- I did all of the subassemblies (rock wall, monkey bars, slide, ladder, swing arm) in the garage on the nice level concrete floor.- I also started the clubhouse assembly in the garage. The basic "cube" frame was all assembled, tightened, and made plumb, square, and level while flat in the garage. We then carried it out to the yard to the blocks that were already level in the yard.- An important note! The small L brackets that are used in several places inside the clubhouse are actually used on the outside of the crows nest rail. I drilled through a 1 inch thick piece of framing for the crows nest door before I realized the screw and T nut were too short. Make sure to put the L brackets on the outside.- Also, another important note! The small L brackets are not square. There is one leg longer than the other by about 1/8 of an inch. If you put an L bracket on a board and it's too long or too short take the bolt out and spin the bracket around and it will fit perfectly. I didn't figure that out until one of the last brackets.- If you are going to use the sandbox, we put down weed block fabric first and stapled it to the boards. We also used 14 of the 50 pound bags of sand and it's about 1/2-3/4 full.- You'll definitely need a hammer, framing square, 4' level, 7/16" drill bit, 1/8" drill bit, a drill or impact driver, and patience!- As others have noted, this place it is quite sturdy! I weigh about 195 pounds and am 6' tall and I can stand up in the clubhouse and on the crows nest and there are no issues.- Once you get the clubhouse built and you start putting on the subassemblies, you'll need extra hands for the porch roof. Also, the monkey bars are the hardest to attach and level because they are so unwieldy at this point.- One final note. The last two Clubhouse soffit boards before you put the roof on are difficult to figure out how they are oriented and where to attach. There is almost no gap on one side once you get the roof on, and the crows nest side has about a 3 inch gap.We had our "grand opening" with about five neighborhood kids, and it was a big hit! We're thinking about adding a couple of solar powered lights just to jazz it up a little bit!

I really love this set. Does it take forever? SURE! But... here's what I did:After its arrival, my best friend and I used bedtime, and our massive garage, to lay everything out. Very first step? Print the PDF version (found online) of the manual, page by page. I just printed the actual steps pages, and not all the rest. So, use your "print pages" option to save yourself a few trees. Next, I purchased fold top, cheap sandwich bags and had a couple sharpies handy. Then we opened the boxes, and pulled the packing slips out (one box was missing a packing slip, so we just used process of elimination). There is no rhyme or reason for how this all is packed, other than it fits perfectly, into 3 boxes, like a puzzle.The steps have you put together big items first (monkey bars, swing set assembly, rock wall, rear ladder, crow's nest base and slide). Then, it goes on to step by step for how to build the clubhouse. After the main structure is together, you attach all the things. We took the first page(s) and found all of the items needed to construct the first big item. We laid them all into a pile, found all of the nuts/bolts/locks/etc and put them into individual baggies (clearly labeled). We piled them all together, and put the corresponding papers on top of it. Then to the next large piece's parts and pages... and the next, and the next. Soon, all of the main items were placed into piles, with every piece of wood and hardware, with the pages that told you how to construct them, laying on top.Next, we got to the instructions for each step of the main structure/clubhouse. Since you can't really "group" them together, we literally went page by page. Each page has what wood pieces and hardware are needed, listed on the top. Some piles had 1 piece of wood, and a bolt or two... some piles had MULTIPLE. (Oh... each baggie, with hardware, I would write something like "monkey bars - bolt # and what size/quantity"... just look at the photos for all of these examples, cause I don't want to explain it wrong). But, we just went page by page. Laying it all out, in order. This took us 2 nights... just the two of us (and a few adult beverages).Here was my thought process... I had myself, my husband, and 2 other couples, willing to come over and help FOR ONE SATURDAY. What I didn't want? One single book, being passed around, people looking for things, using wrong pieces, losing things, etc. If I had them for a day, I needed to make the MOST of it. It totally worked! It was the most methodical madness...ever. All the comments from friends were "I'm so glad you had this all so organized!"They all came over Saturday morning. They brought their drills and bits (and coffee). We got started right away (about 11AM). Each couple grabbed one of the larger item piles, and put together whatever it was (my one piece of advice? Pay attention to the slide... bolting the wood to the bottom? You need to leave a little slide at the end. The piece of wood doesn't sit flush with the end of the slide. I missed this. Thankfully, a friend had a good idea with how to fix it, without making more holes in the slide... thank you, friend!). After all of the items were constructed, we set them in the front yard.It was now on to constructing the clubhouse. This part was harder to work with all 6 hands. But, some were working, and others were grabbing items/tools/instructions/etc. We decided to build most of the clubhouse on the driveway, for a level surface, and easy access to all of the steps, that were still laid out in the garage. Once we got to a point that we felt we should move it, we brought it down (again, refer to photos). From there, we had people bringing each step down, and crews alternating working on the rest of the steps (it was pretty hot that day, so the switching off was nice). But, it was great to have some extra company and encouragement. ;) Toward the end, we had all the crews connecting the big items, simultaneously, and the lone man up in the crow's nest (that thing is seriously the most time consuming part of it all). While they were finishing all the last details, I ran to Home Depot, and picked up 15 50lb bags of play sand. I think we wound up only using 12-13 bags, for all of you wondering. By 7PM, every last item was done, the sandbox was filled, and the kids were having a blast.Later, we got some 5" edging, and edged out an irregular shape, around the play set. It took about 6 yards of play bark to fill it with a few inches (makes my mama heart feel better, in case anyone falls off). All in all, I'm estimating it took about as long to lay out the parts as it did to put it together. However... it was completely worth it. I would NOT do it any other way. Nothing was lost, broken, installed wrong (except ALMOST the bottom board of the slide). A few pieces were a little warped.. but none were broken. This is WOOD. Not every piece will be perfect.Do I regret this purchase? Absolutely not! My kids are like "can we go out and play on our park, before dinner?" They love it. They are 3.5 and 2, and play just great on it. It is PLENTY tall. Adults can fit... even up in the crow's nest. Can I stand up, completely (I'm 5'11")? No. But we have older children come play on it, and no child has been "too big" for it, yet. I think the oldest child we had was like 10.5? Perhaps older. The slide is long... even I get going a little bit on it. Before I added the wood chips, I could dangle from the monkey bars (there are 4 bars), without touching the ground. With wood chips, I just barely have to pick up my feet. The girls are too small to do the monkey bars alone. I've seen some people block off the entrance to it, on the club house, and leave them off altogether, but my kids don't attempt without us, so we opted to leave it on, for their older friends/cousins. They learned to do the rock wall quickly, and love it. They eat on the picnic table a lot. Downfall? Their friends can NOT keep the sand in the sandbox. I'm debating constructing something that keeps it closed, so those friends can't get into it... I HATE cleaning up the sand from the lower deck. The seesaw swing is awesome, since the girls aren't big enough to "pump" on a normal swing really well, yet. They get going on that double swing like crazy, so I don't always have to be out to push them on the other 2. The telescope is fun. It isn't magnified, or anything, but nobody has complained.I can see us getting MANY years of good use out of this. I'm so happy I didn't get a smaller set. Truly... for the price, you get SO many options for them to play on, and kids of all sizes can fit. It is very very sturdy, and looks beautiful in the yard. I am happy to answer questions!