Background Info:
Every month in our neighborhood there's a week designated for "bulk trash" where you can pretty much put anything on your curb and a big ol' trash truck will come and pick it up for you. People put out old furniture, scrape wood, fallen tree limbs, and anything else you can think of. There's a culture where you can pick up anything off of the curb from someone else's pile if you want it. It's not uncommon to see people in their trucks drive around early in the week and load up on all sorts of "treasures" before the trash collectors come along.
I've been wanting a playground [like a Little Tikes plastic little playground] for our backyard for a while now but was not quite willing to cough up the money for one. I even looked at some on craigslist but couldn't figure out how to load it into our tiny car by myself and bring it home.
Story:
Once upon a time [yesterday morning, to be exact], we were running a little bit late to church. Church starts at 9:00am and we were pulling out of the driveway at 9:02am. As we were driving down the street we noticed this huge, beautiful playground set sitting on the curb 2 blocks from our house. Yes, it was bulk trash week. We immediately stopped. Sean and I got out and took a lot at it - it was in fabulous condition! Nothing damaged, not too dirty [it is an outside toy..], nearly perfect condition [we noticed a new one in their backyard, so they really were getting rid of it!] We wanted it - and we wanted it bad. It was huge, though! How were we supposed to get it home?
We spent a few minutes discussing what on earth we were going to do. All dressed up in our Sunday best, me in heels and over 6 months pregnant....We went through all of our options - Sean and I carry it home - yeah, no! Leave it and hope it's still there after church so we can get some more man power - no, good finds on the curb go way fast! Disassemble it and put it in the trunk/car - no, too much time and way way way too difficult. Asking the people whose house it was in front of it hold it for us or if they could use their truck to haul it to our house - nobody was home! What to do what to do...
Then Sean, the brilliant man that he is, came up with a great idea. We opened the trunk, and carefully put 2 of the 4 legs of the structure into the trunk. Then Sean trailed behind the car carrying the rest of the playground while I drove 2 miles an hour down the street. Yes, we used our car as a wheelbarrow. Can I tell you how difficult it is to drive stick at a steady 2 miles an hour? Occasionally through the open window I would hear, "slower! slower!" oops!
But we made it! My awesome husband and I hauled that awkward and large playground all the way back to our house. We opened the garage, threw it in, and booked it over to the church. we were about 20 minutes late, but it was totally worth it. Ox in the mire? Not exactly. More like grabbing a childhood dream off the curb on a Sunday morning.
Getting it from the garage into the backyard was also an adventure since it was much too big to fit through the gate. It involved using our ladder as a lever over our back fence and our guardian angel of a neighbor who was walking her dog and lent a helping hand.. I'll let you use your imagination on that one went down - it was epic :)
Every month in our neighborhood there's a week designated for "bulk trash" where you can pretty much put anything on your curb and a big ol' trash truck will come and pick it up for you. People put out old furniture, scrape wood, fallen tree limbs, and anything else you can think of. There's a culture where you can pick up anything off of the curb from someone else's pile if you want it. It's not uncommon to see people in their trucks drive around early in the week and load up on all sorts of "treasures" before the trash collectors come along.
I've been wanting a playground [like a Little Tikes plastic little playground] for our backyard for a while now but was not quite willing to cough up the money for one. I even looked at some on craigslist but couldn't figure out how to load it into our tiny car by myself and bring it home.
Story:
Once upon a time [yesterday morning, to be exact], we were running a little bit late to church. Church starts at 9:00am and we were pulling out of the driveway at 9:02am. As we were driving down the street we noticed this huge, beautiful playground set sitting on the curb 2 blocks from our house. Yes, it was bulk trash week. We immediately stopped. Sean and I got out and took a lot at it - it was in fabulous condition! Nothing damaged, not too dirty [it is an outside toy..], nearly perfect condition [we noticed a new one in their backyard, so they really were getting rid of it!] We wanted it - and we wanted it bad. It was huge, though! How were we supposed to get it home?
We spent a few minutes discussing what on earth we were going to do. All dressed up in our Sunday best, me in heels and over 6 months pregnant....We went through all of our options - Sean and I carry it home - yeah, no! Leave it and hope it's still there after church so we can get some more man power - no, good finds on the curb go way fast! Disassemble it and put it in the trunk/car - no, too much time and way way way too difficult. Asking the people whose house it was in front of it hold it for us or if they could use their truck to haul it to our house - nobody was home! What to do what to do...
Then Sean, the brilliant man that he is, came up with a great idea. We opened the trunk, and carefully put 2 of the 4 legs of the structure into the trunk. Then Sean trailed behind the car carrying the rest of the playground while I drove 2 miles an hour down the street. Yes, we used our car as a wheelbarrow. Can I tell you how difficult it is to drive stick at a steady 2 miles an hour? Occasionally through the open window I would hear, "slower! slower!" oops!
But we made it! My awesome husband and I hauled that awkward and large playground all the way back to our house. We opened the garage, threw it in, and booked it over to the church. we were about 20 minutes late, but it was totally worth it. Ox in the mire? Not exactly. More like grabbing a childhood dream off the curb on a Sunday morning.
Getting it from the garage into the backyard was also an adventure since it was much too big to fit through the gate. It involved using our ladder as a lever over our back fence and our guardian angel of a neighbor who was walking her dog and lent a helping hand.. I'll let you use your imagination on that one went down - it was epic :)
Evette loves her "new park!" as do we! So we didn't steal a park - but it felt like a steal! During church I would lean over to Sean and say, "Remember that one time we stole a park?" and we'd break into laughter - It was a crazy morning and something that we'll probably laugh about for years.
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