Ever since he was about 2 years old, my son has been digging holes in the yard at our old house and now here at our new house. It turns into one big sand pit and well… it doesn’t look pretty. Now I am not one who really cares too much about looks- I am more about functionality which is why we bought a house that was super private. No one driving by can even see my yard so they can keep their judgements to themselves. However- it does drive me a little crazy to be walking through the yard and get stuck in the sand or fall into a new hole. So we decided to make a sandbox. It turned out to be pretty simple!
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Initially I called a local nursery to see if they had sand and I was educated that I need to be getting “clean sand” to ensure that there are no old nails or something that could possibly hurt my little one when he’s playing in it. I definitely didn’t want to go to the big box store to buy a ton of bags of clean dirt. Remember, I am ‘thrifty’. Luckily my husband found another local place that sells sand, and this time it was clean sand. If you are local to Titusville- we went to The Sodfather. Super nice guy, and very helpful! Anyway.. we got a truck load of sand. While he was there, they had a great deal on a huge role of weed blocker, and this was the good stuff – not the cheapo stuff you get from the big stores that feel like plastic bags. This stuff feels heavy duty!
He then stopped by the local lumber yard and bought one 2×10 12ft long and one 2×10 8ft long. Both boards were cut in 1/2 to create two 6ft boards, and two 4 ft boards.
Putting it together was super simple. Just created a box with the outside wood and screwed them into each other at the corners. To keep the sand inside the box, we added the weed blocker on the bottom with a staple gun, and let it fold over the edges like wrapping a giftbox. We flipped it over and BOOM – ready for sand.
Here we were again shoveling dirt out of the back of the truck. You know you are out of shape when such a simple task almost makes you want to call out of work for the rest of the week!
We do plan to add a lid/roof of some sort- but right now we are just going to cover it with a tarp to keep the leaves out. Do you have a sandbox? Any tips you would share about making it?
