My son turns 3 in Oct. He is big into construction equipment (backhoes, dump trucks, front loaders, etc...). For his Bday his grandparents are getting him a small ride on backhoe...
And my wife and I thought it would be cool to have a place for him to dig. He has a sand box now but it is small and sits on our patio (makes a huge mess). I was thinking about something bigger.
We have a space on the side of our house in the back yard that is currently used for my vegetable garden. The 8'x4' spot in the bottom left is the AC pad. Left border is the house. Top and right border is a privacy fence and bottom border is the rest of the back yard. The area in the middle is 5 raised vegetable gardens and just enough grass to get the mower between each bed.
What I am thinking about is taking out all the grass and garden beds and building a sand pit surrounded by pavers. Idea is that short term he gets a cool sand pit to dig and long term we can turn this spot into a fire pit.
I was thinking about using something (composite decking?) to build a box under ground for the sand and having the pavers be level with the top of the box to give a nice flush look. Considering putting plastic between the dirt and sand to keep runoff water, soil and weeds out of the sand. Drawback would be having nowhere for rain water to go.
Also thinking about adding a top to keep it from becoming a giant litter box for all the neighborhood cats. Maybe something like...
Thoughts, suggestions?
This is the 1st project of this size that I have taken on. Seems simple enough but I'm a little worried it's going to end up a much bigger deal than I anticipate.
And my wife and I thought it would be cool to have a place for him to dig. He has a sand box now but it is small and sits on our patio (makes a huge mess). I was thinking about something bigger.
We have a space on the side of our house in the back yard that is currently used for my vegetable garden. The 8'x4' spot in the bottom left is the AC pad. Left border is the house. Top and right border is a privacy fence and bottom border is the rest of the back yard. The area in the middle is 5 raised vegetable gardens and just enough grass to get the mower between each bed.
What I am thinking about is taking out all the grass and garden beds and building a sand pit surrounded by pavers. Idea is that short term he gets a cool sand pit to dig and long term we can turn this spot into a fire pit.
I was thinking about using something (composite decking?) to build a box under ground for the sand and having the pavers be level with the top of the box to give a nice flush look. Considering putting plastic between the dirt and sand to keep runoff water, soil and weeds out of the sand. Drawback would be having nowhere for rain water to go.
Also thinking about adding a top to keep it from becoming a giant litter box for all the neighborhood cats. Maybe something like...
Thoughts, suggestions?
This is the 1st project of this size that I have taken on. Seems simple enough but I'm a little worried it's going to end up a much bigger deal than I anticipate.