KISS: DIY Sandbox

Part of our back yard master plan was multiple things to keep the kiddos occupied.  The revA concept for the sandbox was elaborate and hand-built but time constraints and the sight of our old plastic pool languishing in the bushes steered the project elsewhere.

My original plan was to use the 5' diameter pool covered by a tarp secured with tent stakes and ball stretch cord purchased during an impulse trip to Harbor Freight (hypocritically ignored the rules I laid out here) but I quickly realized it required too much sand (even after correcting math using diameter instead of radius to calculate volume of sand needed, doh!) so we procured a 3.5' diameter pool that was sufficiently filled with 4 bags of sand ($10).

A little dressing up with some leftover limestone and the project was complete!

I can anticipate the next question--What about that old pool that spawned the idea in the first place???  Fear not, it now serves as a cheap and easy to use cover!

 

Total cost $21 (would be about $30 if had to buy 2 pools, not including limestone cost since it's not a functional part of the sandbox system), total time to "build" about 10mins, including time spent drinking a beer watching our 13yr old carry the sand to the back yard.  Success!