Handy Marty

As you well know by now, the Molloy family loves hitting the playground circuit. We spend most of our weekends playground hopping around town. However, that doesn't mean that we don't enjoy playing in our own yard sometimes too. When the people who lived here before us moved out they left a (somewhat rusted) metal swing-set with two swings, a slide and a rocker. The slide and rocker became too gross to use before we even had children so by the time we had any kids to use it, it was down to just two simple swings. It was fine and we have plenty of other things to play with in the backyard too, but we have been contemplating getting a new swing set for a while. The problem is, most of those nice wooden swing-sets a.) cost more than an addition to your house and b.) are designed for people with backyards the size of a small planet. Our little budget and little city yard didn't seem to fit the typical swing-set mold.

After months of research and searching, Marty found what appeared to be the answer to all of our swing-set desires - a reasonably priced, moderately sized wooden swing-set! After a quick celebration, we immediately ordered it on-line and anxiously awaited the delivery. When it arrived, however, we realized why this amazingly perfect swing-set was so reasonably priced. It came as 81 pieces of lumber (not even pre-drilled or labeled in any way) and about 9 bags of various sized (and unlabeled) bolts, screws and nails. It also came with a 10 page instruction manual that, for 10 pages, was not all that detailed considering the task that sat before us. Of course, I panicked. Once again we paid too little for something when we should have just forked over a few hundred more bucks for a set that threw in the burly professional carpenters that come to your house and assemble it for you while you leisurely drink iced tea and eat bon-bons. But no. We were once again putting thrifty above practical.

Marty, however, saw my panic as a personal insult. He could do it! How could I even possibly doubt that he could do it?! He works at a place where instructors are teaching students about building stuff and certainly some of that has rubbed off on him through osmosis! And the challenge was on. Please don't get me wrong, it's not that I thought that my husband was not smart or capable enough to put together the swing-set. I never said or thought that. He is incredibly smart and incredibly capable and I in no way meant it as an insult. It's just that it was such a massive and intimidating project (81 pieces of lumber! 9 bags of bolts!) and neither of us had any experience doing anything like it. Or close to it. We've never built anything before. Maybe a piece of Ikea furniture. Once. That's it! But he assured me that he could and would figure it out and I was going to feel horrible for not believing in his massively superior carpentry skills in the first place.

And so Handy Manny-err-Marty got started with this big and scary building project. He worked weekends. He worked nights (literally by the light of the moon!). He worked alone. He worked with my dad. He worked with his dad. He worked and worked and worked. For weeks he worked. And what do you know - he certainly did prove that he has carpentry skills. It is beautiful! It is sturdy! It is fun! It is...done!

And so I do publicly declare that Marty was right and I was wrong. He is a brilliant carpenter and I am a silly non-believer. But I have never been more happy to be wrong. And our children (and all the neighbors children) are thrilled with our lovely, wonderfully built swing-set. They are enjoying endless backyard fun. After all the time and effort Marty put into this thing, something tells me we're going to be spending a lot less time at the playground and a whole lot more time enjoying our own yard!