Ever run out of ideas for fun activities to do with your kids? Does your child enjoy craft projects but you never seem to have the right supplies to make something really cool? Well, take a trip to your local home improvement store and you're in for a treat!
Our local Lowe's offers Build and Grow clinics for kids. Lowe's supplies all the materials and directions to assemble a simple woodworking project with your kids. They even give you a kid-sized Lowe's apron and real safety goggles...all for free! What a great deal!
My 5-year-old son is really starting to get into "projects" and enjoys using his Daddy's tools to build things. So, a few weeks ago, we decided to try a Lowe's Build and Grow clinic. Lesson #1... we now know that these classes fill up FAST! We assumed we could just show up that day and we'd be able to participate - WRONG! You need to sign-up in advance, and most people actually register online. My son was so disappointed because he was looking forward to his "man-time" with Daddy.
Luckily, a few hours later, Lowe's called and said they actually had an extra kit available because someone didn't show up for the clinic. So, we were welcome to pick up the kit and assemble it at home. My son was so excited!
Nathan wanted to build his woodworking project in the garage, just like Daddy does. But, Daddy's workbench was slightly too high for him to use. Since the project was small, I simply pulled out our Lifetime Personal Table for Nathan to use as his workbench. Perfect size! I was able to lower it so Nathan could easily stand in front of it to assemble his project on a real "workbench". The Personal Tables are perfect for kid-sized projects, especially since you can adjust the height. But, I must admit, as much as I love Lifetime tables, the Personal Table is not really meant to be a heavy-duty "workbench". While it did get the job done for this lightweight project, it wasn't very stable when it came time for hammering. (Good thing we only had three tiny tacks to hammer!) It would have been better if I would have gone to the extra effort and pulled out our Lifetime 4'x2' table since it is much stronger and actually sold as a garage utility worktable in some stores.
Thanks to Lowe's and Daddy, Nathan is now the proud owner/builder of a football goalpost for finger football, complete with a scoreboard. And, Nathan's already reminding us to register now for the next clinic!
If you're looking for something new to do with your kids, check your local Lowe's (online or at the customer service desk) for upcoming Build and Grow clinics in your area. (By the way, I think Home Depot offers a similar program if you don't have a Lowe's nearby. ) Most importantly, enjoy the quality time with your kids and have fun!
Is there anything more fun in the wintertime than coming in after an afternoon of fun in the snow and enjoying a cup of hot cocoa? It is definitely something we look forward to . . . especially if we are hosting family or close friends. 
We have a delicious hot chocolate recipe we use that I would like to share. Offering an assortment of fun additives to your cocoa makes it even more memorable! You may also want to consider serving the hot chocolate outside. A Lifetime adjustable-height folding table makes set-up quick and easy whether you are setting it up inside or out. Most of us don’t have a thermal Airpot dispenser kicking around the house, so a large thermos or a crock-pot set to low will make sure that your cocoa will still stay warm so you won’t have to miss out on that last sled run down the hill.
Creamy Hot Chocolate
1 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 gallon chocolate milk
½ pint whipping cream
Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in a large stockpot. Add milk. Use an electric hand mixer to make it frothy. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently to serving temperature. Do not boil. (The whipping cream is to bring the milk to whole milk. If it happens to be whole milk, omit cream.) Also, if you choose to offer an assortment of mix-ins with your hot chocolate, I would consider cutting back or eliminating the cinnamon.
Mix in ideas: whipped cream, crushed peppermint candy, chocolate shavings, crushed toffee bar, flavored creamers, marshmallows, chocolate-dipped marshmallows, candy canes, red hot candies, etc.
We've all been there for after-Christmas clean up... carting piles of garbage bags filled with wrapping paper and carboard boxes off to the recycling bin or garbage.
In all the excitement, it's easy to throw out something you'll need later. Be it a certain box, bag, or set of instructions. If you received a Lifetime Basketball system, storage shed, trailer, or any other product this year and cannot find the instructions, you're in luck! All of our instructions are online at www.lifetime.com. Just click here to see a full list of assembly instructions, then search for your model number. Happy Holidays from Lifetime!
Shhhhhh. Don't tell my kids. The other day I talked with Santa at the mall and he informed me he is bringing my little girl a play kitchen. I'm so excited, she's going to love it!
However, Santa was a bit concerned because the box is so big. He was worried that with such a big box he may not be able to fit everything in his sleigh on Christmas Eve. So, he asked if there was any possible way he could deliver the present early and hide it at our house until Christmas Eve when he'll put it under the tree.
Yikes! At first I thought there was no possible way I'd be able to hide a present that large at our house. WAIT! Ding, ding! I just remembered the new Lifetime shed that we built in our backyard. It's an 8'x5' shed so it has plenty of room to hide a play kitchen box. However, my son does likes to play in there sometimes and pretend it is his own little clubhouse. Hmmm, that could pose a possible risk.
Fortunately, Lifetime sheds feature holes in the door latch to accommodate a padlock! So, when the kids were at school one day, Santa made his early delivery and I showed him where to store the big box in our Lifetime shed. Now, the Christmas present is locked up tight so no curious little eyes can get an early peek. (Plus, it helps protect the other valuables in the shed like our lawn mower etc. - which is a good answer if my son happens to ask why a lock suddenly appeared!)
We built the shed to store my husband's lawn equipment and it's his space to use as he pleases. But, this month he'll have to share a little space with Santa. So glad we could help the jolly old man! 
With The Holidays fast approaching, I want to share another reason to pull out that Lifetime Card Table and Folding Chairs and gather family and friends together near the fireplace. I would like to recommend another board game called “The Settlers of Catan”.
“The Settlers of Catan”, which originated in Germany, is surprisingly light and enjoyable in its first play. Players take on the role of immigrants on the newly discovered island of Catan. The game “board” is obviously different. It is comprised of several hexagonal tiles randomly arranged into the shape of a large hexagon. Since the tiles will almost certainly be arranged differently for every game, each game will be different. Each tile represents a particular resource such as wood, brick, sheep, ore, or wheat. 
Each turn, a roll of the two dice determines which hexes produce resources. By trading ore, timber, wheat, wool, and bricks, players attempt to extend and upgrade their settlements to earn enough victory points needed to win. Players establish settlements at the junction of land tiles in order to draw on the surrounding resources, which they can spend on new settlements, roads, soldiers, and more. Controlling a seaport tile gives a player the ability to convert plentiful resources into scarce ones without having to trade with other players.
The object is simple to understand and doesn’t take forever to achieve. The object is to be the first to earn 10 victory points, and everyone starts with 2. You score victory points for each settlement, city, longest road, largest army, and whatever you get from drawing development cards.
Writing this out makes it seem far more complicated than it actually is-- Settlers of Catan is user friendly for new players and because it is not designed for play with less than three, it is a good social game. Trading with others makes friendly competition more interesting and engaging. An added bonus to the game is that no one is eliminated until the game ends so you will not have a guest or family member idly watching the others compete for first place.
For those with young children, there is also a spin-off of Settlers of Catan called “Kids of Catan” where the children help build their new village on the island of Catan by gathering different resources in their wagon. The game is easy to understand and the wood pieces are easy for small hands to handle. Our only criticism is that the wood game pieces are a little top heavy and one bump of the board can easily knock pieces over, but it doesn’t affect the overall play of the game, it is more of an annoyance.
Besides “Kids of Catan”. Settlers of Catan has several other spin-offs such as Seafarers of Catan, additional player expansions sets, and Cities and Knights of Catan. Settlers of Catan requires 3 to 4 players, although you can purchase an additional expansion pack that will allow you to play with up to 6 players. I believe the age recommendation is 10 and up but I think an 8 year-old wouldn't have a problem keeping up with the game play. A typical game usually lasts about an hour and a half to two hours. So, if you are looking for that last minute Christmas gift or are just looking for some entertainment during the holiday break, you will not be disappointed by settling with Catan.
If you're like me, you've been shopping up a storm this past month and have acquired enough receipts to wallpaper a room. I'll hang on to them for a few weeks after Christmas just in case something is broken, doesn't fit, etc. But, once I see everything is good to go, I usually shred the receipt unless it is a big ticket item or electronic device.
Here's a friendly holiday tip: if the product has a warranty, don't throw away the receipt! I learned this lesson the hard way. About two years ago I purchased a Lifetime 4' fold-in-half adjustable height table as a gift for my mom. As a former employee of Lifetime, I was obviously familiar with the strength and durability of Lifetime tables and had seen first-hand the outstanding manufacturing process. However, I also should have known that, unfortunately, even the highest quality products can sometimes have a manufacturing defect.
After only using the table for a few months, my mom's table developed a small crack/hole in the plastic right on the seam of the table. For some reason the plastic is just too thin right in that spot. I can assure you, this is rare for Lifetime tables! It's very minor and doesn't affect the strength of the table or the usability. But, it definitely shouldn't happen.
The bummer of the whole thing is that since I was confident in my purchase and it wasn't a big ticket item or electronic product, I didn't keep the receipt! I also didn't get a gift receipt for my mom since I knew it was something she wanted and wouldn't return. Double bummer. Lifetime (as well as most other companies) clearly states in its warranty that you must provide a "copy of your dated sales receipt". I suppose if I really wanted to, I could have tried to beg and plead my case to the good people in Lifetime's Customer Service department. But, I'm not that kind of person...especially when the crack did not affect the usability of the table. Rules are rules and they are made for a reason. I need to own up to my mistake (er, stupidity) of not keeping the receipt for a product that carries an awesome 10-year warranty. DUH!
Anyway, long story short...if you purchase a product this Christmas that has a warranty, be sure to keep your receipt. And, take advantage of the store's offer for a gift receipt so your gift recipient can utilize the warranty if needed without ever knowing how much you paid.
Happy Holidays!
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My friends and family know that I love the holiday season – in fact, it’s the time of year when my three favorite G’s come into play: get togethers, gift giving and gift wrapping. I absolutely love to gift wrap. There’s nothing better than cranking up the holiday music, making a hot cup of cocoa and rolling out the wrapping paper.
Over the years, I’ve found that setting up a gift-wrapping station is the best way to stay organized. One year, I almost gave my grandma a necktie meant for my dad. Since then, I’m diligent about making sure I set up a proper wrapping station. Wrapping on a flat surface is key, so I break out my 4-foot fold-in-half Lifetime table before I go to work. I use one half of the table for actual cutting and wrapping; the other side houses all my supplies: ribbon, rolls of paper, scissors, tape, and embellishments. The fact that the table sets up and breaks down easily is perfect for me since I live in an apartment. The Lifetime fold-in-half table fits perfectly in my coat closet.
Once I’m all set up, I measure my paper before I wrap any box. On the long side of the box, it’s easy to measure the paper so that it meets in the middle and wraps around the entire box. On the short side where you do the corners, it’s much more difficult. I once learned this trick: bring the paper to the edge of the box and hold it up so it extends about 2 inches from the top of the box. Cut the paper, taking into account those extra two inches. That should give you more than enough paper – but not too much – for tackling the corners. From there, I start my seamless wraps, tucking in any excess paper so my sides and corners look polished and crisp. I’m also a huge fan of big, elaborate bows, and I’ve discovered over the years that using wire-edged ribbon makes your bows stay upright and look full.
After I’ve wrapped, I try to personalize any gifts with fun embellishments. For my mom, who loves to bake, I tie cookie cutters on to packages. Dad always gets the requisite golf balls. For my friends, instead of buying them a card every year, I like to print out photos and paste them on card stock so they can keep them throughout the year.
If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s definitely that the effort spent to make your packages look presentable is valued more than any gift. The gift inside is simply the afterthought.
It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost here. We don't really have any big pre-holiday traditions of our own, but we do try to partake in some of the local festivities wherever we live. To help get us in the holiday spirit this year, we attended the annual Wassailfest one evening in a nearby town. You're probably thinking, "what in the world is a Wassailfest?" Don't worry, so were we!
I've heard of the Christmas carol "Here We Come A Wassailing" but didn't really know much more. Once I read the lyrics and did a little more reading, everything made more sense! Wassail is a traditional European beverage, popular at the holidays. (It tastes kind of like hot apple cider.) Apparently, wassailing dates back to the middle ages as an early form of holiday charitable giving. Peasants would go caroling to each house carrying cups. They would sing until their cups were filled with wassail...hence the popular lyrics "we won't go until we get some". It's really quite an interesting history...here's a link to learn much more than what I quickly summarized.
So, with that in mind, Wassailfest is a free festival that centers around all of the downtown businesses that host open houses for the community and serve their own blend of wassail. This was our first year attending Wassailfest and we were flabbergasted by the extremely long lines people waited in just to taste the tiny cups of free wassail offered at each store! Maybe if we weren't toting a screaming toddler, we might have been more inclined to wait at more than just one store.
In addition to tasting the wassail and mingling with friends, local groups perform, carolers stroll the street, and the downtown courthouse and square are adorned with thousands of lights. You can also view a live nativity scene and visit Santa Claus. But, hands down, the highlight of the evening for my kids was the train museum. Both of my children are train fanatics. Little did we know that the train museum would be participating in Wassailfest! They had a real train decorated with lights that people could climb on and ring the bell. And, they also had several miniature train exhibits. One exhibit was simply set up outside under the depot so kids could stand around and watch the trains. Since it was a temporary exhibit, guess what they were using as train tables? Yes, Lifetime tables! They had about eight Lifetime 6' tables pushed together in variations directions to accommodate the track layout. We've been to lots of train shows over the past few years and almost all of the engineers use Lifetime tables for their layouts. Normally, however, the displays feature elaborate designs with fake grass, mountains, trees, buildings etc. so you can't really see the table. But, since this display was outside for just one night, it was easy to see they were using Lifetime tables!
Anyway, I hope you're looking forward to the holidays and finding fun festive things to do. If you want to share some wassail with your friends and neighbors, check out some of these recipes I found at allrecipes.com. Happy Holidays!
"If you eat, you qualify!" This is the motto of the Community Food Co-Op of Utah of which I've been a member since last Spring. The way it works is very simple. The program allows consumers to buy fresh, local food at wholesale prices, without paying for the services of "a middle man," namely the big supermarkets. Members of the co-op submit their monthly orders via telephone or email. Volunteers pick up the food from local wholesalers, package it at the co-op warehouse in Salt Lake, and deliver it to various Pick Up locations in the Salt Lake valley. Obviously, buying in bulk saves us money, so the more members, the less each of us pays for our groceries!
So where does Lifetime come in? At our "Store!" As you can see, the Store is actually a garage, generously made available to the co-op members by one of our volunteers. Clearfield City was gracious enough to loan her several Lifetime tables and a couple of Lifetime chairs for our monthly food Pick Up day. On Pick Up day, my husband and I arrive early to help unload the goods and get them organized and ready for the eager customers who take advantage of this money-saving program.
These tables are loaded down with all kinds of good, healthy food from local producers: mostly meat and produce, with special monthly extras like nuts, jams, coffees, and teas. Good thing Lifetime tables are designed with commercial strength! After the last happy customer has departed, the tables and chairs are quickly folded up and stored away 'til next month. Their durability, portability, and easy-to-clean low maintenance, makes Lifetime tables and chairs the perfect solution for our Community Food Co-op.
Check out The Community Food Co-Op. The food is high quality and delicious. The volunteers are enthusiastic and generous. And the money goes right back to our own local food producers. Everyone wins and it's a great way to support our community! You can contact the Community Food Co-Op of Utah for more information at (801) 746-7878, or by e-mail at community@crossroads-u-c.org. Their website is http://www.foodco-op.org.
It's official! Our Lifetime shed building project is finished! A few weeks ago we added a wood "skirt" to the front of the wood platform to hide the gap underneath, to prevent critters from getting under our shed, and to make it more attractive. Since we have a wood fence around our yard, we bought two more fence boards and cut them into short pieces. We nailed them onto the platform and basically made a miniature fence along the bottom front of the shed. We then stained it to match the rest of our fencing. It turned out great! We used some of the rock that was left from building our house (and rock that we dug up in our yard when we built our shed) to build some landscaping beds around the shed. We planted a few pansies, and a bush, and - voila- we were done!
We originally built our Lifetime shed to get rid of some of the clutter on our patio and in our garage. So far, we've filled the 8'x5' shed with all of our lawn tools that were in the garage...lawn mower, weed eater, wheelbarrow, fertilizers etc. My husband loves having a place all his own to store his yard stuff. We knew beforehand that building a shed wouldn't entirely clean out our garage since we have so many bikes, strollers, and kids' toys that need to stay in the garage for easy access. However, before we built the shed, we were constantly climbing over bikes to get to shelves and yard tools and we had to move the strollers and toys out of the garage to get the lawn mower in and out. 
Now, thanks to our new shed, we finally have space in front of our workbench to work, and a clear path to easily walking to our shelves, sprinkler system control box, and trash cans!
One last side note... good intentions don't always work out so well. In addition to the rats we've had in our backyard, we've also found three possums living under our kids' sandbox! (Ugh. Remember, I don't do rodents!!!) We thought we had the shed platform completely closed in with the wood skirt in front and bricks and rocks on the sides so nothing could get under the shed. Wrong! Just this week, we noticed a hole under the front of the fence skirt where something has been digging to get under the shed.
Sigh. Great, the possums found a new hiding place. But, yesterday we happened to go out to the shed and heard a "meow". Turns out a neighborhood house cat that had been lost for over a week somehow made its new home under our shed! So, the neighbor was happy to get her cat back and we were happy not to have possums under our shed. (At least for now.) I hope you have better luck critter-proofing under your shed than we did! :)
Did you know that an estimated 2.5 million people go to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City each year?
That’s roughly twice the population of Hawaii, and all these people are standing on the same street in New York City at the same time to watch the parade. That’s a lot of people all hoping to get front row spots for the festivities!
Because there’s such limited front-row space, people show up 3 or 4 hours before the parade starts to get the best views, which means a lot of time standing and waiting. This year, to make the morning more relaxing, we decided to bring Lifetime Chairs to some of these people who were anticipating the start of the parade. 
That way, they could have a comfortable place to sit and rest their feet while getting a great view of all the floats, dancers and balloons. All the people who sat in our Lifetime Chairs during the parade got great views of Miley Cyrus, Hello Kitty, Dora the Explorer and others.
When I was a kid, I got up really early to get a good view of the parade, and I definitely wanted a place to sit then, so it was exciting to put such a smile on people’s faces with chairs this year! 
I couldn’t believe how many people told us that they had already set up Lifetime Tables and Chairs for their Thanksgiving dinners that evening.
Once the parade was over, we took the chairs and went home to our friends and family. Since Lifetime Chairs are lightweight and they fold up, it was easy for us to get through the crowds. In fact, a few people even noticed how well we maneuvered and said they would definitely bring their own Lifetime Chairs from home next year!
Since it’s been over a week since I last blogged, you’re probably hoping that building our shed really didn’t really take this long! Don’t worry, it didn’t. I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and write about it amidst all of our Thanksgiving festivities, preparations for family visiting, and Christmas decorating.
As you’ll recall, after almost a full day’s work, we finally had our ground leveled and our wood platform built for our shed. We strategically planned to build our 8’x5’ Lifetime shed on Veteran’s Day since Mike would have the day off, but the kids would both be in preschool. We were under a ticking time clock– five hours of uninterrupted, kid-free work time. Hopefully, we could build the shed before it rained or before we had to leave pick up the kids!
We started at 9:30am. The first few steps required simply snapping together large plastic side panels – kind of like giant Legos for grown ups! Super simple – but be sure you actually hear the “snap” sound, otherwise it didn’t completely lock into place. We learned that right off the bat with the first corner wall…but after we got into a rhythm, it was a cinch.
Lifetime went above and beyond to ensure building their shed is easy. They included a wood block to place under the shed floor while you are snapping the panels together. They even included a drill bit to ensure you have the right size to fit their screws. All of their plastic pieces have labels (like “left door”) molded right into the plastic. And, the hardware pieces all come in labeled bags with a master parts list referencing what each bag contains. BIG HINT – be sure to keep all of the parts in the plastic bags! Unlike some manufacturers where they put all of the screws in one bag and you have to sort through them before you begin to figure out which one is which, Lifetime packaged the parts according to what they are used for…such as “door hardware”. So, when you open the bags, cut the top…do not simply tear open the bag from the middle because you may tear the bag description and then finding the correct piece will be much more difficult. Another hint – the bag labeled “sub kit” is part of the "Door Handle Hardware Bag"….kind of like bag #2 of "Door Handle Hardware". That one threw us for a loop for a while since “sub kit” is not on the part reference list. (That was really my only complaint with any of Lifetime’s packaging, labeling, or directions!)
Only 45 minutes into our time and we already had three walls constructed. It was then time to assemble the doors, handles and latches. Mike and I aren’t the most mechanically inclined so this part took a while to really read the directions and figure out what each mechanism was supposed to be doing. We figured it out, but it was definitely the slowest part of the entire process for us!
Lifetime recommends having two or more people to build the shed. Mike and I easily did it by ourselves, although a third person certainly would have made the process a little easier when we were installing the doors. Trying to align the doors in the top and bottom holes at the same time really requires two people and a third person can then really come in handy to hold the first door while you try to align the second door. We managed with two people, but we definitely had some awkward moments when we looked a little bit like contortionists!
Another slightly tricky step for us was installing the roof. Make sure you have the pieces completely flush and nestled in place before you begin to screw them in. The directions (including the special "Construction Tips" brochure with full-color photos!) forewarned us of this and we still messed up and had to redo a few pieces! But, what fun is a construction project if you get it entirely right the first time? :) As they say, practice makes perfect. 
Good news…we finished the shed in 4 hours 45 minutes! Just in time to go get the kiddos and before it rained. Overall, we were thrilled with the simplicity of the assembly process. Definitely so much quicker and easier than the wood shed we built at our old house. So far, the quality of our Lifetime shed seems great. I’ll be sure to let you know of any pros or cons we have once we fully start to utilize the shed and all of its features.
Our next step will be to put some sort of skirting around the bottom of the shed and do some landscaping around it. Oh, and of course, to fill the shed!! I did take some video of our shed building process so I will try to post those clips soon to give you a realistic view of the Lifetime shed building process. More to come soon….
Okey-dokey. So, our Lifetime shed arrived and we read through the assembling directions. Now that we had the general idea of what we were about to undertake, we were ready to start building our shed! Well, sort of. Before we could actually start assembling our Lifetime shed, we had to prepare the shed site.
As you may recall, we plan to put our 8’x5’ Lifetime shed right up against our back fence. But, our yard has a pretty significant slope and we can only dig about 6” before we hit solid rock…practically boulders in some spots! And, lucky us, we also had a tree stump and roots we had to take into consideration. Fun times. So, our first step was to level the ground to be flush with the tree stump by removing weeds, rocks, mulch, adding dirt, etc. Ground ready? Check. 
The Lifetime shed directions recommend building the shed on a concrete slab. However, if that is not an option, they recommend building the shed on a wood platform covered with plywood or on a wood frame filled with pea gravel. Great, more work. Arrgh. However, in reality, that would be the case for any type of shed (whether it was metal, wood, or plastic), especially with our sloped yard. BUT, here’s the best part…Lifetime actually provides step-by-step directions on how to build the wood platform or wood frame! They show awesome pictures, list the exact materials you will need, and provide the precise dimensions including where to place all of the support beams. They’ve seriously done all of the work for you except the manual labor! Even someone who isn’t very good at woodworking can figure out how to build the shed platform with the directions Lifetime provides.
One piece of advice the instructions didn’t mention that might be handy…if you’re building the wood platform or frame, if possible, build it on a flat surface (like a driveway or in your garage) first and then carry it to your final destination to make it easier to ensure you have it level and squared. That’s exactly what we did. My husband and I constructed the wood frame on our concrete driveway…it only took about 30 minutes. Super simple.
Then, thanks to my massive muscles (ha!), we carried the wood frame back to the future shed site. We placed it on the ground to see how much more leveling of the ground we would need to do. We had to ensure the platform would be above the tree stump and roots that we couldn’t remove. (Plus, Lifetime also reminds you that any platform or similar structure should be built above ground in order to avoid water pooling inside the shed. ) So, we placed our platform on cinder blocks - three under each of the four shed sides. I’m going to be honest with you…this part took forever!! If you’ve ever tried to lay pavers, flagstone, etc., you know what I mean. Leveling a cinder block foundation is tiring and tedious work. Add a little dirt, add a little sand, too much sand, need to pack it down more, oops packed too much etc. Ugh. Finally (about 4 hours later) it was level and we were able to place the wood frame on top of the cinder blocks and quickly nail the plywood on top. Ta-da!
Building the wood platform was a piece of cake. Unfortunately, preparing our yard was not. But, we knew it was going to be challenging before we even started thanks to our rocks, tree stumps, and slope. If you already have a concrete slab ready to go (or at least a flat yard), lucky you! We spent almost an entire day preparing our site. Geez, I bet you hope building the actual shed was a lot easier, huh? Stay tuned to find out!
Oh...one other great piece of preparation advice that Lifetime reminds you of several times in the directions...be sure to check all of your city and county building codes to learn if you need a building permit. Fortunately, for us, we did not need one. Since a Lifetime shed does not have real shingles, our city does not consider it a permanent structure and, therefore, a permit is not required.
It’s been several months since I first wrote about wanting/needing to build a shed in our backyard. Great news - you no longer have to read any more about my shed planning or problems. Why? Because last week we finally built our Lifetime shed! Whoo-hoo! Applause please.
So, let’s start at the beginning. We had our shed delivered to us. Before the delivery truck arrived, we assumed we would have to move our car out of the garage to keep the shed package until we were ready to build. We are building an 8’x5’ shed so naturally the packing is going to be huge and in several boxes. WRONG! When the driver opened his truck, he only had two…yes, 2… small boxes. Trust me, I double-checked the packing slip to make sure he brought everything. After that, I then noticed Lifetime actually prints right on the box in big print “box 1 of 2” and “box 2 of 2”. We were so surprised and completely impressed at how well Lifetime has figured out how to minimize packaging for such a large product. Wow! Don’t get me wrong, the boxes were long (slightly over 8’), but they were very compact. We were able to stack up our kids' gazillion riding toys and bikes and easily make enough room for the boxes without having to move the car out of the garage.
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