Progress has finally been made on the aforementioned swingset debacle of 2012.

The wounds were still too fresh to take photos over the many days my husband spent putting the beast together. I stayed inside not doing laundry.

But last weekend he added the slide and a few finishing touches, and my daughter is now using it.

Hallelujah – she loves it. I’m pretty sure divorce papers would be on the table if she didn’t.

Of course after my husband dug out substantial amounts of grass and dirt to level the ground it sits on, we realized that hard rocky terrain underneath the trapeze bar is not ideal.

So, why not add one more cost! Today we got wood chips to put under it.

Alas I think the hard labor is finally done.

As a final step, I said I would apply a fresh coat of stain to it. Let’s see if I actually live up to that promise.

That was supposed to be the end of this blog post.

But then.

I looked outside and saw my husband scooping out the final load of wood chips. It’s clear that when he shoveled the last pile off the driveway, he also scooped off a layer of dirt & moss – which is now sitting on top of the pile in the truck.

Instead of skimming off the dirty moss chunks, he just shoveled it into the playpit with the rest of the chips.

Now, that might not sound like a tragedy. But I have a hard time paying money for pristine cedar chips to then shovel a bunch of fricking dirt into it. AmIright? I’m not talking tiny dirt flecks – these were sizeable clumps of wet mossy dirt.

So I went outside to ‘discuss’ my concern with him. Needless to say this did not go well.

Note to self – when the husband is on hour 6 of a 2-hour project, always compliment the work that’s been done thus far before suggesting how it should be done differently.

We agreed to disagree on the importance of this matter.

So as he packed up his tools, I picked dirt out of the wood chips with determination and intensity. I have no doubt that if the neighbors were watching, they wondered how severe my OCD is.

Someday this swingset will only bring joy, not marital discord. Someday.