If you have missed the first post regarding the Highlander Swingset Review and Assembly, you can backtrack.
Yes, It’s Day 4 already. In all fairness, during the regular work week its about impossible to do anything till 5pm at night and we are only working an hour or two a night after Chris gets home.
We left off at 10.5 hours.
Monday Night: Monday night I picked up a drill and went out to help Chris. Power drills are sexy, right? We started and finished up the picnic table. Then I did the bottom level of railings and Chris took over the top ones on the middle level.
The pictures here are courtesy of Charlotte, who is a regular Andy Warhol as you can see.
Tip on Picnic Table Assembly:
The directions say to put in the benches, then the top of the table, but then have you crawl UNDER the table to add an additional part to secure the table. Instead, do the table, crawl under to add the wood piece and THEN do the bench seats or you will be crawling under the seats at the end.
Stupid.
The second the picnic table was done, Charlotte had to find something to eat to test it out. She told us to keep our drill noise down so she could eat in peace.
One of the biggest problems we are having is that the predrilled holes are not lining up correctly and its causing us to have to redrill some of them so they dont hit air.
Which means the wood is cracking.
The top section there that has 13 decorative and safety pieces were 13 for 13 on split wood (right picture). Not one of the holes lined up correctly. I am going to have to call the manufacturer tomorrow to get them to send me 13 new ones.
We got 2 hours in Monday night.
We are now at 12.5 hours.
Tuesday {today, day #4}:
Today I finished up the railings on the top level of the swing set (btw, that is pretty high up there) and can officially spy on all my neighbors. I was getting a little fear of heights while I was drilling.
Chris started the rock wall. You have to use a regular screw driver and a drill. This is best done with 2 people, but Chris got pretty fast at it.
We only got about 35 minutes in before it started raining, complete with thunder and lightening, so we had to call it a night and come in.
Charlotte’s being surprisingly patient and very helpful with gathering wood and other tasks I can assign her.
13 hours and counting…
Having fun yet?
~Trisha
Hi! I know this post is 3 years old, but we just purchased our Highlander today and I just found your blog. Did I miss the rest of it? I was only able to find 2 posts. My husband has opened everything and separated it, but that’s as far as he got for day 1. We have 3 kids ranging from 11 down to 9 months. I am hoping this will be something that lasts them for years to come. (at least my 2 younger kids) Please let me know if you have the rest of your building process posted somewhere else. Thanks!
Here is the other post https://www.momdot.com/highlander-swingset-instructions/
I wanted to know if there is a place to put a fireman’s pole?
So… Almost a year later and are you still loving The Highlander set? (BTW, did I miss any updates post the “13 hours and counting..”?) I am about to pull the trigger this weekend to get one for my girls. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pictures and comments you post as it’s nice to see what is really involved (since the husband is all “Oh sure, I can get that up this weekend, no problem!” ). Oh, and did you end up water-sealing yours? The instructions suggest it but i’m thinking meh…
YES! We love it. It was a great purchase. If i could go back and do it over again, I would say the 3 tiers is unnecessary..it looks cool but almost pointless? As Charlotte gets older I feel less worried about her up there though. I would probably find one w/ more actual STUFF to do (like a trapeze bar, etc) then something that is height.
We didnt water seal ours. I can say that you have to watch for spiders and wasps building nests up there as well.
The biggest thing is to make sure the ground is really level.
My Uncle sells Rainbow playsystems &, although the price is outrageous,I’ve been told it’s worth it. The price includes 2 to 3 strong men coming to your house n building it in just a few hours…except the one that was hand designed & actually has 4 super-ultra-deluxe models connected together. That was several days.
So, I’m considering this swingset for my boys ages 3 and 1. I’ve read about swaying, really high, and iffy reviews about the company. After using your set for several months now, would you still recommend this set?
Thanks!!
Btw…my husband saw this and is very intimidated by the pictures.
Im not gonna lie, it was a pain in the butt to put together, you have to be VERY organized. It took quite a few days, but we have had it for awhile now and my daughter loves it. ONe thing i have realized though, is that it was almost overkill. I just have 1 child and a lot of it was unnecessary. She plays more w/ the swing than anything else. The slide got hot in the summer, but was fun w/ the hose on it. Make sure that you do use all the anchors and LEVEL the ground or it wont be stable. Its also not for a lot of big kids and sways more than i would like if like 5 kids are on it.
We started this weekend. Ours is very stable and doesn’t wobble. I insisted we square the first steps main pillars completely. It seems like that paid off. Missing tools from the instructions:
(2) squares (one small, one large),
post its! + masking tape + a sharpie – the stamped numbers are too small to waste time finding – we used on post it per piece type and wrote the quantity under it – for example:
M6
(15)
(4) levels – the instructions say 1, but it’s easier to level the thing if you have all four levels on it at once – the small square had one and we had 2 others plus the 24″ one we bought for this project.
a pack of shims – we still need to buy those.
a long board of composite wood – we cut the 1″ x 6″ into 5″ pieces and used that under the posts to level the structure. Our backyard slopes away from the house.
A relatively empty garage! That is where we unpacked all the boxes of wood and laid out the pieces marked with post-its + masking tape.
loose shorts with pockets – useful for carrying the put together screws and bolts
What ever happened with the rest of this swingset?? I can’t find any more posts. 🙁
aarrrgghhh- we’re supposed to start on ours this weekend and I guess it’s gonna be a week to finish and with everybody’s work schedules we wont get started til at least 11am on sat..UGH….
thanks for the tip re the benches- I told the guys already and they were like “duh”..gonna be a long weekend…
Let me know how calling the manufacturer goes re the wood- got a feeling we’re gonna have the same problem…
My favorite thing about this post is this line:
“She told us to keep our drill noise down so she could eat in peace.”
LOL Now that’s DEFINITELY your daughter, right there. 😛
PS: It should not be this hard to put together a swing set. And definitely have the manufacturer send you new wood. Having it cracked like that can be dangerous.
This is exactly why we paid the company to put ours together. If not it would still be sitting in the box in our garage. lol Have fun!
Trisha
I came across your blog after searching for reviews of the highlander. My father and I are almost completely done building ours, and we noticed that it has an awful lot of sway when someone is on the top level of the tower or swinging. Did you guys do any extra reinforning or anchoring. My dad was adament about leveling the entire thing as we went, but we can’t figure out why it is moving so much. The only thing we have left to do is attach the rockwall because we have to add some blocks to level it. Let me know if you have any tips!!
Leah, your scaring me because I did notice the sway as well, but we are not done and I assumed once the swingset is up, it would be solid. We did level it properly and even put concrete underneath the portions of the sides that were uneven to make sure its not leaning.
I expect we will finish tonight if the weather holds out or by tomorrow night. Ill update you!
~Trisha
Ohhh LOVE IT!!! I still can’t decide between this one or the SkyFort one.
It looks beautiful! Lots of work but beautiful!
That’s crazy but glad to hear that Charlotte is being patient lol.
you know what’s bad? I keep coming back to see how it turns out. i’m addicted to your swing set saga.
All I can say is WOW.. WOW.. and Good Luck. You will get it finished soon. I want a playset, and if and we ever get one will have to hire it out.. as hubby and I would be getting a divorce during the process of putting the thing together! LOL.. no not really. Proud of you girl.
Wow. That is a long process.
Although it’s a lot of work it looks like you all are having fun!
WOW! I am so glad I am reading this! Now, I can be prepared if we ever do get one!
Im going to have yall over when its done!! What are you doing this weekend? Its my birthday! Maybe we can have a party or something
This weekend we’ll be in Orlando, maybe next week! Happy early birthday 🙂 When are you going to the BB concert? Is that during the week? Is Chris going too? Have fun!
You, DH, and especially Charlotte have the patience of Job!
you know, at this point I’m almost thinking of forgetting buying a swingset next summer and just walking the 3 blocks to the park every day.
The time scaring you?
both the time and all the extra work it’s turning out to be!
Wow the wood splitting sounds like a safety issue.
That is a LOT Of work!!! I think we’ll get a metal swingset 🙂
Glad it’s you doing it, not me. Scary, that’s the same one little dude wants for his birthday this summer. Since you will so skilled in it, wanna help? lol. Good luck!
I think you can hire someone for $600 to put it together…once the main structure is up, the rest is mostly busy work…I am still happy we did it ourselves. Thats half the cost of it, you know?