June 3 – “The Playground Equipment Caper”

We began the hands-on research phase of our quest to purchase some new playground equipment for the church.  That, of course, required our special consultant and team member Cailyn.  She was with us for a few hours yesterday, so it was the perfect opportunity to check out the company just up the freeway in League City. 

Now this was our first foray into the hands-on research phase, so we had to remember that our discoveries here were not necessarily final decisions.  There are other companies.  But this particular company was Texan owned and operated.  That was certainly a plus.  And the close location of their showroom was also in their favor. And our consultant dove right into her task when we arrived.  She tried out the monkey bars (her favorite) and the trapeze bar.  She climbed the rope/climbing wall.  She rested in the covered gazebo.  About the only thing she didn’t do was try out the slide.  But how different could a slide be, anyway? 

Meanwhile Chris and I got the lowdown on prices and styles and changes.  That’s when we were hit with “the news.”  As soon as I mentioned that it was for the church, so there would be no tax, the salesman changed his entire approach.  He went from “my grandparents that are buying systems tend to like these features” to “Oh.  Well, IF the  owners agree to sell you a set after investigating your property using satellite photos, then you would have to buy this institutional set over here.”  It was basically the same set-up, but the wood was much thicker, with stronger bolts.  It would have been my first choice anyway, but I didn’t know there was such stringent requirements that the owners would have to call a board meeting to decide whether we passed muster before they would approve the sale.  And then there was the matter of material on the ground beneath the structure.  Before they would approve the sale we would have to create a “playground footing” that provided a six foot perimeter completely surrounding the structure, bordered with “architectural material” (read here, landscape timbers or railroad ties) that rises to a height of nine inches.  Then that area would have to be filled to a height of nine inches with playground mulch.  Only then would they agree to install the equipment.  And, again, all of this was also contingent upon whether the owners liked what they saw when they investigated the church property.  Whew.  Talk about covering their bases up front.  We did finally get an actual price from the guy.  Including the monkey bars and wooden roof (as opposed to canvas) we requested, as well as a $199 installation fee, the cost of the equipment itself came to $4386.  No idea how much the mulch filled “footing” would be.  So … I figure if we do the work ourselves, we can probably cover the cost of the mulch and landscape timbers.  As far as the actual equipment goes?  I foresee more pancake breakfasts in our future.

Hebrews 12:11 says, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

Father, give us wisdom and patience to get this playground thing done right.  Amen.