The one thing about shopping online is, once paid for by your credit card you tend to forget about the item until it arrives, it’s not the instant gratification that you get when compared to shopping in the mall. So once I placed the order and downloaded the plans, received the conformation email I didn’t think anymore about it, afterall it was anywhere from 4 to 14 days for all the hardware to arrive. My main concern was to absorb the information provided and get some sort of cutting plan together. That order date was April 21st, a Saturday, I knew the order would not be processed until Monday when business started again.
I had already downloaded the plans and I was looking forward to the delivery of all the hardware. Just to show how quick the order went through the first package arrives on Friday 27th and the first box of goodies is the Monkey Bar dowels and Mega Top Tarp, no bolts. I was a little concerned at first, as I thought, this is an addition to the main swingset, the hardware should be with it so I immediately fired off an email asking if this was normal practice. I received an email back the following Monday, 30th April reassuring me, as I was ordering all the extras all the hardware would come together. It didn’t really matter as before I got to the email the package with all the hardware had already arrived together with the swings, trapeze, grab handles and the rest of the goodies. The only outstanding items was the slide itself and the rope ladder.
The one thing I notice with the first package was the state of the box, the bottom was in pretty bad shape. This is what probably freaked me out in the first place, wondering if the bolts had dropped out in transit, causing me to send the email.
Inside the box was the mega top tarp, surprisingly heavy and dowel rods that were of good quality. The thing that impressed me about the dowels was they had been machined with a shoulder, meaning they would index into a hole to a certain depth and stop, ensuring perfect width with the side rails. The box with all the ironware was pretty battered as well, considering there was 46lbs in weight of bolts, washers and screws. I was not as concerned with this box as all the ironware was individually packaged and well labeled telling you exactly what it contained.
The second box that arrived on the Monday contained all the swings, trapeze, hand grips, swing hangers, rock wall grips, original plans and the picnic table cover and hardware. That equates to seven days from the Monday after processing the order, for me that’s a pretty good service. All was of extremely high quality, the swing chain was chain and not the flimsy wire chain that we have at present. The upgrade iron hangers for the swings are robust enough that you could probably use them for towing! Once they’re installed with three inch lag bolts I don’t think the’re going anywhere.
The ten individual rock wall holds that we chose over the plastic alternative are made from a cast resin which has a rough cast finish. I’m glad that I went this way as it seems that there would be more grip, I would be interested to know if anyone else has the plastic type so that they could give their spin on this. Once again a very good produce with metal inserts to prevent the bolts from pushing through when fixing to the wall itself.
The only outstanding items that were left to come were the slide and the 36 inch rope ladder but that was a long lead item. To my surprise the very next day the box turned up, wrapped nicely inside the swing was the rope ladder, so there it is, eight days from the order being processed all items are accounted for. I know already there are a couple of items that I will have to order because of under estimating, like one more set of swing hangers, I have three swings and a trapeze bar, that makes four sets, duh!! I will also need a couple more sets of hand grips for the unforeseen extra openings that I will have going in but I will wait until I’m further along before placing that order. Apart from that, I think I’m in good shape to get on with the cutting list, no doubt that WILL be a long process, especially with helping hands if you know what I mean!!
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