Gravel: The country kid's version of legos

Anyone else have a little boy obsessed with excavators, bulldozers and everything construction!?! My dad is a contractor and we live on a farm, so I feel like his love of equipment runs in his blood. His favorite thing to do is play in our gravel driveway. That’s why when my dad said he would be pouring a concrete pad for the driveway soon, I knew I needed to find a way to keep some gravel close to the house for B’s entertainment. Enter...the gravel table!

I wanted something that was simple, cheap and had the ability to be covered up (because let’s face, kids leave EVERYTHING outside, especially right before a rainstorm). I had a long, skinny tote in the basement that was the perfect size. Thankfully, my brother-in-law was building a deck at the time and had a ton of leftover treated lumber that he graciously let me steal. We just built our house so we have a ton of screws laying around. This project literally cost me $0. But if you need to buy the supplies, I’m guessing it would still be well under $30.

I took the tote and laid it out with the wood first (no measuring here! Shh don’t tell my dad). As you can see the two side pieces are about the same length as the tote. The end pieces are the width of the tote plus the wooden side pieces. For the legs, I measured our water table for a height reference. I made my husband make all the cuts (I HATE saws; they are one of my biggest fears!). I screwed the box together first, and then added the legs. After making sure the tote fit (woohoo!) I laid out my supports. You can’t see them, but I have three supporting boards underneath the tote. I made sure to position them so the weight of the tote was actually on the boards, and not depending on the lip of the tote to catch the frame. I screwed them into place from the side and DONE! The kids helped me fill it with gravel and they haven’t stopped playing with it since. B actually requested we move it to the back deck so he can play with it while his sisters are swimming. So I’m extra thankful we have a lid on it now to keep out the rain and creatures (#countrylife). I am going to drill a few small holes in the plastic tote to drain the little water that may get in there, both from rain and my children dumping pool water in it!

What weird things do your kids play with? I'm not sure why I buy toys anymore because boxes, balloons and rocks are the most commonly played with things at our house!

**I realize these aren’t the most in depth instructions and pictures. One, because it’s not that complicated of a project. Two, I didn't intend to blog about it when doing it. In the future, I promise I will take more step by step pictures of the process! I’m learning as I go!