Bag-Pipes--Game time!

It was the weekend of the fourth of July, and Jared and I really needed a break from all the wedding planning festivities. We quite literally spent the entire fourth of July weekend doing ANYTHING BUT talk, plan, buy, or do whatever associated to the wedding. It felt great to shut the ol' brain off for a bit.

As Jared is quickly learning, I have a tendency to not understand how to just sit and be completely unoccupied, especially when there are so many things we could be doing instead! I figured, this was a perfect opportunity for a DIY project I have been really wanting to try. So off to Home Depot in an attempt to make this new yard game! We have dubbed our game, Bag-Pipes (we're using bean bags instead of tennis balls. I couldn't imagine what a nightmare tennis balls would be if you're playing on concrete, and although I searched, hacky-sacks are not that easy to come by these days. Bean bags it is).

As with any DIY project, the instructions always seem to appear easier than what you actually go through when you attempt to DIY (especially when you do not own either a circular saw, or a jigsaw--lots of hand sawing and sore arms). Case and point: three days later we are finally done. Also, we opted for PVC pipe rather than the drain pipe, this may or may not have contributed to our extended assembly time. Now that it's done, our test runs to determine fun-level of the game went over really well! It's a nice change from bags, washers, and yard golf for sure, and is actually more challenging than it appears. Of course I got lots of photos during the process. I DO have a blog to update after all. Check it out!

Sawing, the seemingly never ending process. Jared and I took turns, as much as I wish I could have just sat around and taken pictures. :)

That's 4inch PVC. Not as easy to saw through as originally expected. Also not recommended, is our sawing support--a step ladder. :)


Rupert had to get in on the action. :)


All 20ft of PVC cut up into their correct sizes


The pieces arranged in formation.

(not pictured--borrowing my parents jigsaw to cut the tops of each tube to a 30degree angle, or whatever was close to that in our case. It wasn't pretty, I'll just say that, by planning, or execution).

Next step, spray painting the inside of each tube


Then I spray painted the outsides with a contrasting color--probably unnecessary, but I can't help myself apparently. My neighbors pretty much had no idea what I was up to, and likely thought I had some strange idea of yard decor.


(Also not pictured--the process of gluing the pipes together. Way challenging when you are dealing with unlevel tubes--due to handsaw cutting. Once again, it wasn't pretty)


Next, on to the point-level labels


It's finally starting to come together now!


One complete set, ready for action! (pay no attention to the uneven spray paint. Two days in, I started to care quite a bit less about perfection) :)


Matching bean bags, of course!


Two complete sets! We're done, finally! Hooray! Who wants to play?!


And what does one do with a scrap piece of PVC that just happened to resemble a crown? Spray paint it yellow and photograph Rupert in it of course! :) He looks thrilled about it, doesn't he?

So there it is, we're primed and ready to try our new Bag-Pipes game out at the Royals game this Saturday for Lindsay's birthday! Yippee! Here's hoping it doesn't fall apart. I might cry...The good news, is that Jared and definitely can work well through adversity in a rather difficult DIY project. :) It's meant to be.