DIY JUMBO JENGA

Since I’m posting today, that can only mean one thing:  I have given up on life and will only be pseudo-living on the interwebs.  I am 1,000,000% done with school AND passed my state exam.  (But you already follow me on Twitter and Instagram, so this is old news to you, right?)

For you with curious minds, it was my real estate license I was chasing.  By day I work in real estate as a corporate compliance manager, and thought, “why the heck SHOULDN’T I get my license?”  So I sucked it up and did it.

Thanks for being patient while my blog took the back burner.  I tried to keep it on a low simmer, but I’m ready to bring it back to a boil now that I have the weight of my state exam off my shoulders.

My cousin Katie got married last weekend (Congrats you two!), and she had made a request for a game of Jumbo Jenga.  Challenge accepted.

In a traditional game of Jenga, there are 54 pieces.  I planned on keeping this pretty true to the original.  I decided to use 4×4′s for the pieces.  When I calculated how tall it would be, the answer was over 5 feet, in starting position.  NOT INCLUDING playing/re-stacking.  So I decided to make it 33 pieces tall which made the beginning height was just over 3 feet.  I figured that was more “playable.”  Unless you are wanting to break out the Little Giant and play it tower of babble style.  It’s something you might see on Jumbo Games Gone Wild Unrated Edition.

Our version of Jumbo Jenga (33 pieces, 11 “layers” tall) used 4 cedar 4×4′s.  The total cost of wood = $65.00  The only tool I needed was my all time favorite miter saw.  (I’m still angling to win that Ryobi sliding compound miter saw that Sawdust & Embryos is giving away.)

The cuts were simple, 10.5″ each.

I used a square to help mark my cuts.

I stacked them as I went.

You can make 9 10.5″ Jenga pieces per each 4×4.  The cuts took me 45 mins.  And that was while working on a spray painting project on the side.  I may or may not have fallen into project-over-load-mode since I found out I passed my test

BUT- something embarrassing happened.

Remember how we tore out a half wall AND a closet AND a pantry?  You know that didn’t all fit in our garbage can, right?

It’s all living hiding embarrassingly  inside the right half of the garage until I decide to pay for a few Bagsters.  The garage is normally my “shop.”  And it’s where the magic happens.  But not this day.  I was just cutting away in the driveway- with all my neighbors staring at “that one crazy lady who uses power tools after 10 PM most nights.”  This is why most of my friends live on the internet.

When all the pieces were diced, we hauled them into the front room for a test drive.  ”Hey men of the house!  Want to pretend like we’re having a party and we play Jumbo Jenga so I can take pictures for my blog?!!!”

For an added element of danger, we released the hounds.

I anticipated playing Jumbo Jenga would be fun, but it was more than fun, it was a RIOT!  I’m happy that we bought enough wood for us to make our own set.  I know it’s going to be a fun game to play out in the backyard.  It was fun to play in the living room too.  I think it’s a great party game.  Now if only they could invent Jumbo Battleship, my life would be complete.  Or Connect Four.  That game is pretty stellar.

The last challenge I had was storage.  Do I just put it in a box and deliver it?  Nah.

I had some old curtains, and you know what I did?  Folded one panel in half, and sewed it together, threaded a rope through the curtain hole to make a drawstring bag.  It was so easy there was no point making a tutorial out of it.

How easy was that?  Just in time for your summer night parties.

And for optimal pinning experiences, you have your choice of these images should you choose to add this to your collection of pins:

What game would you Jumbo size?

Link Partying At:
Not Just a Housewife, Sugar Bee Crafts, Homework, Home Stories A to Z, If It’s Not Baroque, Lil Luna, Ginger Snap Crafts, Someday Crafts, Snap! HoH, Liz Marie, All Thing With Purpose, Shabby Creek Cottage, Shabby Nest,

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