(no subject)

[celticdragonfly]

It's a nice day outside. I turned off the heat/AC and opened some windows both downstairs and upstairs. I'm enjoying the breeze. I guess this is spring airing out day. I figure I better enjoy what inbetween weather I get, as the weather here seems to show an alarming tendency to go straight from cold gray and wet to too hot.

The nice weather outside has me thinking recently about what we want to do in the backyard for the kids. We got rid of the old raised beds that the previous owners put in - I don't have time to garden, and they were a splinter hazard for the kids. I really want the kids to have lots of options to play in the backyard. My dream is for them to have a nice playset out there. I've been looking at lots of playsets, and it's come down to I want one from www.cedarworks.com. Trouble is, they're too expensive for now. selenite has said we shouldn't get anything like that until we're at least mostly out of debt. And he's right, I know he is, but it's still frustrating.

I looked into some cheaper ones, and we could get them sooner, but for various reasons, no, I'd rather stick with the higher quality. I want something we can climb on with them, no treated lumber, sturdy construction, etc. And although we could probably afford just a metal swingset now, that's not going to do what I want - swings are nice, I want that included, but what I really want is something for the kids to CLIMB on. Especially Miss Maggie-climbs-on-everything. Sheesh, that girl desperately wants to climb! So cedarworks. More specifically, this one. With green roof and swing, and with the sling swing removed and the kid swing substituted in. Although, sigh, I suppose that will depend on if we still have any wee ones when we can finally afford this.

I'd love to go fancier - add a second climbing structure at the other end, have another activity add on going off at 90 degrees, with a bench swing for the grownups, some ramps, accessories, oh, I could go wild. But the basic Jungle Slant 1 has the essentials I really want.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about other basic outdoor playthings for Maggie. I prefer the kind of toys that encourage her to play, not play for her - no batteries, etc. I got her a yellow smiley face ball, and she has one of those no-spill bubble bottles, she loves those. I've set her up her own wishlist at Amazon, separate from mine, so I can track what I want to get for her. (Nice thing about having my own domain, I can just give her the Maggie email address there!) That was a fun mental shopping trip while Jamie nursed in my lap.

Comments

[technomom]

I think rasilio built a nice playset for his stepson a few years ago - just got the materials and did it. That would probably be affordable much sooner.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

The problem is I'm not enough of a carpenter to guarantee it wouldn't kill the kids, so we have to find a pattern if not a kit. And the Cedarworks one comes with a lot of nifty features.

[technomom]

I did a quick Google search and found quite a few places selling plans. Do you know anyone locally who is more of a carpenter than you are? You might be able to work something out with them :-)

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

We don't, really. We don't know much of anybody locally.

We looked at the kits the local Home Depot sells, where it's buy the kit, then go buy the lumber that goes with it. You get the non-heartwood, subject-to-splinters, chemically treated lumber. And the components in the kit - the swings, chains, brackets, etc - are not NEARLY up to the quality of the cedarworks stuff. Not up to the weight limits, we wouldn't be able to climb up with (or after) the kids. I saw one put together where the ladder was all warped sideways. The designs aren't as good, either - attachments for a rope ladder/cargo net that goes to nowhere, no way to climb up to the fort from it, open sides to fall out of, etc. & I really like the safe steps thing that the cedarworks people have designed so that toddlers can use them.

[archangelbeth]

Out of curiosity, how much is the thing? It's not showing on the page linked, that I found. O:

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

IIRC, the one we want (for starters, anyway) with the swing substitution costs ~2.9K.