That is the question my husband and I have been asking ourselves for the past two days. We moved into our gorgeous house in July and we were really excited about it because it had a "fort" in the back yard. Well, upon further investigation we realized that this "fort" is really just a makeshift, unsturdy p.o.s. that is unsafe for our children. Read the supporting evidence and see if you come to the same conclusion and can provide us with any ideas for a solution.
Exhibit A: My Little Man is climbing up the ladder...one of the slats comes straight out of the side pieces of the ladder as he clings on for dear life (well he was only two feet off the ground so maybe not dear life). The ladder slat had been nailed in with 1 1/2 inch ROOFING nails. Not the best idea for a ladder that is to support all the overweight children we have in America.
Exhibit B: The slide "on the fort" was actually just resting on the lower platform, not screwed in and when my husband went to screw it in we realized that the platform wasn't at the correct height to be able to secure the slide.
Exhibit C: The top deck is unreachable from the bottom deck (there is no ladder) unless you are an adult. However when my husband jumped up on the top deck to take pictures of the garden, I thought the entire thing "fort" and husband were crashing to the ground. The entire fort swayed back and forth with his every move.
After sorting through the facts, my husband and I decided to look into purchasing a new playground for our children. We looked at Toys R Us, Academy, and OK Play. The prices varied from $300 to $5,000 (and of course the one that I fell in love with was $5,000...well $3,000 without the cedar mulch). The playgrounds vary in size and weight requirements and whether or not adults can use them. I'm only thinking for the well being of my children. If it will hold me while I'm hiding out in the upper deck or swinging, then it will surely hold my kids. It's not like I love swinging and am just using this as an excuse to buy myself a swing set. It's for the kids...all about the kids. Back to the task at hand. It seems that the differences all come down to the quality of the wood. My question, is it worth spending less money on something that according to reviews still takes 3 days to put together and doesn't hold adults or should I spend more money buying all the parts that I want to have and customize the entire thing to fit my ne...I mean my children's needs and then sweet talk my father-in-law and my husband into building the fort of my dreams for my babies? Any thoughts?
I thk you can sweet talk your father-in-law into building it...no problem there and as far as the type, go for safety and budget. Did you try the ones at home depot or Lowes. Steve has some
ReplyDeletegood plans in a book, or maybe Andy has the book,
anyway look at the e-amil I sent nanci
Yes, your father-in-law would help and I would go with a fort that is both strong and budget minded...We have a book about building forts, etc. we might want to come down the first weekend in April is that works for you? nanci
ReplyDelete