using a caravan as a playhouse?

[RicottaPancakes]

My children would like a playhouse and I'm thinking that an old caravan would be much more fun, cheaper, easier and last longer. DH is worried about fire safety. Does anyone use a caravan as a playhouse? Is it ok? I would obviously disconnect the gas and electricity.

If all the electric and gas has been disconnected it must be about as fireproof as a wooden play house. Persumably you are not going to let them have candles etc in there anyway. However even in backyard ensure they are a magnet for petty vandalism and theft even if there is nothing in them to steal. Also will it stand above the height of your boundary with other gardens as they are quite an eyesore.

'backyard ensure' should read back garden.

I think it is a good idea if you have space

Thanks :) We live in the middle of nowhere so nobody would see it. I would also paint it, plant things round it etc to make it blend in better and look less white!

It would be great for kids of 10 and over but younger kids need more floor space and room to put stuff like the toy kitchen and all that crud. So you'd have to take out some of the furniture wouldn't you?

You could connect the electricity when they are older and they could have it as a hang out den

They wouldn't need a toy kitchen they can just use the disconnected caravan kitchen. If you've got no neighbours I'd go for it. They can sleep out in it in the summer!

Issue is a really cheap one may have rotten flooring and grotty cushions. Plus if it were my kids I KNOW one of them would forget it wasn't plumbed in and use the bloody toilet!

They wouldn't need a toy kitchen they can just use the disconnected caravan kitchen

But by the time they're tall enough to be able to use the caravan kitchen they'll be too old to play kitchens.

Fantastic idea and will last their teens as well, especially if you reconnect everything. Would have been my idea of heaven as a kid and teenager.

When I was little one of my friends lived in an old farmhouse with lots of land, and there was a caravan in the garden which was a playhouse. It was brilliant.

We used the kitchen (presumably we stood on a step or something, I don't remember) and "cooked" in real saucepans (ok, we poured in orange squash and stirred with a real wooden spoon, then ate from the camping plates and bowls). We also slept in there. We must have been about 6 or 7.

I'd say go for it, OP.