Wooden play centres going cheap anywhere?

[Gem13]

I have a boisterous 20 month DS and a large empty garden and am looking to invest in a wooden play centre (complete with swing, slide, climbing frame, etc.) to keep him and DD occupied for the rest of their childhood. Well, that's the plan!

Ones I've seen are around £700 plus but there was a thread last year where someone bought one from Costco.

I've looked on eBay but they're pretty pricey on there too. So, has anyone seen one at a Costco this year (we live in the South so it would be a bit of a trek to join one) or anywhere else?

TIA.

I think B&Q have reasonably priced ones.

We built our own and it's sort of a tree house but without the tree. The platform is 4ft off the ground with a fence all around it and a log cabin in the middle. There's a ramp up one side and a cargo net on the front. On the other side is a wavy slide which I bought from ELC. Later this year we plan on building an extension to it and joining them with a rope bridge and having a fireman's pole off it. You're only limited by your imagination and mine runs riot when it comes to building play structures for the kids. Then we just bought a Hedstrom double swing and seesaw. It's far more rewarding building your own and I got a brilliant book from Amazon which gave me some good idea's. Ds1 has his kitchen and table in the log cabin and during the summer months he's never out of there. But if you want to buy something, have a look at TP. Check out this link.

Gem, we have just come back from Makro and they have some fantastic sets. Slide and ladder and platform and swing wooden set-£139.00
Then a great wooden see-saw for £39.00

We are gonna get them on Wednesday, but they are great value

Can't remember whether they had them at Costco last time I was in. They generally bring them out around Easter time, and have had them for the last 4 years (ish) so I would be surprised if they didn't have them this year. The ones they supply are by 'plum products' which I think have a site on the net if you want to check them out (Canadian company). Bought ours about 3 yrs ago & still gets useed constantly.

Wow! I'm drooling looking at plumproducts.com

I can feel a drain on the credit card coming on.

Thanks for the replies.

DH likes the idea of building one so we may go down that route now - DS may get it before he's a teenager... We both fancy one that is more timber/adventure playground like than some of the metal ones I've seen. PipBeckett - could you tell me the name of the book you bought please?

The next time we are near Reading I shall be popping into Makro and Costco and checking out their play centres though.

Check out this link at Amazon for the book I bought. I've been trying to find it in the loft but haven't been able to. We got the support logs for ours from a local fencing company. They buy the logs and then slice them to make the lap fencing. We got the off cut edges of the logs to use as cladding for the treehouse. I can send you a picture if you like.

PB - thanks for the link. Will get on and order it. Will come back and ask you for a photo when more on the case.

Sorry for late reply and brief message - feeding while typing and tired.

PB - thanks for the link. Will get on and order it. Will come back and ask you for a photo when more on the case.

Sorry for late reply and brief message - feeding while typing and tired.

Why did sashaboo and Gem13's message come out as the same????

The links from Amazon for other books are great - I really liked Tree houses you can build in a weekend. All I need is a matching book titled how to buy a really big house and garden to build your treehouse in in a weekend!