wooden playhouse - any recommendations?

[oswald]

I'm thinking of getting a wooden playhouse for DD's what sort have any of you got -size, colour,number of storeys,do you need a base and most of all price? They seem so expensive and I.m worried they'll lose interest quickly - what's your experience.
TIA

We looked into this this summer and spoke to a few people who had them. The main points that we noticed were that they seemed to be an expensive (about £500/£600) shed after 6 months with mum and dad using them more than the kids!! Kids didn't like the spiders that lived in them and were so reluctant to play in them. Also having spoken to a variety of different manufacturers and garden centres, they all seemed to say be careful with the safety barriers on the bed/room upstairs. They recommended that you had a good company install them (but they would). Also as the children get larger the headroom is restrictive on the top bunk..... I have to say that we decided against it in the long run as we have a very tall 5 year old DD who we thought would grow out of it soon and our DS may not be into it that much. It seemed an expensive exercise really.....and I so did like the idea of making some Laura Ashley curtains for it . I am sure that some people here will have a more positive experience with them?

Unless your going to put it in a tree I'd save your money - the effect of them wares off very quickly.

Toys r us do lots of plastic ones which are just as good for little ones and are much cheaper.

my dd1 would love one of these. every house we go to it's the first thing she heads for, come rain or shine. especially the ones where the parents have fitted carpet tiles, put in bean bags and toy overspill. i've seen them for about £200 from diy type stores. we'll probably wait till we've moved house, to avoid trauma of having to build it twice...

bump

we got a single storey £180 one from Argus or Index. We put a table and chair in it, and ds1 (2.5) spends hours in it drawing, playing cars or just looking at books. Its like a playroom really. We have put a piece of carpet down as well. We've had it since April, and it is still used every day that it doesn't rain. It was really worth the money IMO.