backyard playsetsIt's that time of calendar year again: playset season. The time when an incredible number of parents get ready to shell out thousands of dollars for small-scale back garden jungle gyms for his or her beloved children.For years I'd were able to successfully avert this requirement of suburban family life. And, one day something happened.I cracked.I cannot even blame my kids. They never badgered me or complained. I'm not sure they sought a playset. No. I wanted one.Whenever we were outside the house in the backyard my kids wandered around aimlessly, invariably returning inside to the couch. I wanted to shoo them back again outside and shout, "Go play!" But with what? We didn't have a pool or swings or perhaps a paved driveway to attract on. I decided for my own sanity and their success we needed a playset.Visions of warmer summer months days and nights whiled away over a swingset or in the fastened fort with children's laughter floating by on a balmy air flow, danced in my own head. But I needed a very important factor to be perfectly clear. EASILY was going to take out a second mortgage to finance a playset, my kids were heading to have to go on it--literally.The playset we eyed-up acquired a house-like enclosure and a picnic table and was almost as large as my house. It had been certainly a suitable dwelling for just two smallish people. They could come inside for the winter but not until then. Of course, if we ran some electric wiring and domestic plumbing to the fort, I might never have to see them again.But much like most fantasies, once noticed, the facts on the floor don't quite match the perspective, therefore it was with the playset.My research on playsets commenced well before spring and coil because I thought if we bought in the off-season, we would be capable of geting an acceptable price. I had been mistaken. You will discover no acceptable prices when it comes to playsets. I have no idea if the hardware is solid platinum or if the framework is made of rare, endangered lumber, but bargains aren't to be had. So I considered an option a friend suggested: used playsets. You can get a complete playset for 50 percent the purchase price. That acquired my name written all over it.Unfortunately, it didn't have my husband's name written on it. He was against the complete playset idea from the beginning--it would ruin his turf. If, however, I was going to insist he recognize he has children and they require playthings, then he driven he would need a deluxe model worth being put atop his pristine grass.Still, I extended in my seek out pre-owned models, convinced I could fulfill us both. And I was successful to find a used playset in relatively good shape large enough for just two school-age kids. It even experienced a rock wall. But the best benefit was it only cost in regards to a thousand bucks. Victory was mine.Then my hubby described the playset was someplace beyond your tri-state area, and we didn't have a car large enough to move it even if we performed want to take the half-day drive to go get it. I nodded silently. I recognized. And with a heavy heart, I gave up on my used playset search.For those who have never had the experience of shopping for a playset, it's quite a daunting task. There are plenty of makes and models and heights and configurations to choose from, and everything the real playthings are extra. Perhaps you may buy a fairly cheap wooden structure, but all of your children would be able to do is stare at it wistfully since it would be nothing more than an large sawhorse.I continued to shop around online for weeks until the day finally emerged when I discovered my dream swing action set. It experienced everything I'd thought. The only real problem was I couldn't find the money for it. Over the course of the next weeks, I been to the playset several times, hoping to occur upon a deal. Then, mid-summer, it finally occurred. The company possessed what constituted a storewide sales in playset circles: free gangplank weekend. I used to be sold.Free gangplank weekend was an enormous coup for me personally, and I breathed a sigh of alleviation that the hunting and agonizing and planning was over. Then the sales guy hit me with the invoice. Slightly below $2,000. And it was FREE gangplank weekend!The playset has been bought and payed for, supplied and erected in our yard for nearly a year, but it hasn't been played with much. Or maybe I should say it was not played with approximately $2,000 would warrant. We haven't made our cash back on it yet, but a few items have been well worth their price. The swings and trapeze pub. That's really all you have to. Take it from someone whose been burned.The youngsters still wander aimlessly about the back garden, ignoring the main one component, the priciest one, for which they lobbied so vehemently, the fort. It rests empty except for the parrots and the squirrels. But maybe if we installed a TV in there...