What's in Your Backyard?

[vhoffman]

We've lived in our house about 3 years now, but have absolutely nothing in the backyard. No patio furniture, nothing for the kids to play on, no garden, well, just grass.

Its a blank slate. Our kids are ages 8 & 9, so they are too old/tall for swings. We were thinking of an above-ground swimming pool, and/or a trampoline. For us, well, some patio furniture (without a patio!), maybe a table with umbrella, chairs, etc. The backyard is fairly large, could accomodate a fair amount of stuff.

So, give me some ideas. what do you have in your backyard?

 

[Karalynn]

Well, we don't have much grass.........but we do have an inground pool and a small deck off the back of the house with a new patio set that I spent an obscene amount of money on this year!!!! (We took out an equity loan to consolidate our debt and I decided to splurge with the little extra we took out, but thats a whole other thread! )

The pool has been awesome! My kids are 6 & 8 and they LOVE it, Dh jumps in just about every night before bed to cool off, and its been so hot here this week, well the whole neighborhood seems to have been over at one point or another!!

My 8yo ds asked this year if we could get a trampolene! I don't have the room, or the money since I went waaaay over budget on the patio set! (but it is really really nice!!)

So my vote is for the pool! And you could also get some patio blocks to put in your own patio if you're motivated, thats what we did like 10 years ago and its still holding up pretty good. Or get one of those pretty canvas gazebo things and put some outdoor furniture in there, maybe a wicker set? I could go on and on.......
have fun!

 

[laceemouse]

We have moved many times and have had just about everything, from tiny yards to huge ones, decks, patios, playground equipment, ect. We just moved here in December and got a house with a super tiny yard (they all are here) but we DID get an in ground pool! When the kids were younger I would have been worried about it, but my youngest is 8 and they are all good swimmers and we are enjoying it. I have to say that it is so hot here, and while the pool is great for cooling off, we are having to work extra hard to keep the algae from growing. The water is just so warm it takes LOTS of chemicals to keep it clear. Dh just took a sample to the pool store again tonight for more help getting the chemicals right. I think it is worth it though. We always had community pools before and this is SO much easier. I can start dinner, make phone calls, ect. and easily see the kids out in the pool. My older two have always wanted a trampoline, but they scare me (even with the net thing around them) and we don't have enough room for one now anyway. We have always had a nice patio/deck with furniture, a grill, sand box for the kids, ect.

 

[Laurajean1014]

Sodded grass, a stamped concrete patio, lawn furnature, grill, hockey nets, bat, two huge tennis balls and a teak playground. It is bordered with lots of peonies and hydranga. Your typical New England scenery.

 

[BuzzNutt]

inground pool, trampoline(sp?), swings, patio, table, chairs, grill, shed, other shed in the back, and all of the toys my 5 yr old has convinced people to buy him.

 

[vhoffman]

My problem is where to begin? There's nothing out there! There really is a fair amount of room, just what do we want? My first priority is a place for the kids to socialize. This summer they are spending more time at neighbor's houses, when I ask them to invite their friends over they say there's nothing to do here. Quite right--there's nothing to do! So I guess my priority is a place for them to play. I don't want them in the habit of wandering the neighborhood looking for something to do, so we need to give them something to do here! So I guess we start with a pool or trampoline. We think a trampoline would be the first purchase, since its the easiest to set up. I also like the idea of one of those tent type gazebo things with some patio furniture under it--Mom has to sit somewhere!

 

[finz2left]

We have a shaded area with a beautiful faerie garden with a Daisy Faerie overlooking her plants. It is filled with native plants and hosta. We have a bbq area that need to have new furniture, and wooden Rainbow playset.

We considered a trampoline, but our insurance rates would go through the roof. And, our agent said if we "lied" about it, or omitted adding it, ANY damage to our property, including fire or burglary would not be honored because we voided our contract by failing to disclose a major hazzard. So, we steered clear of it and got a bounce around we put up on weekends only.

 

[vhoffman]

Geez, never thought of the insurance angle. Several homes in our neighborhood have trampolines and swimming pools, and I reallly don't think they're the "type" of people to spend extra on insurance. However, we would--stuff like that always concerns me. We do have an umbrella policy with $2 million of liability. It really isn't a whole lot considering what you're getting. I'll have to read the fine print as to whether they cover trampolines, etc.

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

We built our own patio using 12 X 12 patio bricks and sand, it is 2 levels. We have a swing set, and a above ground pool. We also have a tent over the patio that has zippered screens on all 4 sides, and we have table and chairs and two rockers with side table in the tented area, mosquitos are bad here. We have a shed with all DH's tools and yard equipment, and a 8 X 8 ft. vegtable garden. I have always wanted a back yard for DD's to enjoy with friends and we built it all ourselves last year and we totally enjoy it as do the kiddos friends. If you do it yourself it can be very rewarding to see your effort when it is all completed.

 

[vhoffman]

What's a bounce around?

 

[newman7501]

We have a wooden swingset with tower(or a pirate ship as my DS likes to pretend), a deck with patio furniture and grill, I planted a garden for the first time this year and will do it again, a small pool, a baseball throw back thing which I don't know the real name for, and a fat golden retriever who always wants to be outside with the family.

 

[MattMatts-Momma]

We have a concrete patio where we put our little blue plastic pool & our mismatched beach chairs. We have some grass and flower beds. We added a large wooden swingset with tower in Spring. Our newest addition to the backyard is a Shetland pony named Buddy. We bought him to be a pasture mate for our other horse, but the intial meeting between them did not go well...so he is the backyard for now.

We also have 3 three dogs and visiting neighbor dogs who are back there from time to time.

I'd love to have a backyard like you see in the magazine, but I don't see that happening for some time..

 

[tmarquez]

Our backyard:

Grass, various plants, flowers, trees (the previous owner had a green thumb...and not even I can kill them!), wooden swingset/jungle gym thing, pool & deck, and a big unfinished shed thanks to DH .

 

[briarberry]

If you want your kids to stay home - get a pool! We have an above ground one and it entertains the kids for hours! Once your kids are gone from home you just take it down if you don't want it anymore. I like to know where my DD is and if you have entertaining things at home it's likely your kids will stay home. I am scared of trampolines, way too many accidents have happened on them around here, broken bones etc.
Our deck meets the pool so the pool looks like part of the landscape not just a huge bulky blob in the yard. I put up a sun shade on the upper part of the deck so I can sit up there and read while the kids swim. We all love it!
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[wendy46001]

I have to admit I love those inflatable slides with the water....they are like 300 bucks but sometimes they are cheaper at Costco or Wholesale clubs....my co-worker has one that is a pirate ship and her kids just love it....My favorite thing back in the day was a space trolley...It was a long wire strung across the back yard with a swing that would slide the length of it...kind of like a dog walk for kids...(probably an injury risk these days) but we loved it growing up...I've been trying to find one for my god daughter..

 

[lindakmonty]

lets see...we have a HUGE deck... it use to have an above ground pool there but we removed the pool and made it all deck for entertaining. We have a 7 person hot tub on it, patio furniture, hammock, grill...a rubbermaid container that holds our inflatable trampoline that is all netted around... we have 2 buildings, one for the lawn eq. and one for the atv and bikes etc.... a nice size garden... and plenty of yard to play soccer etc

 

[mickeyfan2]

Can you believe they wanted to charge us $4/week to pick up trash when we have a perfectly good backyard to throw it into?

 

[Alex2kMommy]

We used to live in a smaller house with a big backyard on a quiet dead-end street. DS5 loved the new wood playset we had put in the backyard, and also has a battery-operated Hummer that he drove around the street.

Last year we moved to a bigger house with a small backyard on a busier street. We didn't feel the playset would fit in the small backyard, so left it behind. The elderly previous owners had been quite the gardeners, as the backyard was crammed full of plants, shrubs, trees, a fountain and some statues. Not a very practical yard for two little boys, so we are gradually tearing up many of the plants, just brought in some topsoil and are going to put down sod. It still won't be a very big yard, but should at least be big enough to toss a baseball.

I also am at a loss as to what they could play with/on back there, given the small space. We sorely miss our old backyard!

 

[hsmamato2]

After 13 years, 2 kids of my own and LOTS of visiting kids, here's what we now have...
Lots of room, grass, some raggedey gardens,which the kids insist on walking through...
trees, a dangerous but wildly fun rope swing, a dangerous but wildly fun 2 story treehouse the kids built together, a big deck with table and chairs, a tiny pool that too many big kids are always splashing in,(8 feet across,30"deep) a sprinkler, lots of piles of dirt in various corners which seems to be essential for kids to play in and make nasty brews, a hose , bikes,scooters, chalk, tennis rackets and balls, a wood swingset from when ds1 was a baby, the kids still play on it, but not usually for swinging (remember the rope swing? )
a variety of squirt guns,a a b-ball hoop-
Not a lot of commercial toys anymore-why? b/c after all these years i've come to realize this, the kids don't play with it anyway!!! I've given almost all the yard stuff away on freecycle, the most important element always seemed to be a sandbox when they were toddlers,and now they're older, lots of free dirt areas. (not easy to maintain with a neat-yard-freak dh )

 

[bctripp]

Huge swingset (redwood?), and a deck and a lot of grass (about 75 ft x 100 ft), then a wooded area behind that. I want an above ground pool or a hot tub, but our house is fairly new so i'll have to wait for that.