rob wrote:
Hi,
I am going to start planning a play system to build for my son
this
summer...

Me too. I've been looking at kits/plans for over a year and am going
to do ours without either, partly because the home center stuff is
way overpriced, and party because I want a custom design that's about
2/3 tree house and 1/3 swingset. There are several sellers on Ebay
("playsetsplus" is one)that have what appears to be much better
hardware than Home Depot at fairly reasonable "buy it now" (i.e.
fixed) prices.

I'm going to design ours partly into a large silver maple, and then
connected to two white pine trees I recently cut off about 6-8' from
the ground. I expect we'll be moving in 3-5 years and am not worried
about the stumps rotting before then. I'm using treated pine for all
the framing and cedar for the play surfaces; it will all be finished
with a fairly neutral tone that will make it the wood look more
similar.

This structure will have a low deck about 2' from the ground with an
L-shaped bench on two sides. Steps will lead up into a 4x6' platform
fort about five feet up; our existing sandbox will sit underneath.
There will be a "rock wall" for climbing access from the opposite
side of this fort, and a slide perpendicular to that. This fort will
wrap about 50% around the maple, and there will be a ladder to a
third area, another fort with a higher peaked roof above that, with
the floor at about 7.5'. This one will have a trapdoor and rope
ladder for access, and rests partially on a beam that will be
supported by one pine stump.The beam on the higher fort will continue
out into the yard to an A-frame that supports two swings and a pair
of rings.

So, we'll end up with two swings (commercial grade for adult use),
rings, 5' rock wall with a dozen holds, slide, rope ladder, bench
area, a 4x6" open platform with railing, and a second 4x4 fort with a
roof and shuttered windows. And the sandbox.

All the hardware for this will run about $250, including the slide;
got a nice rope ladder from Ikea for $12 last week in fact. I haven't
yet made up a cut list from my sketches so am not sure about lumber.
That will depend in part on how much I end up doing in cedar vs. PT
pine.

There are a lot of good books out there on designing play equipment
and tree houses. I got about a dozen from the library last winter and
just took the ideas I was most attracted to from each. When you look
at the cost of things like Rainbow sets-- which run $1000-$8,000+ --I
figure I can build something unique to our location for about 10% the
cost.

Best,

Kiwanda