Backyard Playsets

Costco's Sunray is made by Rainbow but private labeled. It's a great set for the money. My kids love it.

L.
You may try willygoat.com, We just purchased a swing set for our 4 yr old birthday and I order it from here!!! They have great price and speedy delivery!!!!

contact backyard fun factory in fort worth- we got ours through them, and it's really nice. They installed it, and even came back out and re-stained it and tightened the screws up a year later. Good luck!

Academy has a great cedar one for $799 I believe. So far it's the best deal I've found, and cedar doesn't need to be re-treated or sanded.

I sell commercial playsets and we also have a line of residential but I believe it is really overkill. Unless you have several young children and you see the unit needing to last for 10 years, I would search out Sam's or Costco's residential playset. They are very reasonable for the money. Of course it does need to be age appropriate. I agree that the Little Tykes sets are a great interim idea. I would see if you can find one of those used off of craiglist or the newspaper classifieds.
As for what goes underneath it, I wouldn't put sand. Cats will use it as a large litter box and inevitably this sand will end up in your children's mouth. If you go with wood chips, make sure they are engineered for playgrounds. There is rubber mulch that is sold by the bag at Home Depot or Lowe's - can't remember which. Test it first...see if the color rubs off on your hands. You don't want that on your kids clothes, etc. While Rubber Mulch may seem very expensive, you won't have to replenish it like wood chips. Pebbles have been a popular choice in the past but children put these in their mouths, nose, ears, etc. and they are not the best choice today. Plus falling on them really hurts.
You will need to determine how thick you need the ground covering by determining the critical fall height of the playground - this is the tallest platform a child can fall from. Different ground cover has different requirements - i.e. you may not need as thick of a covering of the rubber mulch as you would the wood chips. Wood chips compact down rather quickly. We would recommend 12" of wood chips and it would compact down to 10" fairly quickly. It needs to be raked periodically under swings and at the end of the slide. It will need to be replenished over time.
The rubber mulch would be good for 4" if your critical fall height was 6' (average). It does not have to be replenished for about 10 yrs because it doesn't break down or compact. Some may float away and that is where the replenishment will come from. Be wary of any that has steel belts in it. Those cut. (it is all made from recycled tires - you want the kind made from large tractor tires not steel belted car tires)

Good Luck!!

This summer we got one from Wal-mart for somewhere between $300 and $350. It has two swings, a double swing thing that two kids can ride at once, and a small "clubhouse" type platform that had a ladder up one side and a small climbing wall up the other side and a slide to get down. I think it's called the Durango at Wal-mart. My son turned two in October and he loves it.

I have a two and five year-old. Most wooden playsets are age 4 and up. We bought one from costco that's age 3 and up. We're pretty happy with it for my older child, but my two year-old stepped back off the fort (where the ladder is) and almost fell five feet to the ground. Luckily her shirt got caught on the handrail. I was standing next to the slide and rushed to pluck her down, but I had to exile her to only going on the swings until she's a lot older.

Anyway, you may just want to get them some Little Tikes slides and things or wait until the larger wooden sets are more appropriate. Another very important consideration is what goes under the playset like wood chips or sand to cushion any high falls.

We too were looking at that...check out craigslist.com. There are TONS of people selling theirs, lots of them are very nice and significantly cheaper since they are used. Good Luck!

It all depends how much you want to spend. Walmart has a GREAT one for the best price. Warning...they take a LONG time to set up and it takes a lot of MUSCLE work, but in the end, you can be proud! My 3 1/2 year old LOVES his set!

We got one from Sam's club last year; we didn't originally have a membership but it was worth the money to get the membership. It was for my sons where were 1.5 and 3 years old at the time.

The model gets updated every year.