This post comes from Melanie in Sydney. Melanie is a Mum of 3 kids, home-renovator and runs a Real Estate agency in North Sydney with her husband. She shares these gorgeous ways to use an old row boat in you yard.
Decorative Backyard Boat
When I was on holidays, I visited a friend of a friend’s beach house and they featured this beautiful wooden row boat in their garden. This antique boat is as stunning as the view. And just as importantly, it doubles as a special place for imaginary play for the kids. This inspired me to look for boats for our more humble back garden.
Sand Pit Boat
Rachel, a friend of mine, had the creative idea of turning a boat into a sand pit in her backyard. The kids spend hours playing in the sand pit or embarking on imaginary voyages. Rachel bought her boat on ebay, after a few months of waiting for the right boat at the right price. She had to drill holes in the base of the boat to ensure the water drained out, so that her boat didn’t turn into a pool.
Another Aussie Mum, Emma created an amazing play space for her kids complete with pirate ship and beach. For more photos and details check out her blog, Two Little Pirates.
Sail Away
Some other lucky kids in the U.S. have a Dad who built them a dock to tie up their sailing boat to. He also built a platform to keep the boat stable so they could safely play in it. The Our Seven Dwarfs blog has more about this great set up.
Finding a Boat
To buy a boat online in Australia, you are best searching ebay, gumtree or boatpoint. I found the quickest way to search was to to sort from cheapest to most expensive. To give you an idea of pricing, I found this 11 foot row boat on Boatpoint for $350 in Victoria, Australia. So you should be able to find something for less if it is needs a bit of work or is not sea worthy.
You may also be able to find an old boat at your local tip, particularly if you live close to boating areas.
– Melanie
