nbr- does your child play on your sloped backyard?

rpalen29

Sorry for posting so much stuff about houses...we are just really frustrated about how we feel like we're settling for a house.

do you own a sloped yard, and if so, do your children play on it? and if they do, did you level it off? How much did it cost? pictures are appreciated

theres one house that we love, except it has a sloped yard. All we want is a little area for our children to run around, and have a swing set. 

pictures of the yard: 

 

 

 

LaineyPaney

That doesn't look too severely sloped. Plenty of room to run and play!

ippichic

Personally, I wouldn't want a yard that sloped TOWARD the house.  That raises a red flag for me around water drainage/pooling issues...  And the wettest part of the yard is going to be the part closest to the house, so you'd have to walk through mud to get to dry land. I would be extra anal retentive about finding a really picky home inspector.

We had a yard in a rental house years ago that sloped away from the house before we had kids, but even the dog didn't like to play and run on an incline.  And the dog inevitably ended up at the bottom of the hill in the mud.  Sloped yards aren't the greatest for re-sale value.

Just my opinion, but unless I were salivating over the house, I personally wouldn't dig the sloped yard thing.

botanicalbliss

I'm pretty sure kids can handle sloped yards.  I grew up with one, and it was totally fine.  Like PP said, I'd be more worried about water draining down towards the house.

AllieAGame

We had a sloped back yard growing up and a perfectly flat front yard....we ALWAYS chose to play in the back yard! In fact, we used to love rolling down it. A swingset is awesome on a sloped yard (especially for older kids) because you can still make it level (by having the back legs pushed down into the dirt to be level with the front, which provides extra stability), and it makes swinging awesome because it feels like you are going higher.

I would just echo PP's regarding drainage toward the house. As long as the plot takes care of drainage issues (we never had a problem with it growing up, so I know it can be done well!), then I don't see why this yard is a problem. Imagine the slip-n-slide opportunities! 

mytinc

I have a slope/hill in my front yard that goes away from the house towards the road.  The downside of that is mowing (depending on the angle of the slope).  I agree with pp that you need to really look at draining issues.

As for kids playing, yeah, it might be difficult to set up a swingset or something, but I other than that I don't see why a slope would be a big deal.  Kids use their imagination and I'm sure they won't only play inside because of a slope.

Also, completely unrelated, it looks like this backyard has a lot of privacy from neighbors - which would be a plus in my opinion.

rebaann

Our backyard growing up was severely sloped and we played back there all the time.  We even would ride our bikes willy nilly down the hill until we landed in the creek.  There was one place that was flat enough for a swing set.

The slope in the looks so slight, it wouldn't have even crossed my mind to worry about it.

CRLSMC2011

The house where I grew up had a sloped back yard similar to the one in your pics.  It doesn't look bad at all. Ours however did slope away from the house.  We used to love it for sledding!

rpalen29

mytinc:

I have a slope/hill in my front yard that goes away from the house towards the road.  The downside of that is mowing (depending on the angle of the slope).  I agree with pp that you need to really look at draining issues.

As for kids playing, yeah, it might be difficult to set up a swingset or something, but I other than that I don't see why a slope would be a big deal.  Kids use their imagination and I'm sure they won't only play inside because of a slope.

Also, completely unrelated, it looks like this backyard has a lot of privacy from neighbors - which would be a plus in my opinion.

yea, I love the backyard; it backs into 20 acres of wooded area. When we saw the house, and went outside, we saw a herd (10+) deer running through the wooded area. It was pretty cool to see that. We don't have any concerns about the slope coming down toward the house; the basement is finished, and it has a french drain and sump pump. The owners are original and never had issues. But again, idk if we could work with a sloped yard. It would be great if I could test it on a kid (like my nieces or nephew)