It ‘s been a long, cold, housebound winter in most of the country. I have a feeling many parents can’t wait for spring so the kids can get out of the house and play off some of their pent-up energy. And what could be a safer place for them to play than in their own backyard?
Well, probably plenty of places if the backyard hasn’t been designed with kids’ safety in mind. As contributing editor Cheryl Weber reports in “Children at Play,” “70 percent of playground-related fatalities occur at home.” That’s a shocking statistic, but her feature offers some practical ideas for designing safe, child-friendly backyards that you can put to use in your next project. And in case you’ve wondered why fewer homeowners are requesting diving boards for their backyard pools, “No Diving” by POOL & SPA NEWS staff writer AmyJo Brown will provide the answer. It’s the dramatic story of how one backyard tragedy has reshaped an industry.
We also take you to two stunning outdoor spaces that work a little magic on their sites. Both featured projects —one in California and one in Florida—show how a beautiful house plus deluxe outdoor spaces add up to much more than the sum of their parts. They’re sure to make you, too, want to get out of the house.
