If you’re looking to make your child the coolest kid in the neighborhood (and have $27,000 to spend), look no further than the Pirate Ship Playhouse. This is a wooden playhouse that suggests a 23-foot high weather-beaten pirate sloop that has marooned itself in the backyard.
With a hearty cedar and redwood exterior, it is festooned with classic pirate-age decorations that compel exploration: a cutlass-bearing skeleton lashed to the bowsprit, a boarded-over cannonball hole, crossed bones that form a window pane, and a crow’s nest with Calico Jack Rackam’s Jolly Roger flag.
The playhouse rests on a real hollowed-out five-foot diameter tree trunk equipped with a ladder; ascending the ladder inside the trunk and opening the trap door allows entry into the ship. Other points of entry include a climbing net and a staircase. Once aboard, the ship’s bow, ship’s castle, and the balcony all serve as play areas. All interior areas are framed in Douglas fir. A corkscrew tunnel slide extends from the balcony affixed to the stern and a fireman’s pole extends from the bow, facilitating easy ship abandonment.
The Pirate Ship Playhouse is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for $27,000.