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For the last six years, we've lived in the most amazing place. We have 220 acres available to us, much of which was designed by Capability Brown. People come here to take walks and admire the beauty; we have three lakes, a couple of forests, a prayer garden, formal lawns, an Orangery and a walled kitchen garden.
Life really is rich here, beyond any dream we ever had of anywhere we expected to live. But there is one downside - we don't have any private outside space. We can't hang our washing out, nor hideaway when the day gets too much. The girls play out in the courtyard and in the main that is fine but there are guests coming through, volunteers heading to their houses and the neighbour's kids playing as well.
For a long time we've just wanted the option to sit out as a family and enjoy time, just as us. Or for the girls to be able to play a game together without always having to have younger children involved. Well the answer has arrived and I am so pleased to have purchased a Trespass event shelter from Argos, for the price of £129.99 (and £3.95 if you wish for it to be delivered to your home).
I'd been looking at various gazebos and event shelters, but I'd ruled out a gazebo as I wanted something robust enough to stay out for a week or two at a time. Then I spotted that my friend Sabina at Mummy Matters had a new event shelter from Coleman, so I investigated those and they look amazing, but are out of my price range, until I found out if this solution might even work for our needs.
That's when I stumbled upon the Trespass event shelter, which is a much cheaper option, but still a brand name I know is a good bet. We'd bought Miss E a 2 man pop-up Trespass tent just the month before so she could hide outside on her own and she had been loving that.
I love the fact that I get four removable side panels with the Trespass event shelter, two with a zip down window, one that zips right up the middle as a door and a solid panel. These were key to my buying decision, as most event shelters require you to buy the side panels separately.
The footprint is 350cm x 350cm and the height is 220cm, meaning it is 7ft tall and therefore fits my 6ft husband and son in easily. We've been using it with a patio table, four plastic chairs and a sun loungers in it and it still doesn't feel squashed. The girls also camped out in it one night and you can see the pop-up tent being used inside it below.
I was so proud when I was able to get everything back in the original bag and do it up!
Life really is rich here, beyond any dream we ever had of anywhere we expected to live. But there is one downside - we don't have any private outside space. We can't hang our washing out, nor hideaway when the day gets too much. The girls play out in the courtyard and in the main that is fine but there are guests coming through, volunteers heading to their houses and the neighbour's kids playing as well.
For a long time we've just wanted the option to sit out as a family and enjoy time, just as us. Or for the girls to be able to play a game together without always having to have younger children involved. Well the answer has arrived and I am so pleased to have purchased a Trespass event shelter from Argos, for the price of £129.99 (and £3.95 if you wish for it to be delivered to your home).
I'd been looking at various gazebos and event shelters, but I'd ruled out a gazebo as I wanted something robust enough to stay out for a week or two at a time. Then I spotted that my friend Sabina at Mummy Matters had a new event shelter from Coleman, so I investigated those and they look amazing, but are out of my price range, until I found out if this solution might even work for our needs.
That's when I stumbled upon the Trespass event shelter, which is a much cheaper option, but still a brand name I know is a good bet. We'd bought Miss E a 2 man pop-up Trespass tent just the month before so she could hide outside on her own and she had been loving that.
I love the fact that I get four removable side panels with the Trespass event shelter, two with a zip down window, one that zips right up the middle as a door and a solid panel. These were key to my buying decision, as most event shelters require you to buy the side panels separately.
The footprint is 350cm x 350cm and the height is 220cm, meaning it is 7ft tall and therefore fits my 6ft husband and son in easily. We've been using it with a patio table, four plastic chairs and a sun loungers in it and it still doesn't feel squashed. The girls also camped out in it one night and you can see the pop-up tent being used inside it below.
I've been using the shelter both in the day and the evening and it has rained pretty hard and we've had some strong wind since it was put up. I've been pleased with how it is fairing, although I have noticed a bit of discolouration on some of the grey parts and truthfully I've no idea what this is due to, but it is just a couple of small patches and doesn't detract from its usability.
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| My outdoor mini office |
Putting the Event Shelter Up
Miss E and I decided to try and put the shelter up and I have never put up a tent, so we were novices. We followed the instructions, which were attached to the bag and whilst I didn't think they were great, they were good enough for us to be able to do it in about 45 minutes. Now I know what we are up to I think it will take about 15/20 minutes in the future, especially with a capable helper.
- You need to be quite strong to be able to bend the poles to get the loop attached to the bottom of the fabric into the bottom of the pole so there is enough tension for it to stand
- I love that the guy ropes are luminous, so they can be easily seen and hopefully won't trip anyone up
- The side panels are really easy to put up with toggles and the middle one is red to help you align it correctly
- The door zip has a good pull on it
- You get extra tent pegs and guy ropes for the future if you have any accidents/ loses
- I found the poles to be pretty sturdy and easy to connect. The roof to wall grey pipe connectors are really intuitive and useful too
- The only niggle is that one of the sleeves we had to feed a pole through is sewn a bit tight in one place and that makes it hard to feed the pole through where there are connectors. Hopefully this will be easier the second time around
Taking the Event Shelter Down
Taking the shelter down was a far easier event as I had my husband to help. He's been a camper and scout leader for around 16 years, so he has done quite a few tents in his time. Although he hadn't done this one before he was able to use his knowledge to help us take it down and pack it away in around 15 minutes. Without him, I know I could have done it, but I'm sure it would have taken longer and it may not have gone back in the bag. I think it might be an idea for Trespass to give some guidance on taking the shelter down in future models.
I was so proud when I was able to get everything back in the original bag and do it up!
All in all, I love my new trespass event shelter and once we are back from holiday, it will be going back out so we can have some shade and privacy in our courtyard.
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Disclosure: None necessary, as we paid for this event shelter ourselves and haven't been asked to write this post. I just like the product so much, that I thought I'd share.