The trampoline story

Talan loves to jump on trampolines! The neighbors behind us have a trampoline and I find Talan going over there all the time to jump. I've wanted to get a trampoline but trampolines are expensive and I have a laundry list of other things I could and should spend money on.

I decide that I would go on KSL and find a trampoline to buy that was used but cheap. I soon realized that trampolines don't stay on KSL for very long. As soon as they are posted they are bought! I looked and looked and looked with no luck.

Then I noticed an ad for a garage sale right here in American Fork that advertised that they had a trampoline in the sale. It was the middle of the afternoon and thought that for sure the trampoline would be gone. I called and much to my surprise the lady said they still had it. I quickly took a little drive to the garage sale to take a look.

It was in pretty bad shape. Several springs were missing and lots of the tabs had fallen off because they had been exposed to the elements for 3 years straight without ever being brought in for the winters. I imagined fixing it up and remembered seeing a sign in front of an upholstery shop in down town AF advertising that they fix trampolines. I asked the lady what she was asking for the tramp. She commented back, "5" I said, "5 dollars?" She then said that she was asking 10 dollars but she would sell it to me for 5. Oh my gosh! 5 dollars is crazy cheap! I spend 5 dollars on stupid stuff all the time without even thinking about it! SOLD!

I got the tramp home and spray painted the frame black to stop the rusting. I went to the upholstery shop and found out that they charge $65.00 to restitch the entire tramp adding tabs to where they are missing. This includes a new protective strip that is sewed around the whole entire tramp to protect the stitching from the elements. I talked to David about it and he found a new mat on KSL that had already been restitched for $45.00. I jumped in the car and ran up to Sandy to buy the new mat. The new mat was in much better shape than the original mat so I was pretty excited for the great deal. I got it home and went to work on setting up the frame and putting the new mat on. And that's when I found out that not all 12 foot tramps are created equal! Our frame had 72 springs and the new mat had 84! CRAP!!! Now what was I going to do? Talan was so excited for his new tramp and now it wasn't going to work out. I drove down to the upholstery shop and dropped off our original mat and $65.00 later the tramp was assembled and ready for jumping!

And to tell you the truth. It turns out that the previous owner of this tramp had put the mat on upside down. And so when you put it on right side up the mat itself is in pretty good shape. The top of the mat had been protected. And with the new stitching and protective border it's as good as new.
So now what to do with the $45.00 mat? I'll either have to try and sell it on KSL or find a frame with 84 springs, buy it, and then sell an entire tramp as a whole on KSL. I don't know, I'll figure something out!

So what could have been a $50.00 tramp turned into a $115.00 tramp that is of course until I can find someone to buy this $45.00 mat, then it will be a $70.00 tramp!

Oh the things I'll do to save a buck!
But the kids are happy!