Marketplace

By Trevor Greenway

‘Field of Dreams’ may not be Tyler Langfield’s favourite movie, but he certainly believes in the “If you build it, they will come” mantra. 

On hot summer days, Langfield and his wife Stephanie Seddon’s Chelsea backyard is full of neighbourhood kids. 

They’re not watching Netflix; they’re not on their phones; they’re not scrolling on social media. They’re skateboarding. 

“When we have the kids over here…it’s a cool vibe,” said Langfield, standing on a half-pipe skateboarding ramp that he built himself during COVID. “Our neighbours come over; there’s a couple of boys next door, and they come over. They use it, but it gets everyone together, chilling.”

Langfield is a skateboarder himself and grew up, like other skaters, skating at places where he wasn’t supposed to be: city parks, courthouse staircases and any place where there would be a good “gap” to clear or a rail to grind. This was until cities and towns started building skateparks, like Wakefield did in 2013. 

Langfield could always be found at a local skatepark somewhere until COVID hit in 2019. During the pandemic, he wasn’t allowed to skate anywhere publicly. Impatient for government restrictions to ease, he brought the skatepark to the community. 

“At the time, my kids were pretty young, but I wanted to get them into skating,” said Langfield. “Literally, the minute [the pandemic] happened, I planned on doing this, and I reached out to a company in Montreal who manufactures the top sheet.” 

That “top sheet” he referred to is called Pure Surface, which is 27 layers of kraft paper laminated and glued together to create a smooth, gripping surface that is durable. And while it’s not cheap  – $210 per sheet – seeing his kids and neighbourhood friends rock a kickflip is all worth it, according to Langfield. 

“They spend a lot of time out here,” added Seddon. “Especially right now, with the beautiful weather, it’s amazing. Our eldest loves it, and it gets our youngest out here to try a bit harder.”

Langfield is aware that not everyone can build a $12,000 skatepark in their backyard, but if you ask Chelsea resident Brad Stewart, who has been dubbed “the king of freecycle,” you don’t have to break the bank to convert your backyard into a summer paradise. 

Stewart said he was paying attention to the Steamwhistle acquisition of Beau’s in 2022 and realized that the new owners were scrapping the yearly, epic Oktoberfest, and with it, their big skateboarding demonstration. He reached out and scored the half-pipe for just $800. 

“They were looking at burning it all,” said Stewart about a pile of wood and ramps that he will soon piece together for his own backyard skateboard halfpipe. The skateboard half-pipe is just one feature of Stewart’s impressive backyard that boasts a large above-ground pool, hot tub, trapeze line and trampoline – most of which he either scored for free or heavily discounted on Facebook Marketplace. 

Stewart’s pool – 29 feet by 15 feet – was scooped for free after a neighbour was looking to get rid of it before they sold their house. All he needed to do was disassemble it himself, move it to his house and reassemble it. He spent $400 on a new liner and a few hundred on chemicals to get it up and running. 

“It was an older pool, so it needed some TLC,” said Stewart, explaining that wooden pools of this size can cost between $10,000 and $20,000. 

When winter rolls around, Stewart’s pool acts as a polar dip for the kids going back and forth into a hot tub. 

Similarly, in winter Langfield converts his front porch into a snowboard run, and his backyard is just as busy when the snow hits. 

The hot tub was another major score for Stewart, who scooped it off Facebook Marketplace for just $600. Again, all he had to do was move it. 

Stewart offered up some tips for residents buying off Facebook Marketplace. 

“Know what you want and make sure that you jump on stuff early,” said Stewart. “And don’t be paranoid,” he explained, noting that sometimes buyers are weary of scammers.  Stewart also urged those looking for deals to set up Facebook Marketplace alerts so that they can be first to show interest in a product. And, he added, if you know it’s a good deal, “don’t haggle” for a lower price. 

“No matter what good deal you give people, they still will ask for $100 bucks off and that’s not cool,” he said. “Because you could have been selling it for $2,000.”

Stewart also recommended getting to know local repair people, as discounted items often need a piece here or an extra part there, and knowing who can fix things locally will save a lot of time and money.