With the relentless motivation of my father-in-law and his help (well, I helped him actually) the tree house is now actually a box in a tree. We used a pulley and a large truck to hoist each wall up to the platform

and then set it in place and bolted it down and bolted it to the other walls.







(helping with the final wall)

It took us most of the weekend, but it all came off well with no injuries and successful completion.

(Inspector indicates approval)

Now the ball is back in my court to find a way to get some kind of a roof on the thing before it all gets wetted repeatedly this winter. Here are some photos for those of you who can't see it locally. It's 10 feet up a 140 foot Douglas Fir, and YES it does move a bit when the wind blows. The tree is 19" in diameter (bark included) at the 10' level where the floor platform was constructed.

Here is a view from the ground, looking up at the tree that holds the platform which may someday become a treehouse.

I finally completed the fourth wall of the treehouse, and lugged it down to the back yard. I adjusted the swing so that it was a bit lower and more user-friendly to its intended audience.

I stood up a couple of the walls and began bolting them together. When they were standing and bolted, I went around and put some more screws in the plywood to hold it on as securely as possible.

With a little bit of help from my father who was visiting, I got all four pieces assembled and bolted together to make sure they fit as intended. It all seemed to go very well, and everything matched up.

Then, the Inspector showed up, with his camera...

but it was all good.

Now that I have the walls assembled on the ground,
I am thinking that since it is so heavy, more supports on the platform will be needed, so that's the next step. More to follow.

Hauled some more lumber and plywood up to the garage after church today. Put together the first of the two side walls. These are 6' high, and will hold up the low side of the roof. I decided to keep them simple, with just a 27" window in the center. Here is the first one completed.

Here's the back (inside) view.

I rolled it out to the treehouse on the dolly. Sounds easy right? Of course it is. Unless the wall weighs 60lb and is almost 8' wide. And it's downhill about 6'. And there are low spots on the grass. Nevertheless, I persevered and got it down to the treehouse where I placed it next to the ladder.


Then I began construction on wall #3.


5 Blue Angels jets flew by in formation just a little south, at 1:43PM. It was nice to at least catch a glimpse. Next year perhaps we'll go. After another hour, I had the second wall constructed, a duplicate of the first.



Now, it was time to haul it down to the treehouse... I paused to rest a moment and get a picture.


Now, I just have to figure out how I am going to get 300lb of walls up 10'...


More to follow.

Spent about three hours and a lot of hard labor this morning putting together the first of the four walls for the treehouse. It was drizzling slightly, so I dragged all the wood into the garage and assembled the pieces together on the garage floor. Here is the first section completed..

Then, I cut the top angled pieces, and chopped off each of the vertical studs at the right place. I screwed and nailed the top angled pieces to the cut studs, and applied the next piece of plywood. I marked and cut the plywood for the window and the roof line and put them all together. My wife and I hauled the hundred pound wall out to the yard and propped it up under the treehouse.



Now, I just need to figure out how to get that enormous wall (and three others) up to the platform...

Got to spend some time (and money and sweat) on the treehouse project this weekend. I was able to get the parts ($40) and labor together to get the stairway built. I got it built, and mounted, and the hinges put on the trap door. Now, one can ascend the ladder to push up to open the trap door and be atop the platform that someday will be the floor of a grand tree home!

Notice now the new front right corner support that was refactored and re-added NOT to go THROUGH the ladder this time.

THIMK. Pla
n. Ahead.

Many hours of sweat and two mosquito bites later, we have a completed ladder and door. Now, on to something more substantial like WALLS...

Here is a shot of me and my son drilling the holes in the 2x6's we used for the ladder.

Today out in the blazing 80 degree heat, I managed to get the floor up to the treehouse and get it installed. The Doug fir is about 140' tall, and is 19" in diameter at the level of the floor. I figure it's around a hundred years old or there abouts.

I used two sheets of tongue-in-groove plywood, on top of the 2x4's and 2x6's that I managed to get put up last year. It was a little bit difficult to get the hole in the middle for the tree cut right... Had to refactor both the tree bark and the cutouts on both sides. It didn't turn out exactly square as I'd hoped it would... but it should be good enough. There's only a small gap in one corner that I can fix easily.

Next it's time to cut out the trap door, and figure out how to build the stairway up to it. Then, it's walls, roof and siding. More to follow...