It was one short year ago when this treehouse idea started becoming reality. It's pretty amazing to look back at the early pictures...and then see how far we've come.
Now I know that in my early posts I dreamed about having things all wrapped by summer for a big group slumber party. Chalk that one up to naivete. I'm making no such promises about summer '08.
But you may be wondering -- during this end of year time of reflection, New Year's resolutions and all such yada yada -- what exactly have I learned on this project so far. Hmmm. Good question.
1) It's not for the kids -- I can claim that I'm doing it all "for them" but the reality is that I'm building it because I want to. And just like many other things in our lives, only time will tell what part it will play in the life of our family.
2) Perfectionism is hard to beat -- It's always lurking and will probably never disappear. The kids now repeat my mantra back to me: "It doesn't have to be perfect. It's just a treehouse!"
3) I've done a good job -- I still have all my digits intact and have surprised myself with some confidence in a new endeavour. That's a good thing.
OK. Enough introspection for one night. If you're still reading, have a Happy New Year and keep checking back to see what develops.
A few weeks back we didn't have time to do any major construction but Elena and I were able to get out and get some more exterior staining done.
I missed all of last month as far as the treehouse goes but, then again, there has been a lot going on. In early October Sandi's dad, Dan, passed away. One of the neat memories we have is his love of building birdhouses and we even have a couple attached to the treehouse (here's the photo). Then on the morning of the day his funeral was planned, high winds dropped a large branch on the roof of my car and we ended up evacuating our house because of the massive fires in San Diego county. Needless to say, we've been a bit preoccupied.
But the last two weekends, I have had some time to get up in the treehouse and make some progress on the roof.
Yesterday while I was working, we had a few extra boys in the mix. Evan, his cousin Joshua and his friend Cayden were starting to get wild in the house so I brought them up the hill to the empty lot adjacent the treehouse and set them loose. It wasn't long before they were involved in a building project of their own.
Wow! Two posts in two days. This won't happen again for a long time. The chillens begged me to work on the treehouse again today and I, admittedly, was not averse to the idea. We used the 2nd shelf that had been removed from the schoolroom to build a bench / storage box. It also inadvertently doubles as a step to reach the loft.
And, in the spirit of beautifying the place, the kids came up with some lovely decorations for the loft and the door.
I've now been told that I really, really need to get a roof on.
We'll see.
Today we built a loft. It's pretty cool. Here are some pics:
The pictures don't do quite do it justice, so there's also a video:
Finally, the last time Sandi's dad, Dan, was down, he dropped off two birdhouses that he had made for us. We found a good spot for them:
We're back! Yes, after quite a hiatus from tree-house building, the work has continued. I climbed up the ladder for the first time on Saturday and found a little surprise. Now, whether it is racoon, possum, coyote, dog or -- God forbid -- human, I don't know. I guess it will remain a mystery.
The whole fam pitched in this weekend and did some serious interior wall painting. Keeping with the spirit of the blue floor, two opposing walls were covered in the deep wine color we have in the master bedroom. The other two were going to be the green color that the girls chose for their bedroom, but we didn't have much left. So the default was (boring) tan.
While the paint was flying faster than hands in a bowl of daddy's famous popcorn, I was up above in the tree putting more rafters up for the roof. It's pretty slow going since (1) I'm up in a tree, thank you!, (2) the angles are a bit tricky, (3) each rafter has to be attached to the tree trunk and (4) I have to make sure that the 1x4s that will go on top of the rafters will be able to lay flat. In any event, progress is progress.
In case you were wondering what our treehouse will NOT look like when it's done, here you go:
Source: Treehouse Chronicles
Last weekend Sandi was away in Palm Springs with friends and while the girls were at a birthday party, I was able to finish the last of the four walls. Whew! I also started on the rafters for the roof but let's just say that getting those angles right is not that easy. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos at the present. Maybe if I had a webcam in the tree, I wouldn't need to keep posting photos... Hmmm.
I was trying to talk Evan into helping me work on the treehouse today because I had the day off, the girls had gone shopping and I wanted to be outside. At first he was resistant, but he got more interested when I told him we were going to paint the floor. (Eventually we'll put lineoleum or something over the plywood, but for now we need a layer of protection against the elements). My idea of using the same tan color that is on the walls in our house, however, struck him as somewhat pedestrian. So, we ended up going with his idea... blue.
