Building a Tree House

This and That

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:36:40 -0700

We've made a little more progress on the roof lately.

I also finally closed up the railing on the porch that had been unfinished for quite a while.

Not long ago I rented a chain saw from Home Depot and went to town on an old dead avocado tree that was also up on the back hill. Looking out from the treehouse window, you see the little strip of ground that we're starting to clear for what will be hopefully be a garden next spring. Can't have too many projects!

Future home of the France Family Garden

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Back again

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:11:21 -0800

Life rushes on and I haven't revisited the blog in a while. The hill behind our house is covered with grass and weeds that are knee deep, courtesy of the recent rains. Up in the lofty reaches of our tree, however, part of the treehouse is somewhat more water-repellant thanks to some basic asphalt roofing shingles.

Roof

Here is a view from below. I didn't really know what I was doing, but it worked out ok. One package of shingles covered one side of the roof and portions of 2 adjacents sides.

Tree House Roofing TIles

This is more what it looked like from the vantage point of the person (me) doing the work. I didn't have an extension ladder and my other ladder wouldn't reach from the ground, so with helpers Emma & Evan supplying me with shingles, I crawled out on the roof, braced my feet against the branch near the roof's edge and pounded the suckers in place. And I didn't fall, which is good.

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What a difference a year makes...

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:12:01 -0800

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.

Supports - '06

Gettin' there - '07

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.

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Father daughter time

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:59:27 -0800

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.

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Progress

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:58:03 -0800

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.

The southwest corner

The roof takes shape

Working around the branches

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.

boys

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Shelving Reuse, Part Deux

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:46:47 -0700

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.

Bench

And, in the spirit of beautifying the place, the kids came up with some lovely decorations for the loft and the door.

Welcome sign

THE loft

I've now been told that I really, really need to get a roof on.

We'll see.

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Lofty ambitions

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 15:42:00 -0700

Today we built a loft. It's pretty cool. Here are some pics:

Loft view

Supports

Helpers

The pictures don't do quite do it justice, so there's also a video:

Vid clip

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:

Birdhouses

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Song to myself

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:45:05 -0700

Happy birthday

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Of poop & painting

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:34:27 -0700

Scat

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.

You go, girl!

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.

The view up

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.

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In case you were wondering...

nobody@vox.com(Steve) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:16:59 -0700

Now that's a treehouse!

In case you were wondering what our treehouse will NOT look like when it's done, here you go:

Source: Treehouse Chronicles

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