Building a Tree House- Phase 1

Mike and the boys have been spending time the past few weekends building a tree house!  The boys love watching the Tree House Masters show... I hope they don't expect ours to be that extravagant!

The first step was selecting the right spot.  They picked a triangle of trees that they felt had good placement in the yard.

Mike trimmed away some branches, and framed out the floor.  He was able to use wood that we had purchased for scaffolds when they put on the new barn roof.

Mike used the tractor to lift up the floor boards... which halfway worked, but it was still pretty tricky getting them up there!

So, phase one- building the platform, is now complete.

Next up is framing the sides...

Family Room Update- Coffee table

After we purchased the new couch, it was clear that we'd also need a new coffee table.  While we love our leather coffee table, it was just too short- something I hadn't thought of when ordering the couch!  Plus the old table would be great up in the media room to store movies in (it has GREAT storage space!)

I decided to keep an eye on the sales, and wait for the right table to come along, since we weren't in a rush. Back in April, I came across this on Joss & Main... and Mike loved it too!

It fit all of our criteria:
-A bit rustic, to go with the room...  It's made out of reclaimed wood & iron.

Legs of the table

Drawer knobs

-Will hold up well to heavy use... the weathered texture of the reclaimed wood means I don't have to stress about it getting scratched.

Top of the table

-Storage... the lower shelf & drawers are perfect for magazines, coasters, remotes.

Here it is in front of the new couch...

And the Family Room now looks like this...

From the doorway

Reverse- from the side of the fireplace

Here's a quick comparison shot (including the couch update)

Next up is getting rid of that green loveseat.  We took advantage of a Memorial Day sale, and got something for there ordered and being delivered later in the month!

Catching Up- May/June 2014

Wow- two months since my last post!  Life's been hectic lately... and the blog fell to the side for a bit.
I hope that I can get back into a rountine with it!

Here are some random things we've had happening with the house...

Mike built doors for the closets under eaves of the media room.

They had to be custom built, since the openings were an odd size.

I've primed them, Mike got hinges and hung them, and now I need to paint them.

We also bought the hardware- just a basic satin nickle knob for each.




I also added this shelf up there... I'm still fussing with what goes on the shelves.  For now it's photo albums, blankets, a couple of old Atari games, and empty buckets/storage bins.






I put together these mason jars of old thread spools and buttons.  They'll look great in a laundry room (some day!)








The fruit trees that we planted last year are doing good!
We lost one of them, so replaced it with a new nectarine tree.

Most exciting is that the peach tree has three peaches on it!  They are rather tiny, but a good start!!!!

Other items...
We've been moving forward with the plans for the extension.  Of course, after living in the house for a few years and mulling over the existing drawings, we now want to change some things.  I'll post about that once we've met with the architect again.