Phase 5- Tree House Complete!

We left off with tar paper on the roof, and now the shingles are up too!

Mike finished up the "bridge" that goes to the lookout tree:

It's was a bit scary, since it's over 10 feet off the ground!








And then the cargo net arrived- Mike had custom ordered it for the length & width we needed.  We got the green color so it will blend in with the pine trees.











We ran the cargo net under the bridge, so that it's more secure if the boys lost their footing on the bridge.

We're calling it complete!

The boys decided to decorate by having their guests sign in...

I'm pretty sure this won't be very cool when they're 14 years old!  ha ha!

I love this one!

Related posts:
Phase 1: Building the platform
Phase 2: Framing the sides & putting up siding
Phase 3: Ladder & roof framing
Phase 4: Roof & Rope

Building a Tree House- Phase 4

Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog!  August was a busy month between family vacations and then preparing for back to school.  But we've gotten a few things done around the house in between all that!

Here's the latest on the tree house... 

The roof is almost done- Mike put up the plywood and tar papered it.  Now we just need to do the shingles.

Rope entrance is complete- We got a nice gauge rope for the boys to climb up and down.  Mike knotted it at intervals to make it easier for them.

Here are photos of the inside:

This is the "rope entrance"

This is the "ladder entrance"

Now we're working on the crows nest entrance... you can sort of see it here:

We're taking down those boards on the tree in the foreground, and replacing them with new.  

The boys will have a little bridge going from the tree house out to a little stand within that tree on the right.  We've ordered cargo netting for the sides of the bridge.  

I'm hoping we'll have it totally done in the next week or two!

Related posts:
Phase 1: Building the platform
Phase 2: Framing the sides & putting up siding
Phase 3: Ladder & roof framing

Tree House- Phase 3

We're keeping things moving with the tree house...we left off with half of the siding completed...

Mike finished up the siding, and then turned his attention to building a nice sturdy ladder.

He buried the bottom support pieces to keep everything in place:

It's also attached to the tree house at the top of the ladder, so no chance of it tipping. The end of the ladder extends into the "room" a bit, which gives a nice handle for getting your balance coming in or  preparing to go down the ladder.

Next up was getting some structure in place for the roof:

 The weird angles made it a little tricky, but I think this will look great once the plywood & shingles are up. 

(Right now we have the blue tarp over it to protect the wood from rain)

I'm so impressed with how Mike's put this together. 

Just a few more steps to go before it's ready for the boys to take over!

Related Posts:

Phase 1: Building the platform

Phase 2: Framing the sides & putting up siding

Building a Tree House- Phase 2

We're continuing to work on the tree house in our free time.
Here's where we left off... with the floor/platform built.

Next, Mike built the framing for the sides.

Luckily, we had a ton of old wainscoting left in the second floor of the barn by the previous owner.  It's tongue & groove, so we used that for the siding.

Here's the view from the other side:

The frame of the doorway

We tried to be as conservative as possible with the wood- cutting off the bad pieces, and saving the scraps to use on the angled corners.  It was like a puzzle :)

In progress

In just one afternoon, we completed two long sides, and one "corner" side.

We've put the tarp back over the top, to protect it from the summer rain until we get the roof on there... but first we have to finish the siding.

It looks like the prow of a boat from this side!

Here are some of the views from up there...

Related posts:

Phase 1 of building the tree house

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...