Treehouse Masters

Continuing with our recent tree theme - we built a treehouse! Jared's dad come for a visit in April and Jared mentioned then how with all these trees we should build a treehouse. The kids jumped on that idea, especially the younger ones, and this month their handy grandpa came to see us again and helped us build a treehouse.

He started by having the kids draw their dream treehouse and then he made a plan based on their drawings. We headed out to our local lumber store and bought a truck bed full of supplies and then started building.  That first day was spent cutting boards and framing out the walls. In the beginning, everyone was outside helping but as the day wore on only Samantha stuck it out. She was measuring, marking, hammering, and working right alongside her grandpa.  I'm pretty sure she slowed down the work but he was so patient as he showed her the building ropes.

The next morning the girls joined their grandpa outside again and worked together to add outside walls to the four sides that they had framed out the day before. When it was time to build the platform  in the tree we found that we were in a little over our heads. Jared, his dad, and four little girls weren't quite strong enough to raise the platform and attach it to the tree. Thankfully, we have great friends and neighbors who stepped up and spent pretty much their entire Saturday helping us finish up the treehouse. Many thanks go to Steve Bainter and Jacob Pachner for making our treehouse dreams a reality!

The platform in place in the tree...

At this point it was a bit wobbly still so they fashioned braces  to add some stability
before we added the walls and ceiling.

This is when it got exciting. One wall up!

And just like that, three walls were in place!

Next they had to figure out the best way to install the roof. Two guys (and a couple of excited kids) inside the treehouse and a couple of guys outside cutting pieces to fit and passing them up seemed like a pretty efficient way to get the job done.

And it seemed as if just like that, we had a new fun treehouse in our yard. I'm sure for everyone who actually did more work than just taking pictures didn't feel as if it was just like that! At one point the kids had two long orange extension cords running out there one for a fan and another for an iPod dock. There has been talk of painting it pink, but I'm pretty sure Jared and I would have to veto that color choice. The treehouse has definitely been a great addition to our yard, hopefully it will continue to add lots of fun to our life!