Treehouse finished!

Good news is the treehouse (Christmas 2006 present for DS) was finished by January 10 and I took a few pictures on Jan. 14 for DH to show off at work. Yes, I realize this is old news but it did happen this year. And that makes it still new around here.

The house part is 6x8-feet and the deck adds about 2 feet on the front and 3 feet on the one side. So overall dimensions run approximately 9x10-feet. DH says he wonders if it will raise our property taxes...


I think he did an excellent job building it: quickly and with minimal expense. He used two black walnut trees in the backyard for the main supports and cut down a small walnut tree that needed to be thinned out of the sheep field. He set it in concrete tho we had quite a discussion on concrete's pros and cons. Couldn't get a definitive answer on how long it would last with or without the concrete so we went with it. DH promises to keep an eye on the wood and will set up another support should the log decay too quickly.

I didn't mind sacrificing the two walnut trees as they both had heavy iron rings mounted on them from where the previous owner had hung an old hammock. All the trees in the back are too tall and without low-hanging limbs to allow for a true treehouse so we went with this modified version. He used some lumber from an old shed he'd dismantled a year ago, shingles left from our new roof and any other salvaged material he could find. Total cost came in at under $200 and considering we'd priced a few of those free-standing swing/treehouse combos at $500-$1500 without nearly the space of this one, I have to say he did a great job at holding down the cost.