As one who appreciates treehouses, I was reading about commando tree dweller Joel Allen in this article and then snooped around his website last night right before bed.
Amazing craftsmanship, and a great story…although I have a hunch it isn’t going to end well.
Despite all the wonders I saw of how he conceived and built this place, and the beauty of his secret, illegal location…all I could think about as I came in and out of sleep in my dreams last night was HOW DOES HE SLEEP THERE? NO ONE CAN SLEEP IN A CURVE ALL NIGHT. SURELY A HAMMOCK?!!?? This snapshot of crazy is why I don’t watch crime/police shows after 9pm…it gets into my head and then I’ll dream all night of the murdered kid on Criminal Minds…btw, there’s ALWAYS a kid involved somehow and I hate them for it. I digress.
I looked at every photo and video, and while we can see he manages to cook there….NO SIGN OF SLEEPING. More importantly, why does it bother me so much? I’m sure there’s a simple answer, but last night, I NEEDED to know.
Go check it out and tell me how he AND his girlfriend can sleep in there.
I believe I might have mentioned a barn door recently? Well, we didn’t do all that well documenting the door construction, but you’ll get the gist. We did get the Tractor Supply hardware we had mentioned before.
The CC basically took the same siding used on the treehouse and nailed it to a frame he built to size, so that when the door is open, it won’t cover the window strip. Instead of using the brackets that came with the door hardware to hang the box rail, we mounted it onto our cantilevered beam that houses the bucket pulley.
The CC nailed up a couple of temporary support brackets to aid in installing the big beam that will house the hardware.
We mounted stops to keep it from sliding off into the forest….
We are still deciding about floor guides.
Having a proper door makes it feel much more cozy and homey inside…paint coming soon I hope!
Bad shot. Inside view…a handle to slide it shut and the bottom beam wrapped in flashing….
We’ve been starting to add some more minor details to the lair……
Ahoy!!
Thing Two made his own sculpture that he wanted to incorporate into the treehouse, and by pure luck, it fit perfectly between the beams as a shelf.
Which now is home to his slingshots and ammo….
When the hammocks aren’t in use, they hang up in the corners.
We are slowly adding shelves to gain some much needed storage for the stuff they want up here. We can’t let them keep snacks up here b/c the raccoons would break in and trash the place (our raccoons can remove bungee cords from garbage cans-crazy skills). Bottles of water are OK though. Games and other activities now have a place. The fans hangs up high when not in use to keep it out of the way.
It always helps to keep track of time.
We are resisting any outer hardware for the barn door to give it more of a “secret door” feel…by putting your fingers in the grooves, you can pull open the door without hardware.
More shelves are going up, and hopefully we have time to paint inside soon before the weather turns cold. For new readers, previous posts on the treehouse can be found here.
Safety first kids….er, um, in our case, almost dead last. At least we got there, right? RIGHT.
The hog panel railings are in, as is the handrail on the looong ladder.
We are debating the pipe finish. I’m in the camp of letting it rust and age a bit, then clear coat to seal the patina.
So what does this milestone mean? More than it looks like because now, I feel it’s OK for the Things to have friends come and play in the treehouse. Without these key safety features, there had to be adult supervision for friends to climb up and check out the progress.
Railings = Freedom!
It wouldn’t be a proper structure without the bucket/pulley dealio, now would it?
Just in time for the weekend. When their buddies come over, I’ll fill the bucket with their snacks so they can hoist them up for a feeding frenzy.
UPDATE: I was able to get a few better snaps before the rain this morning…so I’ve added them in.
Again, the weather has been impeding our progress quite a bit, and this weekend was no exception. More rain, but we did manage a few steps forward.
There is now a proper roof in place, so we can officially stop worrying what all that rain is doing to our wood underlayment.
I think the only way I can get a decent distance shot of the treehouse roof is going to be to climb on the roof of our main house. I think I’ll put that off until the final reveal if you don’t mind, so here’s your crummy visual obscured by foliage. You’re welcome.
Nice clean edge with the flashing in place…oh, and did I mention we installed a skylight? Here’s how it went down…..
While I would have preferred the cleaner look without them, structurally, the polycarbonate can’t span that long of a distance without supports…it’s too thin, so the CC notched in these aluminum support pieces. Unobtrusive and functional.
We lined up the skylight with the window to give a sense of continuity. Another reason is simply safety. When we enclose the bottom area, this side of the treehouse will host the ladder well, so natural light will be needed so you can see your way down into “the bunker.”
We can vouch for the performance of our new roof, as we were in the treehouse when another storm passed through, and we stayed nice and dry.
It may be noisy, but I am really enjoying the sound of rain on a metal roof. I seriously doubt I would feel the same way in the middle of the night.
I wish I could tell you we were finished and camping out in the treehouse by now, but the rain gods have had other ideas about that on the weekends.
We have managed to ditch the camo cloak and get the plywood roofing finished and tar-papered…and…well, that’s about it.
The sun comes out during the week when there’s NO time to work on it…and buckets down just in time for Friday afternoon through Sunday. Ah, Spring.
In the meantime, I try to dodge these little guys. They like to fly right into your forehead, just to test your bladder control and ability to refrain shouting loud obscenities in front of your children.
Thing Two isn’t really bothered…this is his budding collection.
Chigger face morphed into chigger AND Poison Ivy torso…we now blame my tainted gloves. FUN! While hunting for some new ones, I found these on sale at Target for $8.99. They are super soft and awesome. It says out of stock online, but my local store had several pair left.
We are also thinking about all the communities along the Mississippi River who have been flooded, or will be in a few days…a link for donations to the Red Cross here.
While we still plan to create a proper patio area outside the kitchen, as discussed here, I wanted to implement something we could use this year…and before it gets too hot. (Impatient much?)
When word got out this winter that the Ikea Vågö would be re-issued, I knew our outdoor firepit situation (version 1.0) was settled. $25 each? DONE and DONE.
An Atlanta trip was not in my game plan given our treehouse commitments, so we enlisted the dudes at ModernNash to do it for us. Locals who may not be aware of this amazing service..take note…totally worth it.
While I still have visions of the CC casting a beautiful round firepit in concrete, that’s not happening right now, so a metal tree ring kit from Home Depot will have to do. They come in sections..I got 3 to make a three foot wide ring.
I didn’t want to actually SEE this ring, so after digging out the pit, I piled river rock around the outside of it. Since we burned through all the nice dry split wood in our log holder this winter, and we haven’t built a firewood shelter yet, (on the list) the wood that’s left is getting rained on, so we have to ring the fire with logs to dry them out a bit. At least now the ring is disguised inside and out.
Like the Things ash graffiti?
Camp Vågö was a huge hit with the whole family. The deer came surprisingly close while we were chillin’ by the fire…we’re STILL waiting for the owl babes. Lots of hooting, but no sighting yet.
While this area still leaves a lot to be desired….plans are to cover the fugly concrete wall with a custom built firewood wall, plus patio and pit upgrade…this was just the ticket for now, and we don’t have to wait another year to cook s’mores and the like over our crackling fire.
