Bill Menees's Blog

On a random personal note, I just finished building a treehouse for my son Aaron. Last summer I started talking about building him a treehouse, and I was planning to put it in a tree in the backyard. But in March 2008 we had to have an 80 foot red oak tree that was beside our house cut down because it was starting to rot in the middle. One of its 3 "trunks" hung out over the house, so we had the tree service cut all of them and leave a 6 foot high stump. That became the base for Aaron's treehouse.

Before beginning construction, I read all the books on building treehouses that I could find at the local library. The best ones by far were the excellent books by David and Jeanie Stiles:

• Tree Houses You Can Actually Build: A Weekend Project Book
• Treehouses & Playhouses You Can Build

I decided to build a treehouse very similar to the "Basic Treehouse" described in chapter 3 of the second book. I used the free Google SketchUp 3D drawing software to create a detailed, layered design for my treehouse. This helped me visualize exactly what I was going to build, and by turning off layers and rotating the model, I was able to easily come up with a materials list when it was time to start construction.

In case anyone is interested, here's a link to the SketchUp file I created: TreehouseSketchUp.zip. Here's a pic of what the final design looked like:

On Labor Day (Sept. 1), I went to Home Depot and bought the majority of supplies I needed. I got everything except the siding and roofing because I hadn't found the perfect materials for those yet. By Sept. 6 I had the posts and floor frame installed.

The next day, I built the stairs and started putting on the decking. Aaron also had one of his friends over to see the "treehouse".

By Sept. 12, I'd finished the decking (with a cool "trap door"), and I'd framed in the walls and part of the railings.

On the 13th, I added the roof supports, and the framing was done.

I'd been looking for the perfect material for the siding. I didn't want to use 1x10s, OSB, or any of the flat sheeting I'd found. But one night, I was reading Popular Science, and it had an article that mentioned how the rings of Saturn were wavy like a sheet of metal roofing. That gave me the idea to look at sheet roofing materials for use on both the roof and sides. I found 2x8 foot sheets of Palruf PVC roofing at Home Depot, and Aaron loved the green ones. The sheets are tough but lightweight and very easy to work with. So by Sept. 18, I had the walls sided.

By Sept. 22, I'd put on the roof and installed a support beam for the upcoming fireman's pole and bucket/pulley assembly. Aaron had also convinced me to install a Pirates of the Caribbean "swing set accessory kit", which included a steering wheel, a telescope, a compass (as accurate as Jack Sparrow's), and a waterproof treasure map. It's in the center of the front railing.

By the 25th, I'd added a bench, a fireman's pole and bucket, as well as "steps" to climp up to the trap door. The railing beside the fireman's pole is hinged inward and spring loaded, so you have to pull it towards you to open it and get to the pole. That seemed safer than having a constant opening like I had drawn in my original SketchUp design. I let the fireman's pole stick up a few extra feet at the top because I may hang a flag on it someday.

The last things I added were a door at the top of the stairs and some hand rails by the stairs. I officially declared the project "finished" on October 3rd, and Aaron and I posed for our treehouse dedication photo.

All together it ended up costing about $500 for materials. The most expensive single item in the whole thing was the Pirates of the Caribbean accessory kit, which was $50 (10% of the cost)! There are several more things I thought about adding (e.g., a climbing wall, an escape hatch to the roof, monkey bars underneath, a flag, and a zip line down to the pool), but I'll save those for "phase 2".

Astute viewers will notice that I probably need to replace our tired, worn out fence before I do anything on phase 2 of the treehouse. I also have a backlog of programming and knifemaking projects I'd like to work on...