My Tree House Project

Thank you for visiting my site.  I have chronicled the history of my adventure building my Tree House.

If you want to read about it from inception to completion you may want to start with the oldest post first and work your way forward.  This link is to the first post.

Once you are on that post you may click on the calendar of posts on the right-hand side and continue with the next oldest post, etc.

I hope you enjoy reading what I have done.  If you have any questions or just want to communicate with me you can reach me at highbridgeparkdevelopment@gmail.com

Re Cabling the Tree House

 Since I built the Tree House some years ago, it has remained relatively stable.  I did adjust the height of one support by about an inch a year or so ago just to make the house level again.  I think that one of the branches upon which the Tree House rests has actually lowered by an inch or so. That was a relatively minor adjustment that was accomplished with a jack and a shim under the support pole.

Now, this last winter we had some pretty severe storms out here and I believe we had one storm where the winds were up to about 82 MPH. That's Level I hurricane winds. Consequently, the cable that I had strung from the large Pine tree to the Tree House, which is suspended from the Oak tree, was pulled out of its mooring in the Pine tree.  This resulted in a minor amount of sway in the Tree House.  I had put in that cable to eliminate the sway. It wasn't too bad without it. It was more like being on a boat and pitching and yawing in the swell.

Anyway, I went out to the hardware store and got a much larger anchor for the Pine tree.  Originally I had installed an eyebolt.  The problem with an eyebolt is that at the base of the eye portion, there is a seam, and, as it so happened with that much force on it, the eye opened and the cable was released.  I replaced the eyebolt with a larger bolt with a metal tab with two holes in it.  One hole is what I put the new bolt into, and the other hole is where I passed the cable through.  It took a few hours to get it reinstalled.  The biggest problem was getting the 10" bolt into the tree. I drilled a tap hole. I didn't want to make the tap hole too large, and when I went to screw in the bolt, the force needed to screw it all the way in was tremendous.  I had to get out a very large and special-purpose drill to make it go in all the way (30 feet in the air on a ladder).

Since I have installed the new bolt, there has been no noticeable sway in the Tree House.  

Job done.

The New Firepole and Stairway

 I finally got around to putting in the new firepole on the treehouse.  I have cut the railing and inserted the top end of the mechanism high up.  Unfortunately, the firepole is so high up that the bottom is about six feet from the ground.  I have to go buy some additional pipe to add to the firepole so that it reaches the ground.  I am going to pour a substantial concrete base so that the pole also serves as yet one more support for the treehouse deck up above. A picture will appear here when I get the additional pipe in place.

New Ladder and Fire Pole for the Tree House

 

I found this combination ladder and firepole that someone was decommissioning from their treehouse in the local free recycling listing.  The picture above is at the treehouse that was being decommissioned.  My treehouse has developed somewhat of a tilt this year, so I decided to fix the tilt and make sure that it doesn't happen again.  The current treehouse has three supports keeping it up in the tree.  The first support is the trunk of the tree itself.  The other two points of support are two large branches.  Each of those branches is further supported by beams going all the way to the ground.  I took the opportunity to add the new ladder and firepole to the weakest of the two beams, figuring that the steel ladder was stronger, especially with the concrete pad that I am installing at its base.  

I will take a picture of the newly installed ladder and firepole as I complete the job.  I have already jacked up the two existing beams about three inches to level off the treehouse.

Finally, I added the bucket to haul stuff up to the crow's nest

Well, it has been quite some time since the rest of the house has been completed. I finally added a bucket and rope to haul up stuff to the treehouse.

Real simple.  A plastic shopping basket, a nylon rope, a pulley, a carabiner, an eyehook, and a long pole screwed onto the railing of the crow's nest.  Then I added a cleat so that I can hold the basket in place and take the contents of the basket out.

A Model Treehouse

If building the treehouse in the first place, wasn't enough, I have now completed a replica model of the treehouse.  I have also decorated the interior exactly as the real one is decorated, right down to the pictures on the wall, the furniture, etc.

I have concluded that it is much easier to build the model than the real thing.
I may add the stairway on the model, but, if I do, I will have to add something to hold the whole thing up into the air. Perhaps a little tree!

Getting the Treehouse Ready for Christmas

It just didn't seem right to not decorate the treehouse for Christmas, so we have added LED lights around the railing and put up a Santa Banner.  This is definitely in keeping with the season.  Merry Christmas!