Dream of a Treehouse

Dream of a Treehouse

One of my earliest recollections from childhood is that I wanted
to build a treehouse  — It was right up there with digging a hole
to China, driving a car, and, of course, flying an airplane.

I did try to dig that hole.  I must have been about seven or eight
years old. And I think my brother and I dug for hours over
multiple days and must have gone down about four feet in our
backyard before we became disillusioned with how much digging
was required, how hard that digging had become, and how much
dirt we had to remove from the hole to actually get there (that is
to China, of course).  The hole sat abandoned for years and every
time I looked at it, especially as I became a teenager, I was
reminded of the foolishness of ever thinking that we could ever
dig all the way to China.

Driving a car was certainly a more realistic objective and came
to fruition sometime when I was 15 years old.  I remember having
had a calendar on the wall in my bedroom right near my bed with
each date showing the number of days remaining before I could
get my driving permit.  I must have started counting six months
before the actual day arrived -- sort of like a prisoner waiting for
his sentence to be over so that he could walk out of the prison gate
a free man.  The day for my driving permit finally arrived — at first
I only drove while accompanied by my mother, but that first day
after passing my test and getting my real license was a wondrous
day of freedom that I shall never forget.

Now, flying a plane was not something that I really expected to
have happen anytime soon.  But fortune was with me when as a
college sophomore at age 19 participating in mandatory Air Force
ROTC my opportunity to actually pilot a plane arrived.  One day
we were treated to a trip in a vintage WWII era military plane. It
was a C-47. This was a twin-engine workhorse for troop and
equipment transport. It is the plane that was converted into the
DC-3 after the war and used for short haul passenger transport
on rural airlines.  It held about 29 passengers.

The instructors promised that each of us would have an opportunity
to actually fly the plane that day. When it was my turn I went
forward and got strapped into the co-pilot seat. I was shown
what the various controls did -- throttles here, stick there, elevators
down there, rudder, and the landing gear, etc. Then, real simple,
I was told to take over the controls.   As it happens we were right
over downtown Chicago and I banked left and right and pulled the
nose of the plane up and pushed it down like I was doing a bombing
run on Sears Tower. It was one of the most exciting moments of my
life up to that point.

My early childhood dreams of building a treehouse had faded more
and more as I grew older. Oh, yes, when my children were young I
built a fort out in the backyard for them.  It was four tree trunks with
a platform about eight feet in the air. I wouldn’t quite call it a
treehouse.

As the kids got older I got involved in grown-up things again.  And
the dreams of a real treehouse faded even more.

And then, one day, I was already a retired old man and my grand-
son came to visit. He was about five years old.  We played around
in the backyard and talked about kid things. And he, like me as a
young boy, started talking about a treehouse.  We looked around
the yard and carefully sized up each tree as the potential site for a
treehouse. But talking about building a treehouse and really building
a treehouse are two entirely different things.   And every time he
would come over he would bring up the subject again, and I would
hem and haw about the fact that it wasn’t a good time to start
building it.

Each time he would leave with hopes that someday he would
get his treehouse.  Finally, my wife had to tell me very sternly
that I had made my grandson a promise and that I must keep
my word to him or I might just earn the reputation in his mind
that his grandfather just doesn’t keep his word.

Well, that was that. I couldn’t let him see me that way.  So, on
one cool morning in early December I started making my plans
to build the treehouse.  I figured it would take a few weeks and
that it would be a surprise Christmas present for him.  I had
previously decided which tree was going to support the structure.
I climbed the tree on a ladder and meticulously figured out where
all the beams were going to be placed.  I had a very ambitious
treehouse plan indeed.

After reading all I could find about actually building a treehouse,
the first part of the project was to construct a deck.   My deck
was going to be 30 feet above the ground. Sure, why not?
After completing the deck I constructed an elaborate series of
staircases and passageways that allowed me to get from the
ground up to the deck.  Then the railings for the deck, the
framing for the house, the roof and windows, the siding and
door, and interior walls, ceiling and floor. I even put in electric,
telephone, wi-fi, and a chimney. It was eight months from the
first trip up the ladder until it was completed.  My grandson was
now nine years old.

The treehouse has two rooms - the main room and a sleeping
alcove.  In addition to the deck, there is a crow’s nest up and
behind the house, level with the roof for observing the world
way down below. On one side we have a view of the mountains,
on the other the Bay.  It is far enough away from any other
structures that it leaves me breathless to be up there. This is in
every sense a treehouse worthy of that name.
My “Flying Cloud”.

My grandson and I have just spent the weekend in the treehouse.
Two nights sleeping in the trees. It has been a wonderful bonding
moment for us and we will never forget it.

In a way, building that treehouse has brought a certain awe back
into my life  — what it is to dream of something and then to see
that dream become a reality -- and what it is to see the sparkle
in a young boy’s eyes of a fantasy come to life right before him.

I have been transplanted from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Technology Builder to Dream Builder, and from childhood to second childhood.

Our First Sleep-in

The night of our inaugural sleep-in has arrived.  Everything is ready for the night.  My grandson and I went up to the tree house and prepared the bed for the night.  We had a great time except we had to open a window to let the inside cool down a little and we let in some mosquitoes, so sleeping became difficult the first night.  On the second day we built some screens so that we could open the windows and not let in the mosquitoes.  Much better.  From the bed we could look out the various windows.  When the moon rose we could clearly see it without getting out of bed.  

In the morning the sun came beaming in the window on my side.  Below are the two campers when we were ready to get up.

                                      

Post Treehouse Completion Work

There have been a few loose ends that have been now tended to:

I buried the electric cable from the junction box over to the base of the tree.
I have installed a weather strip under the door.
I have tightened up the rungs of the stairway ladders.
I still have to stain the door and mount a few more lights outside.

I am now giving more thought to the suspension bridge that I want to build from a nearby tree.  The bridge would be about 30 feet in length.  I would have to string cables from the pine tree and the other tree and also build a stairway to a platform in the other tree.

I also have to install a basket and pulley arrangement to get supplies up to the treehouse from the ground.


No pictures this week.

We have been enjoying the late afternoons up on the observation deck.  Our grandson will be visiting in about a week, so I anticipate the first sleep over with him while he is here.  Maybe he will have some ideas on improvements to make on the treehouse.

That Curious Thing in my Post of Dec. 23, 2017

I have received a number of inquiries as to what that gadget is in the lower left hand corner of an image I posted on this blog on December 23, 2017.  The image above is taken from that post.

Below I have a better image of the contraption I build over the last few decades.

In this image you can clearly see the pine tree that the treehouse sits under.  The treehouse is about where the bell is located.  This is a cupola that I built.  It has a very interesting history.  

Many years ago I saw a weather vane on top of an old New England church in Wilton. CT.  I went back to the church and sketched the weather vane in great detail.  That winter I made a much larger template and copied it onto a sheet of copper.  I very carefully cut out the intricate pattern using a combination of drill bits, a coping saw, and files.  When that part was completed I soldered on a vertical copper pipe so that I could mount the weather vane on a shaft so that it could rotate in the wind.  Finally, I learned how to put a verdigris patina on the metal and that part was finished.  I then located a base with the four wind directions already crafted and mounted the weathervane on the shaft.  I had built an octagonal roof over a well at our home in CT and mounted the weathervane above that.

Years later I acquired the cupola that was from an 1850s CT barn.  There was no copper visible on the cupola, but I knew it was beneath the tar that had been painted onto it for some unknown reason.  I carefully removed the tar and repatinaed the cupola with the same verdigris technique I used on the weathervane.  The cupola sat for many years, since I did not have a good place to put it. I did buy some small recycled double hung 6 over 6 windows that I was going to use for the walls of the cupola below the copper part.  

We acquired the bell from my wife's father who had the bell in his yard for many years when they moved and didn't want it anymore.

Then, about five years ago I had built a pergola on top of a deck on my house and then came to the realization that I could install the whole thing up there.  The image shows the completed project.  

My wife convinced me not to use the windows since she said they would be impossible to clean and would detract from the beauty of the cupola after a while.

Interestingly, it is those very windows, 20 years after I bought them, that are the windows I used in the treehouse.  

Talk about recycling.

I hope this answers the question.

Getting the Interior Decorated

With the carpentry done, our attention has shifted to decorating the interior space.  The foam and upholstery material arrived and we have turned them into a pair of cushions.  During normal use, with one on top of the other, they will serve as a couch,  then they can then be put side by side to made into a bed that is almost queen size.  I still need to find some small stools, chairs, or benches to go inside.

For all Intents, The Tree House is now Complete

Well, the day has finally come.  The final touches on the Treehouse have been completed.  The door has been fitted, the saddle has been placed in the frame, the weatherstripping and stops have been installed, the latch and door handle have been fashioned and installed.  We have tightened the cables and made final adjustments to stabilize the deck.

We have also cleaned the glass windows and frames and vacuumed the interior and exterior of the building.

We tried to install the rope bed, but it was a fraction too large to fit in the alcove and fit behind the tree stump coming through the floor.  As an alternative we have ordered foam that can be slid in there.  We have put pictures on the walls, brought in chairs and a table, and installed a rug.

Last night was a full moon, so we decided to go up to the crow's nest with two of the chairs with our coffees and enjoy the beautiful evening.  The temperature was delightful, the sky was quite clear.  

A job well done!

Finishing up the Finishing Touches

I have just completed the following items:

1.  Finished installing the plywood sub flooring inside the tree house.
2.  Installed the plank hardwood flooring.
3.  Installed the trim baseboards around the perimeter of the flooring.
4.  Installed the stop molding and weatherstripping for the door.
5.  Installed a few more pieces of trim molding on the walls where the tree limbs protrude through the walls. Ditto on a few of the corners.

I have built the saddle for the door, but I have not installed it. I must first cut off the bottom of the door to make enough room for it. I have also not completed the latch mechanism for the door or stained the door either.

I brought the rope trundle bed up to the tree house to see how it would fit.  Unfortunately, it is about 2" too long for it to fit in the alcove between the main tree and the end wall.  I will construct a smaller platform and put in a piece of foam for a mattress.  That is areal shame. I have been looking for years to find a place for this bed from the early 1800s.

We have to clean up all the dust throughout the tree house and in the deck area and complete the touch up painting.  Also, I have to tighten up the rungs on the various ladders.

Pictures to follow.  It is difficult to take pictures inside the tree house.