Tag Archives: tree house

the treehouse spiral staircase pole hole is dug!

the treehouse spiral staircase pole hole is dug!

somebody is going to tell me to go down to 4 feet 6 inches, but 4 feet 2 inches is all i’ve got. it’s basically impossible to get last 4 inches with the post hole digger i have. i had to cut through some small roots but got very lucky i was able to dig down and just miss a very large root that i wouldn’t have wanted to damage.

hi. ho. if the frost goes down that far, it wins.

i found a piece of a glass bottle 3 feet down which seemed like a long ways down to be finding glass.

adventures in transporting a giant pole for the treehouse spiral staircase.

adventures in transporting a giant pole for the treehouse spiral staircase. I.

i’m making progress on the treehouse spiral staircase and found a suitably long pole to build upon. and now i’m either going to make it 35 miles home with 7 feet of a 16 foot pole sticking out of my car without incident or I’m going to have a really good story!

the hardware store lumber dude who helped me load it in the car with a forklift exclaimed, “THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!” which i took to mean he did not often load 16 foot poles into cars.

the optimistic twine amuses me. i don’t really think it’s going to do much to stop the pole from sliding out of the car on a steep hill ( and there are a lot of steep hills between the store and home ) but i felt like it had to do something.

adventures in transporting a giant pole for the treehouse spiral staircase. II.

[ later] well that was exciting! I forgot to bring something to weigh down the pole in the car. with about half of it out of the car it was on a natural pivot point so I had to actively hold it down for 35 miles which made shifting pretty tricky! If I ever find myself in need on transporting 16 foot pole again, I’ll definitely remember to bring something to weigh it down!

a father’s day power tool gift from odin!

a father's day power tool gift from odin!

odin gave me a mini circular saw because he saw an ad where it was featured making short work of stair treads. i can’t imagine what he has in mind!

( i need to make a circular staircase for the treehouse deck because we’ve learned over the years that many children and adults discover they have a latent fear of heights when climbing the 15 foot ladder to get to the treehouse deck. )

oh nothing, just jacking up a 2,000 pound treehouse deck, as one does.

oh nothing, just jacking up a 2,000 pound treehouse deck, as one does.

some might recall two years ago when i wrote a PSA on how to avoid needing to check your underpants while jacking up a treehouse deck. as a result of that incident the treehouse deck as been juuuuuust slightly off center of the supports.

it was only a few inches off center which not enough for anyone to notice but me to notice, but it’s been annoying me for two years so today i jacked up the deck again very carefully and with odin’s help ever so carefully shifted it back and lowered it down.

now it’s perfect! though it’s never not disconcerting to but under the deck when it’s jacked up. i hope i don’t have to do it again!

oh nothing, just power washing the treehouse movie theater deck, as one does ( also, black locust lumber is amazing ).

oh nothing, just power washing the treehouse movie theater deck, as one does ( also, black locust lumber is amazing ).

getting ready for another season of movies on the treehouse deck! this is the third season of the treehouse movie theater and i continue to marvel at the durability and beauty of black locust lumber. it’s not treated with anything and after a power washing it looks as good as the day i picked it up from a local amish sawyer.

i think this is the year to build an actual treehouse on the treehouse movie theater deck. i wanted to wait to see how the lumber withstood the elements before building a treehouse on the deck. it passed the test.

i still kind of can’t believe i built a 14 foot by 16 foot deck around two trees 15 feet in the air! and it hasn’t come crashing down after years of 40mph winds with both trees swaying independently.