Tag Archives: treehouse

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204/365. guardians of the galaxy in the treehouse movie theater ( and a brief comment about the setup )!

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204/365. guardians of the galaxy in the treehouse movie theater ( and a brief comment about the setup )!

i mean, really, there’s to much to say about “guardians of the galaxy” on an 11 foot movie screen 15 feet up in the air with odin and his cousins and family ( and candy and popcorn ) . completely iconic summer experience. A++ would ( and will ) do again. i think guardians is now my favorite treehouse theater movie, eclipsing “the incredibles”.

it occurred to me that i never got around to doing a proper review of the projector. and i may never 🙂 it’s a little hard to tell from the picture which was shot with an aging DSLR at high ISO but the picture quality when projecting HDMI is awesome, even when blown up to 11 foot diagonal. suffice to say after a year, we’re really satisfied with digital galaxy dg-737 dreamland HDMI projector. and it’s now $156 which is $20 cheaper than when i bought it and nearly 50% off list price! the cyber acoustics speakers have fallen in price too and are now $33. so for about $200 ( plus the cost of building the screen ) you too can have your own backyard theater ( even if it’s not up in a tree )! highly recommended.

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197/365. the last episode in my semi-occasional unpublished series of failed attempts to remove sap from the treehouse deck.

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197/365. the last episode in my semi-occasional unpublished series of failed attempts to remove sap from the treehouse deck.

a sapsucker of some sort had gotten into the trees last year and the dripping sap created quite a mess on one corner of the treehouse deck that was really bumming me out. i tried many things to remove the sap – an orange peel based concoction that claimed to remove everything which it didn’t. mineral spirits. nope. turpentine. nada. ( all of the liquids i would let soak into the sap ). an electric pressure washer ( not sure of PSI but it’s a little wimpy ). nyet.

then a backyard neighbor said i should try his 2,400 PSI gas powered pressure washer. IT WORKS! IT WORKS! IT WORKS!

and as an added bonus is makes the beautiful black locust decking look brand new.

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196/365. E.T. in the treehouse movie theater!

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196/365. E.T. in the treehouse movie theater! I.

solid summer entertainment – hanging out on a 14’x16’ foot deck 15 feet in the air with odin, his cousin and his buddies and their parents ( it’s hard to tell but there are 10 of us on the deck ) watching E.T. on an 11 foot movie screen. still pretty much can’t believe it’s a thing that can happen.

196/365. E.T. in the treehouse movie theater! II.

people sometimes good naturedly ( i think ) rib me about why it’s taking so long to build the treehouse that’s supposed to go on the deck and this is a big part of the reason. it’s a ton of fun to sit up in the trees with friends and family and watch a movie and eat popcorn and candy 🙂

memories that will last a lifetime. some of which will probably be THE SUPER OVER THE TOP SPIELBERG HEARTSTRING YANKING MEMORIES!

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help me build the treehouse spiral staircase!

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help me build the treehouse spiral staircase!

update: putting more thought into it and i think going with something closer to this design might be the way to go.

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now that the more supportive supports are in place, the next project is to make safe staircase. a ladder is just asking for trouble, especially when you ascending and descending at night in the dark while watching movies.

i think a spiral staircase would look great and not take up as much space a regular stairscase. i’m going to try and follow a modified version of this plan build mostly from wood and not metal (except for a few important parts ).

and you can help me build it! i need a metal plate that fits curve of 4″ pole with 1″ hole in center and 5/8″ ( maybe 3/8″ ) holes at corners. i could custom fab them but that would get spendy with number of them that i need.

surely such a thing must be available at specialty plumbing/electrical shops?

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raising a more supportive treehouse support. part deux.

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raising a more supportive treehouse support. part deux.

“just” a few weeks after raising a more supportive treehouse support i rebuilt and raised the second “outside” support with a little help from friends. i’m happy with additional supportive supports and don’t think i need to rebuild the inner supports.

so. finally. after. a. three. month. delay. we can get back to enjoying the treehouse deck. and yes, that means treehouse movie theater screenings!

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a psa for anyone thinking about jacking up a 2,000 pound treehouse deck.

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a psa for anyone thinking about jacking up a 2,000 pound treehouse deck.

say you’re trying to jack your really heavy treehouse deck that’s 15 feet off the ground. you’ve already done it once without anything too terribly terrible happening and you’re feeling confident.

when you get to raise the other side of the deck to jack up the deck to remove the support you notice the ground is much more sloped and soft directly under the middle of the deck. not ideal conditions. so decide to go a little “off center” on more solid ground without also triple checking to make sure the 4×4 post your using is as close to perfectly vertical as humanly possible.

because guess what happens when you jack up the deck that floats on top of the supports 6 inches and things are leaning a bit?

that’s right! gravity takes over and the 2,000 pound deck falls 6 inches very quickly and shifts over a few inches off center of the supports as it pivots on the 4×4 post and the post falls over almost knocking you cold.

and that’s a check your underpants moment.

so take a little extra time and build up a nice level and solid foundation before jacking up your treehouse deck. you’ll be happy you did.