Tag Archives: treehouse

Uncategorized

raising a more supportive treehouse support.

1 Comment

raising a more supportive treehouse support. I.

making progress on modification to treehouse deck supports. i pulled down one of the supports “sistered” on a 14 foot 2’x10’horizontal so the support would span the entire deck and doubled up the supports that go down to the bottom lag bolt so the entire support is twice and strong. and possibly the most important modification – 2 1’x1′ 3/8″ steel plates now help reinforce the bottom of the support.

but how to get it back up since it weighs almost 200 pounds and i didn’t want to almost nominate myself for another darwin award? i called in a crew to help! it took the four of us to pull up the support using a proper pulley and a “poor man’s pulley” built by tossing a rope around one of the deck joists.

at one points someone ( not me ) exclaimed, “i didn’t realize i have a phobia of standing under really heavy things that might fall and crush you.” ah, well, fears were overcome and we relatively quickly got the support back on the top threaded rod that goes through the whole tree.

i have to admit that for the entire winter when i was contemplating taking down the supports i thought there was a good chance the whole deck would come crashing down or for some reason or another the support wouldn’t go back in place. so to get it back in place was a tremendous relief.

thanks to joe, jason and david for the help!

raising a more supportive treehouse support. II.

i decided to reinforce the base of the support with steel plates. the way the physics of forces and pivots work, the base of the support is the most probable point of failure so adding the strength of steel makes me happy. many, many thanks to the fine folks at tollefson repair for custom fabricating the plates. the tollerances were perfectly tight.

raising a more supportive treehouse support. III.

d’oh! the 6″ 5/8″ carriage bolts that go through the steel places push the support away from the tree so the 3/4″ lag bolt will not go as far into the tree. i didn’t anticipate that. when i roughed it out the bolts didn’t rest againts the tree. oh well. the lag bolt still goes about 5 inches into the tree which is fine for now. it’s not going to just pop out. someday i might replace it with a longer bolt. for some reason i’d be happier with 9 inches in the tree.

whoohoo! after i secured the support i went up on the deck and making the support span the entire width of the deck has really made a difference. prior to lengthening the support you could feel the slightest “shimmy” when standing out on the farthest corners of the deck. i think it was perfectly safe if but slightly disconcerting. now no shimmy! and i’m much happier that the new support will stand the test of time at the weakest points. hurray!

raising a more supportive treehouse support. IV.

i think i’ll reinforce the second primary primary support on the other side of the deck over the next week and then we’ll be ready for movie screening season.

i have to admit, it’s still a thrill to stand up on the deck and be surrounded by the canopy of the trees. the furnishings are a little spartan for now but i’ll work on that after the second support is finished.

Uncategorized

making some modifications to the treehouse deck.

2 Comments

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. I.

at the end of last summer, after camping in the trees and watching movies treehouse movie theater i was excited to kick off weekly movie screenings and having all sorts of fun up in the trees this summer.

but after spending the winter looking at the 14’x16′ deck over the winter, i couldn’t stop wondering if the supports for the deck needed to more, well, more supportive. it’s not that i think it’s dangerous now, but thinking out a few years when wear and tear starts taking its toll, i decided i needed to bolster the supports and strengthen some potential points of failure. and in order to do that, i need to take down the supports, which is extra challenging since there are no posts running to the ground.

first things first – i needed to jack up one end of the deck. a 1.5 ton bottle jack and a 4″x4″ post were the right tools for the job though they were a wee bit prone to falling over so having a second post ready was important. i’m glad i thought of that ahead of time 🙂

odin helped crank up the end of the deck a few inches while i put the second post in place.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. II.

next, i secured some shims in place on the second support on the same tree so the support could take some of the load off the 4″x4″ post.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. III.

with the 4″x4″ post secured and the shims in place, now it’s time to take down the rightmost support down.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. IV.

i have to add a bit of leverage in the form of a copper pipe to wrench out the 12″ lag bolt at the base of the support. every creak and groan in the deck is a bit nerve wracking.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. V.

with the lag bolt out, then i attack the support to a pulley and knock it off the 3/4″ threaded rod that’s holding the top of the support on the tree. standing on a ladder holding a sledge hammer while knocking the support off the rod and holding the pulley rope is trickier than you might think.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. VI.

and then it’s time to start making the support more supportive! i’m going to lengthen the horizontal section of the support so it runs the entire length of the deck, “sister” a second set of boards to the support to make it twice as thick and attach 3/8″ 12″x12″ steel plates to both sides of the support where the lag bolt goes into the tree. the bottom of the support is the key failure point so reinforcing it with over a half inch of steel will go a long way to ease my mind.

and no, i didn’t really need to use a 2 foot bit to work on the supports, but if you’ve got a big bit, baby you should use it when you get the chance.

onward!

Uncategorized

oh nothing, just hauling lumber with a 1965 galaxie 500 and a 1938 dodge truck bed trailer.

1 Comment

oh nothing, just hauling lumber with a 1965 galaxie 500 and a 1938 dodge truck bed trailer. I.

the way i figure it, if you’re going to go get some 14 and 16 footers for the treehouse from your amish sawyer and you have the opportunity to use a trailer made from a 1938 dodge truck from marv who lives down the street who got it from his father, well, it’s a no-brainer – it’s The Way It Must Be Done.

oh nothing, just hauling lumber with a 1965 galaxie 500 and a 1938 dodge truck bed trailer. II.

you can 8 footers just fine without a trailer with the old ford but 14 and 16 footers are looooong. i thought i’d be able to keep the trailer gate closed but they boughed enough that they were resting on the roof of the galaxie which wasn’t going to work, so i had to improvise with what i had available.

looks totally legit.

i wasn’t 100% sure i was going to make it home without incident but i drove slow and stopped a few times to make adjustments and made the trip without losing the load 🙂

oh nothing, just hauling lumber with a 1965 galaxie 500 and a 1938 dodge truck bed trailer. III.

having frida tag along makes the adventures all the more fun! she didn’t go out to the sawyer but she was veeeeeeery happy to hop in and help me return the trailer to marv.

Uncategorized

hauling a heap of black locust lumber in the galaxie 500.

Leave a comment

hauling a heap of black locust lumber in the galaxie 500.

when i pulled up to my amish sawyer in the galaxie 500 to get another load of black locust lumber for the treehouse, i could see a young amish boy ( one of the boys who got a good laugh the last time i picked up a load ) furrowing his brow wondering how i was going to fit the twenty 8 and 10 foot 1×6 boards into the car.

clearly, he was unaware of The Enormousness of a 1965 galaxie 500 trunk and was suitably impressed when i opened the trunk and he saw we could fit 6 feet or so of the boards in the trunk by using the space for the spare tire in the addition to the trunk WITHOUT PUTTING THE SEAT DOWN!

after we got all the wood loaded i thanked him for the help and he smiled and said, “that’s one handy car. i really like it.”

just when we finished up, the clouds opened up and started dumping rain down. i pulled out of the cover of the mill, turned on the wipers and he ran up to join his brothers who were emerging out of the corn fields on a enormous horse drawn wagon stacked high with corn to put in the silo.

Uncategorized

day 3352: first screening in the treehouse movie theater!

2 Comments

First showing in the tree house movie theater!

a few weeks ago while i was hanging christmas tree lights for ambience i suddenly realized that i had built the treehouse deck perfectly to show movies on our house!

there was space for about an 11 foot screen. and as if by magic the “throwing distance” from the deck to the house is such that the it’s the perfect distance to project onto the space. so obviously this was something that HAD TO HAPPEN! SOON!

day 3352: first screening in the treehouse movie theater! II.

i quickly procured a projector and decided to test it out by playing star wars episode IV. i was just testing and i didn’t think it was going to look great without putting up a screen so i wasn’t even intending to watch the whole movie. but it looked so awesome we decided to sit outside and watch our first movie in the trees!

day 3352: first screening in the treehouse movie theater! III.

while you can see the lines of the siding, after a few minutes of watching you quickly didn’t notice them. that said, i have plans to build a screen which will make the experience even more excellent! it’s hard to see on the photos but resolution of the image is a.maz.ing! i hooked up the insanely affordable and great sounding cyber acoustics computer speakers we have in the house which made it even more like being in a theater, EXCEPT WE’RE IN THE TREES!

watching movies on the treehouse deck is, without a doubt, going to be a regular thing.

Uncategorized

day 3341: bedtime stories by the light of the ipad on the treehouse deck.

1 Comment

day 3341: bedtime stories by the light of the ipad on the treehouse deck.

we didn’t end up camping in the trees last night. the threat of early morning storms brought us down the trees. boo! but the best part about it being in our backyard is that we can spend the night in the trees any ol’ night 🙂 there’s still a threat of thunderstorms tonight and the crickets are loud as all get out, so tonight might just be stories before bedtime.

kris is to odin. if you look closely you can see the light of the ipad. our library has an app that lets you check out books. it’s awesome.