Well, it was a long time coming, but construction of Brodie and Nik's backyard tree fort has finally been completed and the grand opening was celebrated on Saturday afternoon.
This structure sits over 9 feet high in the branches of the 40 year old plum tree in our backyard. I've never tried to build anything even remotely this difficult before, and my computer-programmer hands are blistered and raw from the effort. I relied greatly on the help and experience of my neighbor Chuck Yuncker in coming up with the final plan and executing it safely. It's a scary thing to trust your children's safety to the inexperienced carpentry skills of their father, so I appreciate Chuck's suggestions to make sure this was properly built.
Although it sits nestled in the cradle of branches of the tree, almost none of the weight is borne by the tree itself, but instead it is supported at the top of four 4X4 beams bolted to brackets set in concrete poured almost 2 feet deep. Even so, there's still a few inches of sway at the top of those beams when people are moving around up there, which is as it should be in a tree house, I say.
I started work on this in January before my first trip to Africa, but only got the concrete foundations poured before I had to leave on my trip. When I returned 2 weeks later I was so exhausted that I wasn't able to work on it for my first 5 days at home. I only had one more week before I was to leave again for Africa and I was determined to finish it before I left. I worked on it every afternoon and made good progress, but Mother Nature intervened before I could finish. I only had one day's work left to finish the ladder stairs when it started to rain, and it rained for the last 2 days before I again boarded a plane for Africa. I felt bad leaving again with it undone, but there was nothing to do about it.
When I returned last week from Africa I was eager to finish, but again my jet-lag and exhaustion kept me side-lined for a few days until the weekend. On Saturday it was only 3 hour's work to finish the stairs and open for business. The boys are very excited, of course, and happy for their new club-house/fort/reading lounge/play house. They've moved some chairs and toys up there already and have grand plans for additions and improvements.
Well, it was a long time coming, but construction of Brodie and Nik's backyard tree fort has finally been completed and the grand opening was celebrated on Saturday afternoon.
This structure sits over 9 feet high in the branches of the 40 year old plum tree in our backyard. I've never tried to build anything even remotely this difficult before, and my computer-programmer hands are blistered and raw from the effort. I relied greatly on the help and experience of my neighbor Chuck Yuncker in coming up with the final plan and executing it safely. It's a scary thing to trust your children's safety to the inexperienced carpentry skills of their father, so I appreciate Chuck's suggestions to make sure this was properly built.
Although it sits nestled in the cradle of branches of the tree, almost none of the weight is borne by the tree itself, but instead it is supported at the top of four 4X4 beams bolted to brackets set in concrete poured almost 2 feet deep. Even so, there's still a few inches of sway at the top of those beams when people are moving around up there, which is as it should be in a tree house, I say.
I started work on this in January before my first trip to Africa, but only got the concrete foundations poured before I had to leave on my trip. When I returned 2 weeks later I was so exhausted that I wasn't able to work on it for my first 5 days at home. I only had one more week before I was to leave again for Africa and I was determined to finish it before I left. I worked on it every afternoon and made good progress, but Mother Nature intervened before I could finish. I only had one day's work left to finish the ladder stairs when it started to rain, and it rained for the last 2 days before I again boarded a plane for Africa. I felt bad leaving again with it undone, but there was nothing to do about it.
