I am worn out after a hard day of cleaning up our construction mess!
We were all excited to get back to the treehouse and see how it had weathered the winter. Surprisingly, it was still standing. Only a little bit of warping on the plywood that held up the snow all winter.
The first thing we did was de-constructed. We ripped down the roof, walls, railings, and all the other temporary stuff we threw up last season to try and keep it somewhat safe and dry until we could come back to it. Then we tore off the thin makeshift floor so we could finish putting the rest of the support beams in. Next we put the floor back, this time with more solid 3/4″ plywood and nailed it in well.
Keanon posing by the updated treehouse
Then we raised a north wall, a south wall, and redid the whole west side railing to be more sturdy. It was starting to be a really solid frame we could build stuff onto. We added another tree bolt to support the roof, and shored up the climbing wall (partially). At that point we started to run out of time and crucial pieces of lumber again. We had enough to get most of a lean-to roof framed up and two interior walls before it was time to start cleaning up our mess until we could return again. Our next scheduled trip isn’t until October, so we are sad that we couldn’t get it to a more complete state this time. Maybe we can figure out a way to sneak down this summer and move it along a little bit.
We definitely had a fun time imagining and building it though. Kayson kept saying “Dad, thanks so much, this has been sooo fun!” — which of course makes it all worthwhile.