The tree house
A pencil sketch on a napkin, an empty patch of yard, and a pile of lumber.
Stuck at home with two young kids at the start of the pandemic, we decided to build a tree house. With nothing but time, imagination, a whole lotta grit, and a whole lot of This Old House episodes, we got to work. The whole family pitched in, and twelve months later it had become the centerpiece of our front yard.
- Time to build
- About 12 months
- Size
- 12 ft wide × 10 ft long × 10 ft high
- Contractors
- Sorenson Family “Construction”
- Features
- A-frame cover, rope ladder, custom-built wood ladder, swinging rope, slide, bucket pulley
The build
August 2020: the lumber arrives.
Setting the first post, level in hand.
Posts up around the trunk.
Beams across the posts, and it starts to look like something.
Joists in.
The frame wraps the trunk without touching it.
Decking goes down.
Most of the work happened from underneath.
The crew at work up top.
Platform done.
Railings, one picket at a time.
The custom ladder, built to fit the gap.
Laying the floor boards, one at a time.
Snow mid-build, with the A-frame still to come.
The A-frame cover takes shape.
Structure finished: deck, railings, A-frame, window.
Snow day.
Cargo net and slide, added once the frame was solid.
Summer, with the tree filled in around it.
Today: the centerpiece of the front yard.
