July 13, 2007

Planning on Building a Tree House

Ever since we moved into our house last summer I’ve been planning on building a tree house in our backyard. Actually, it will probably end up being a bit too “rustic” to be classified as a house — perhaps tree fort is a more accurate descriptor of what I have planned. Anyway, I was recently inspired to think a bit more about this, and yesterday afternoon I stopped by the library and checked out “Treehouses and Playhouses You Can Build” by David & Jeanie Stiles.

After having spent a bit of time perusing it, I’d have to say that it’s a pretty fun and rather useful book. There is a lot of very basic carpentry information, tips for building tree houses, numerous pictures, and also plans for building three different tree houses as well as four different play houses. Unfortunately, none of the designs in it really inspired me. Some of are way too fancy/complex, and we lack appropriate trees for many of them… The woods out back are largely comprised of pine trees and, while there are a few oaks mixed in, I have a fairly limited selection to work with.

In all likelihood, I’ll end up building something that’s anchored to a tree on one end, but supported by legs on the other end. But until I have a firm design in mind, I’ll be continuing to search for inspiration. If you have any suggestions of good books or websites for this sort of thing, I’m all ears.

Comments (scroll down to add your own):

  1. Kids are raised now, but I can say this from experience - build a fort under the shade of the tree. Trees continue to grow, and in five years it will be a slanted mess if you anchor one end to the tree and put the other on legs.

    Comment by Blue Girl — Jul 13th 2007 @ 10:54 am

  2. Blue Girl, While the tree trunk while continue to increase in diameter, trees increase height from top growth. Thus, anchoring it to the trunk relatively low in the tree is fine as long as you’re able to adjust for the (slowly) increasing girth. You just have to account for this in the design.

    Comment by dad — Jul 13th 2007 @ 12:07 pm

  3. You should look at our other book, Treehouses You Can Actually Build which tells how to build a treehouse exactly in the situation that you mention. You can see pages from it on our website or by looking at the book thrugh Amazon. You should be able to get it at the library. Or you can buy it from our website or your loal bookstore. Good luck building, Jeanie Stiles
    author

    Comment by jeanie stiles — Jul 13th 2007 @ 12:28 pm

  4. Hey Jeanie, thanks for your e-mail. I picked up this book because it was available at the library, whereas the other that you mentioned wasn’t. Sounds like I’ll have to take a look at it, though. Thanks.

    Comment by dad — Jul 13th 2007 @ 12:30 pm

  5. Jeanie, I just took a look at the book you recommended at the bookstore, and it doesn’t include plans for what I’m talking about (single tree on one end, legs on the other), although there’s something close (two trees on one end, legs on the other).

    Comment by dad — Jul 14th 2007 @ 2:47 pm

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