Being faced with building our homestead from the ground up, we knew that the next years of our lives would be full of projects, both planned and unforeseen. With this in mind, we decided that we would make it one of our top priorities to build the kids a “treehouse”. A place to call their own where they could begin making memories while taking a break from helping us parents with the chores of starting the farm. At this early stage, we had agreed on the basic location of our future house-site, so we knew that the little copse of trees that would eventually be in our backyard would be the perfect spot. The kids were beyond excited as we began construction and were eager to help throughout.
To begin, we set five 4” x 4” x 12’ treated posts in the ground with concrete in roughly a 10’ x 10‘ square around a good-sized oak tree. We wrapped the perimeter of our structure with 2” x 6” treated boards and then ran 2” x 6” joists on 12” centers for the deck of the structure. We let the kids help with every
step that they were able and didn’t waste too much time on making things perfect. We wanted this to feel like as much of their project as it was ours, and while it is important for them to know how to build something perfectly, I’ve always believed that it is just as important to know when it’s not necessary to
get hung up on minor imperfections. Next, we set 2 more 4” x 4” posts and built a smaller lower section, which would be our landing for our stairs, as well as a platform for their slide.
With the bones of the structure in place, we laid down our decking, using simple 1” x 6” x 10’ “deck” boards. We also used these same decking boards to serve as our railing around the platforms. After adding some diagonal boards for additional bracing, and some large lag screws to anchor the platform to
the tree itself, we had the kids help us build a make-shift stairway. The kids couldn’t even wait for us to get the slide on before starting to play. Once the slide was in it’s place, We ran a beam from the back of the platform and added a couple of swings, and called it done.
Setting aside the time to build this project for our kids up-front, allowed them to occupy themselves on the long days we spent on the land as the other ventures got underway, and I hope, it showed them that we understood and cared about their need to have a place to blow off some steam and have fun after a long day of hard work, and honestly, who doesn’t need that?
— When we get some nicer weather around here I’ll post updated pictures of the finished product.
“By working hard, you get to play hard guilt-free.”
– Jim Rohn
-Blake