Our New Treehouse

When we moved into our house, this "treehouse" was in one of our biggest trees in our backyard.  There was no way to get up there (at least 20' high) except to climb up the tree.  The platform was made out of plywood, therefore, water couldn't drain off and it was rotted out.  Our kids were too little to be able to play up there anyway, so it sat that way for 6 1/2 years...

...until Daddy started building a new one in March.  A good friend, Jeremy, helped with a lot of it and really helped Steve.  It would've been so much harder and taken so much longer to complete without his help.  They first built a 4' platform.  The next step (shown in this picture) is the construction of a 12' platform.

Jeremy on the 12' platform, with the old rotted treehouse above.

A better picture of the completed 4' and almost completed 12'.

Steve building the stairs.

Completed 4' and 12' platforms.

The roping around the 12'.

So, the lower platforms were done and then it was time for the demolition of the upper.  Luckily, the braces and supporting beams were still in good condition and they didn't have to replace them.  The railing and the plywood flooring came down.

Then Steve pulled himself up and began laying the flooring for the 20' treehouse.  Yep, that's my man!!

Laying the flooring.

This is looking down from the 12'.

Another view from the 12'.

The 20' upper treehouse, complete after 3 months of hard work, with a trap door and a fence.

Brock in his new treehouse!!

The view from the ground...Ryan, Brock and Charlie (Jeremy's son).

Another view from the ground.

There are still some amenities that we are going to add...a pulley with a bucket for hauling things up, binoculars, ships steering wheel and marbles in the fence (I saw it on Pinterest and it looks pretty cool!).  We're hoping to put in a zip line from the 12' within a year or so.  Then it will be complete.  But for now, our kids have an AWESOME treehouse to play in.  They have an AWESOME Daddy who works so hard to make fun things for them and we have AWESOME friends like Jeremy and his wife, Alissa, that take time out of their weekends to come help.  

We are a blessed family!