Treehouses

Four years ago I built a treehouse for my boys in the crook of our backyard apple tree. Well, it was more the size of a treestand because I was aiming to build it cheaply using only scraps that I found in my garage. Considering the small size of the project it didn’t take long to build and almost immediately the boys relished the novelty that was: having a secluded platform six feet off the ground. It didn’t take long for them to literally outgrow that tiny porch in the branches and I became increasingly disheartened about their lack of interest in it. About two years ago, hoping to rejuvenate their interest, I mentioned adding on to it to make it bigger. Well, they didn’t let me forget those words and, after years of talking about it, we began the expansion on Sunday. It’s about triple the size and, when complete, will have a hidden door in the floor to keep unwanted visitors out.

I can’t help but get a little excited about working on projects like this because I can remember what it’s like to be a boy. Growing up, us neighbor kids built a number of treehouses together in the expanse of forested land bordering the street we grew up on. Needless to say our distance from these ‘forts’ almost guaranteed that some neighborhood ‘big kids’ (aka bullies) would be sure to tear them down (usually by morning). To think that a half dozen construction efforts in my childhood were destroyed because some dinks got their jollies from it, is maddening. I guess in some small way, my getting charged about doing this treehouse for my own boys is for all the ones we ‘lost’ when I was a kid. I can only hope they will appreciate it as much as I do.