Go West Young Man, Part II

Memorial Day weekend was our time to actually start building the treehouse.  We had collected more lumber and pre-cut most of it so the job on site wouldn't be as difficult.  This of course meant we needed to transport all of it including some plywood we got for cheap on Craigslist.

I didn't want to use a trailer again if I could help it so I looked to using roof racks.  I also didn't want to spend money on commercial roof racks (around $300), so I decided to use some of the studs and rafters that I was going to use on the tree house as the roof racks.  Here is what I did:

I first used 5 studs that are going to be used on the shorter wall as the cross members.  I lashed each one to the existing roof racks that came with the van.

I then used what will become the roof rafters as the members that are going front to back.  I used deck screws to attach all the wood.

I spaced them about 11.5 inches apart so later in the day when we got the 2x12 beams, they will nestle down in.  Next came the plywood and a bunch of trucker's hitches back and forth, back and forth...

I added a few boards front, back and on the sides so the plywood didn't shift  It worked like a charm.

Of course the inside of the van was stacked to the gills too.  Here is the van with all the lumber, supplies and tools ... and we haven't even packed our clothes and food yet!

After we packed up all the supplies, I took this next picture.  Try and find where my 9 year old, Mia, is supposed to sit.

So once the Swagger Wagon was all loaded up it was a little low on the suspension, but not too bad.  Here we are ready to leave.

And after a 5 hour trip with minimal mishaps, we arrived at "the hut".

It is similar to our arrival last fall, isn't it?  Always bringing new supplies...

Let's Build Something: Windows

Budget has been a big part of this tree house being practical.  I know that I want windows in this thing for a couple of reasons: I don't want this to feel like a cave and I would like a cross breeze.  I have looked into buying windows, but the cheapest new window is about $50 at Menards and used windows on Craigslist are about the same price.  This means I should make them from scratch.

I made a couple that I think came out pretty nice.  They ended up costing about $25 each, but it is still worth it.  I also got that cool feeling of accomplishment.  I am going to outline the steps I took to make them after the jump.

Let's Build Something: Beam Supports

I knew that eventually I would need to build supports that would go underneath the main beams for the smaller tree since that is the side that the beams will be allowed to slide.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of having 4 of these supports, 1 for each side of each tree, so that I can have more anchor bolts into the trees but also have the anchor bolts spaced apart.

The design of the beam supports are actually quite simple, I just ripped off the Romans and built 4 crucifixion crosses.  I guess you could call them telephone poles too, but you get the idea.  I first cut an 8 foot 2x6 in half.  One 4 foot part will be the vertical part and one 4 foot part will be the horizontal.  For the diagonal parts, I marked and cut 45 degree angles for that the longest part of the remaining board is 2 feet long.  Here is a picture showing my layout for the diagonal members:

Once the diagonal member are cut, I cut 1.5 inches off tone of the corners to give a nice shoulder.  You will see why in a moment.

Now I want to cut a groove on the horizontal member for the diagonal members to mate to.  I trace the outline of the top 1.5 inches of the diagonal members onto the horizontal member and then cur relief cuts for easier material removal once I break out the chisel.  Here are 2 pictures showing the tracing and then the relief cuts right before I chisel out the material.

With that completed, you start to get a glimpse of the finished product.

Lastly, I add the vertical member underneath and drill all the holes for the 1/2 inch carriage bolts.  With that assembled, here is the finished product:

I did not complete the assembly because I want to break this down for easier transport.  When it is in its final-final assemble stage, there will be truss plates nailed at the junctions between the horizontal and diagonal members to hold them in place.

Of course all this could not be possible without my family of helpers.  Today, Anna really was a really big helper.

Designing - Beam, Joist, Floor and Stud Plans

I have been planning, drawing, erasing, redrawing and planning some more all Winter.  I am trying to figure out the optimal design of the tree house with the lumber that I already have so I do not have to buy too much.  I think I have a pretty good idea of how this is going to look.

The first plan is the Beam Plan, which is technically the foundation of the whole structure since everything sits on top of it.  I am going to use two 2x12 boards parallel to each other.  I am going to add cross members as room permits to act as stiffeners so this becomes more of a box beam (per the suggestion of the eternal engineer - my Dad).

Here is the plan as I currently have it drawn.

Back in the Saddle Again

I know it has been a few months since posting anything, but the Winter was a time to take a break and reflect.  Now we are back and planning again and with that is more Craigslist searching.  We found another good buy, 20 2x4s (untreated) and 4 4x8 sheets of plywood. 

The 2x4s will work great for the wall framing.  The plywood will work great for the flooring inside the treehouse.  I was thinking of doing decking throughout out the platform, but I cannot pass up an opportunity like this.

It was $15 for all of this.  It's like a broke dick: you can't beat it.

Planning: The Lay of the Land.

While we were up in Wisconsin, Mia and I took really good measurements of the tree(s) that we want to build on and the distances between them.  We even took compass readings so we can later decide the best direction of the slope of the roof and so on.

I drew up a very basic layout of the trees.  Here is the scale drawing if you would like to play along.

I am going to use this to draw out the Beam plan and the Joist plan of the tree house.  Those should be soon to come.  Just a brief explanation of what in in the drawing, the small tree is self explanatory.  The large tree has a branch that starts about 4 feet off the ground, so that is what you see as a dotted line.  All the sizes and distances were measures at 7 feet off the ground since that is where I expect to build the tree house.

The Tree

The Tree.  The center point of a treehouse and probably the single most important part of the entire project.  This must be taken seriously.

Ok, so I may be over dramatizing this a bit, but it is important to get a good tree.  Since we have a lot of trees to choose from on the property, we can be somewhat selective.  For the first thing, we do not want a fast living tree.  This includes Poplar or Birch, both of which shoot up to a nice size, but don't live for very long.  They also have very spongy wood so it would not hold a fastener very well.  We want this treehouse to last a little but and it would be bad news to come back to The Hut someday and find the treehouse smashed to the ground.

The criteria I was looking for was as follows: a big tree at least 5 feet in circumference, healthy with no mushrooms or excessive dead branches, straight with at least 15 height that is free of branches, a neighboring tree that is about 10 feet away, and not Birch.

Well, there are a lot of Birch trees on the property.  They look nice and tall and big and straight ... but you just know they are going to be a recipe for disaster sometime in the future.  Mia and I walked the property looking for a nice big tree that is pretty much ANYTHING other than Birch.  There was a lot of "look at that tree ... aww nuts, it's Birch".

We concentrated on the bigger trees that were not Birch.  Some looked a little sick.  Some were REALLY far away from The Hut.  Some didn't have a neighboring tree that was big enough.  After all the searching, we kept coming back to the same tree.  This one:

And this is her sidekick:

Here they are together:

What I like about this arrangement is that the trees are about 11 feet apart, they are straight and healthy looking.  Here we are measuring the bigger tree's circumference:

Over 7 feet!  Ok, this is a good tree.  But, what kind of tree is this?  There were no leaves close to the ground to pick, so I had to take a picture zoomed into the leaves that were way up:

So what do we have?  Heart shaped simple leaves, alternating pattern, smooth surface... after doing the research, we have a wonderful specimen of an American Basswood.  This will work nicely.  It doesn't have the regal stature of an Oak, or the sexiness of a Maple, but it should have good heartwood to tap into and will live 120+ years.

I am not quite sure of the sidekick tree because I didn't take as many pictures of it, but I think it also is an American Basswood, which is fine with me.

Now that I have the tree(s) determined, and I laid it out on paper, I can design the treehouse that will span between the two trees.  This is the REALLY fun part.