A Recycled Treehouse with a History

A week or two after we arrived Grand-Papa started working on a treehouse. I helped with the design a little bit and was the official gofer girl (add to that "painting slave"). The design and material gathering took about a week, and the actual making another week.

This treehouse makes me happy for several reasons. Of course it's a great play area for the boys, but it also gives a second life to the old cherry tree it is built on. This cherry tree was my Grandma's favorite shade tree when she lived in the house, it also gave us loads and loads of cherries for years, but these last few years it didn't produce much fruit, so my Dad was considering chopping it. Now he has a good reason to keep it. Lastly the treehouse was made with recycled wood that came from all sides of the family.

I think people in our family must have a special "bond" with wood (I do). My paternal Grandpa had a wood cutting business,  and my maternal great grandpa was a cabinet maker. The wood we used for the floor of the treehouse came from both sides of the family: some slats were part of my maternal Grand-parents' bedframe, others are parts of my paternal grandparents' cellar door, and others are part of a long table my uncle made years ago to accommodate the huge family dinners we had at my grand-parents. I love that our family kept this wood and that we were able to use it for the treehouse.

This was the first step, still in process, deciding where to put the support.

The floor. It doesn't look horizontal, but it is, the ground is slanted.

1st time on the tree house. No walls yet.

Building walls with Jade and Aurea 

A few more pictures. A job WELL done.

Helping Grandpa

Trying out the door

and happy it's done!

This tree house is a masterpiece. Needless to say kids love it, and adults love it too. Merci Papa!