My dad has been working on a tree house in his backyard for about 9 months or more. I started this post several months ago and have been adding pictures/video as he has added tree house square footage.
The initial tree house plans seemed simple enough – a spiral staircase up the tree trunk to a fenced platform.
Simple.
Except that isn’t exactly my dad’s style…remember extreme play house?
So he built a spiral staircase and a tree house platform.
And then a zipline.
And then a door to open to access the zipline and a fold-out zipline platform to have exactly the right launch height.
Because if you are going on a zipline, you definitely want to be launched at the correct height from the tree house.
And then a fireman’s pole…and then a fire pole floor cover for the tree house floor.
And then tree house walls.
And then a tree house roof.
Oh, and then a bucket.
The kids were pretty obsessed with the bucket. Up goes the bucket via the pulley. Down goes the bucket via gravity.
The bucket was popular from above.
The bucket was popular from below.
And then a tree house tower which will lead up to a 2nd floor.
2nd floor?
Yep, now he is working on the tree house second floor. It is now the end of November and he has gotten a lot more done:
The tower now has stairs between the first and second tree house floors. This is the view from above and you can see that he continued the spiral stair theme.
The second floor will be an open air roof top patio. He is still working on the railing, but you can already enjoy the view:
Not a bad place to play.
I shot a quick video tree house tour on Thanksgiving Day when we were visiting. Let me just apologize now for the incorrect aspect ratio – I wasn’t thinking!
He got some of the tree house ideas from the Stiles Design book, Tree Houses You can Actually Build and their website. He found that the information was really helpful with the spiral stairs and ideas for building structures in a tree without harming the tree.
This appears that it will be a multi-year project, which makes it exciting to see what is new at each visit and I will continue to update.
This is amazing! Would you consider posting an updated picture? I’m dying to have a better look at the underside of the steps so I can try a spiral stair case myself. Thanks in advance for your consideration.
Curious about the fire pole. I’m building a crazy tree house for my sons and want to install a fire pole. Unfortunately, the ready-made ones are all too short for my house. I’ll have to make a custom one that is longer. What did your dad use for the fire pole? It looks like black steel pipe in the photo. Great looking tree house!!!
The tower now has stairs between the first and second tree house floors. This is the view from above and you can see that he continued the spiral stair theme.
The second floor will be an open air roof top patio. He is still working on the railing, but you can already enjoy the view:
Not a bad place to play.
I shot a quick video tree house tour on Thanksgiving Day when we were visiting. Let me just apologize now for the incorrect aspect ratio – I wasn’t thinking!
He got some of the tree house ideas from the Stiles Design book, Tree Houses You can Actually Build and their website. He found that the information was really helpful with the spiral stairs and ideas for building structures in a tree without harming the tree.
This appears that it will be a multi-year project, which makes it exciting to see what is new at each visit and I will continue to update.
This is amazing! Would you consider posting an updated picture? I’m dying to have a better look at the underside of the steps so I can try a spiral stair case myself. Thanks in advance for your consideration.
zip-line to the lake
very very good tree house, could i have a night live?
Curious about the fire pole. I’m building a crazy tree house for my sons and want to install a fire pole. Unfortunately, the ready-made ones are all too short for my house. I’ll have to make a custom one that is longer. What did your dad use for the fire pole? It looks like black steel pipe in the photo. Great looking tree house!!!