Misc...

I had a lot of fun building this treehouse. My daughters are enoying it. The older two have requested bean bag chairs to sit on for reading. The younger two like playing monster come get me.

To build a playhouse one must plan on spending a lot of time and hard work. This is not something that gets completed in a couple of weekends but requires several weekends and nights after work. The longest part for me was tacking up the cedar shingles. There are other alternatives for siding that would make this go much quicker. I would recommend having as much help as possible, a generator for powertools or a long enough extension cord to reach wall power, and enough free time.

Mostly Finished... and Future Plans

This is the final outcome of the treehouse for this year. Since I have to switch gears and start in on my cordwood for the season, I am out of time. My future plans include the following:

-Paint and stain
-A counter weight for the trap door
-Insulation and bead board paneling for interior as well as trim
-Linoleum flooring
-Wooden kitchen set including a refrigerator, kitchen sink, and stove
-Kid sized kitchen table with 2 chairs
-Pulley with a basket that goes down to the ground
-A kid designed flag
-Curtains for windows

Doors and Trim and Siding

The doors were made from 6" - 5/4 notty pine boards. I was able to join them together in a z bend fashion. Eventually the doors will be cut in half so they can open from the top and the bottom. I also used 3" pine trim board around the windows only. I decided if I trimmed the doors and corners, there might be an odd sized strips to side between the corners, windows, and doors.





Here is a picture of the the hardware used for hinging and latching the door...





...and siding. You can see that the siding used is cedar shingles. It was a lot of work but the outcome was worth the time.



This last picture shows the ridge cap that I finally put on the roof. I used a piece of the corrugated roofing and ripped it and was able to bend it over the ridge. I anchored it down with roofing screws.

Stairs/Ladder?

I know there is a forumula for figuring out stairs and maybe my stairs are classifed as a ladder due to the angle? I didn't want to make things to complicated so here is how I went about designing my stairs/ladder.

Using 1 - 10 ft. 2 x 8 pressure treated board, I leaned it up from the ground to the entry way in the trap door opening. I first scribed a line on the foot end of the board and cut an angle to make it level with the ground. I then did the same at the top making the cut horizontal to the upright floor joist. I repeated this on a 2nd 10 ft. 2 x 8 so now I have 2 stringers with the angles cut on both ends. With 1 of the stringers in the upright position, I measured to what I considered would be a comfortable step at that angle. I determined that a 1 foot rise would work which was excellent because I was dealing with a 10 ft. board (I like square numbers). I would need to router out 8 tread slots at a 1 ft spacing. With the first stringer in place, I used a level and marked each 1 foot tread position with a level horizontal line. I then routed out the tread postion at about a 3/4 inch depth. I mirrored these marks to the 2nd stringer and repeated.

I now have two stringers that I joined together with 18" treads. I used shorts from the leftover floor decking (Katie did all this measuring). When the stairs/ladder was complete, I screwed on a piece of plywood to the end that would join the floor joists. I then hoisted the stairs to the opening and screwed the plywood into the floor joist. It was necessary to level the ground with a shovel to make everything fit perfect.

Railings

The railing design is very basic and simple. I had 8 - 4 x 4 inch posts which I lag bolted to the floor frame every 7 feet. It was necessary to jig saw out a small slot in the decking in order for the post to stand up level. The corner posts all required that I lag on a 2 ft. extension block at the top in order to tie the tops of the posts together with a 14 ft. pressure treated 2 x 4 on all 4 sides. I added 2 x 4s all around at different heights. My overall total of 2 x 4s came up to 4 - 16ft 2x4s and 24 - 8 ft 2 x 4s. The horizontals were cut down to fit in between the upright posts.





I may end up adding some ballisters in between the bottom 2 uprights so I don't have to worry about the youngest kids falling through.

Plywood, Steel & Glass

With the walls and roof framed, it was time for the sheething. I ended up using the plywood I had left over from a deck I took apart. The good part is it is all pressure treated. It doesn't look pretty now but it will all be sided. I covered all of the walls and roof leaving openings for the door ways. Once the roof was covered I added drip edge all around then sheethed it with corrugated steel roofing. These steel pieces were leftovers and were given to me. I have not gotten around to a ridge cap yet but I will end up ripping a piece of the steel and bending it to make the cap.



I decided it would be easier for me to frame out my windows then cutout the plywood. I decided what height I wanted the window then framed accordingly. The windows I am using are vinyl sample windows that I got for free. I have 2 in the front, 2 in the back. 1 on the right side and I am using a 24" X 48" crankout window as a picture window on the left side. Some of these photos were taken with the next steps already done. I will explain my railing design in my next post.

Framing

With the completion of the platform, it is now time to move on to the framing. As I discussed in earlier posts, the footprint of the building is going to be exactly 8 ft x 8 ft. I want to make the house tall enough for an adult to walk through the doorway without having to duck down. The wall height is 6 ft up to 8 ft at the peek.

My 10 year old stepdaughter had a blast helping with the measurements. Ensure that the building is square by measuring from corner to opposite corner. The building will be perfectly square if the two diagonal measurements are the same. Be sure to include your helpers as much as possible. This is the stuff they will remember.



Here is a picture of the completed frame and crew. I used 2X3 lumber. I roughed in a 33" doorway opening for both the front and the rear of the building. I also made my studs and roof rafters 24" on center. I left a 3" rafter tail which will be exposed. The framing for the windows will be completed after the plywood sheathing is added. I also added a 4 x 4 beam as a type of ridge pole which will extend from each gable end. It will eventually have a pulley with a rope and a basket that will lower to the ground so the kids can pull things up this way instead of carrying things up the stairs.