The Treehouse-A Love Story

After scoping out the backyard this is the "chosen" tree!

Phil has been dreaming of making a treehouse with the boys for years. He saw a pretty simple plan in a book we'd been given called, "The Dangerous Book for Boys." One afternoon he and the boys marched into the house and announced that they were indeed going to do it. 

The kids all helped in their own way.

Phil took a day off from work to get as far along as we could. 

Peek-a-boo!

Chasey was LOVING sitting up there. So exciting!

Working on the deck. This was quite the accomplishment!

Look at these angled supports. Come on!

Working on the walls.

These are some excited kiddos!

FRAMED WALLS!!!

This is the day before the storm. We wanted to get them on to protect the structure. In the end it didn't even matter! Dang!!

And then Hurricane Sandy came. Our neighbors tree fell directly on the treehouse. Not happy.

A pic from Eliza's room. This tree was just huge.

Completely uprooted. What a beast!!!

Phil and Bryon starting to remove some limbs. Phil's first time using a chainsaw. he was in love!

Grrrrrr!!!

Looks good, right? :(

We were so blessed to have the Mormon Helping Hands come help us remove the tree. It was going to be close to $3000 for removal!! We submitted a claim to insurance and didn't get that much at all!!!

Diana using a chainsaw. My kind of woman.

We are halfway there!

Phil took another day off from work and between that and a full Saturday we got this puppy back to itself original state. We were so fortunate our neighbor George came and helped us get it level and un-twisted. That took almost 4 hours!!

By the time the kids were home from school we got the roof on, which was surprisingly easier than we'd anticipated and the weighted trap door done. The only thing not pictured is the pulley on the side w/ a bucket attached. It's how I can send cookies up to them! :) Hooray it's done and we can move on with our lives!!