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Sunday, August 13, 2000
A much cooler day, sunny, with a light breeze... ideal conditions for building a treehouse. Earlier in
the week, while waiting for the tire company to put new tires on my Ford Explorer (replacing the recalled Wilderness AT tires), I wandered over to Pohaki Lumber across the street and found a helpful salesman named Garth, who
patiently explained a few of the details of deck construction.  By the time we'd finished
talking, I had ordered treated lumber decking, more 2 x 6 joists, and stringers for the stairs, and picked up all but the stringers the next day. We needed
twenty-five boards 12 feet long and 5 /12 feet wide x 2 inches for the decking, and about eight or nine 2 x 6 joists. I got what I needed plus joist hangers and nails, and a couple of metal collapsible saw horses.
We carried all of this stuff down to the river, which went pretty much without incident, except for that part where, carrying a 2 x 6, I was ambushed from
behind by a Malamute puppy who knocked me off my feet at the top of a 16 foot steep incline. I fell backward, and managed not to break anything. Toklat, our irrepressible puppy, learned a few new
synonyms for "bad dog!" She crept up to me, sprawled where I fell on the incline and licked my face while I enla rged her vocabulary with a torrent of Anglo-Saxon well used by dog mushers and previously by mule skinners.
After a few more hours finishing the joist work, we were ready to start on the decking. Jerry started from the north side, and hammered down 12 foot boards snug, one after the other. Stiles mentions leaving a gap to let
water go through, since treehouses are damp places. Garth at the lumber store said the decking will lose lots of moisture and we'll end up with a gap anyway, so we snugged them up and hammered them in place as we
went. Very soon there were enough planks fastened in place to climb onto the platform.
What a treat! The view is as splendid as I'd imagined, and it was a lovely  day to hammer nails, perched in a treehouse under construction. Very soon we had to start measuring to
leave space between the boards for the trees. It was tempting to cut down a few, but my tenderhearted husband can hardly be persuaded to cut down the weeds, much less real trees. We did trim one tree that was about
walking stick width, which was hard enough on the guy, but he knew it had to go. I sat on the platform and measured and hammered, and Jerry cut the board lengths on the saw horses below and handed them up as he
finished. I left between two to four inch spaces around the trees to allow for movement and tree growth. These will have to be enlarged later as the
trees grow. More of the planks had to be cut and fitted than not, so putting
up the decking was a long process, and we kept at it for about eight hours straight.
We had both been captivated by the project, and Jerry declined a break for lunch or dinner, and we worked
on, stopping only for soft drinks, lemonade, and the occasional bathroom break. Toklat amused herself playing in the water--jumping in the river, splashing about, jumping out, shaking off, and jumping back in again.
As more planks went on, each hammered securely in place as we went, I felt more and more comfortable  perched in the air. I was surprised by the solidness of our foundation, which moved no more than a deck built on the
ground, and the spaciousness of the 12 foot platform. The occasional tree sprouting through the deck didn't detract from the feeling of space.
We finally stopped about an hour before sundown, leaving enough time to feed the dogs in daylight. All but a few of the decking planks are in place. It will be finished
with another hour's work. We are both exhausted.
Monday, August 14, 2000
It's really getting exciting now that I can stand on top of the platform and walk around. The view is just
splendid. I wanted to sit up there last night and stare at the full moon, but we were both so tired after sawing and hammering nails for eight hours that we drifted off to sleep very early. While I felt like Gulliver with tiny
strings holding me to the bed when I woke up this morning, I was eventually able to move and feel much better today than I expected after that workout.
I was afraid it would turn out we could only make it a little space inside the tree perimeter, but we were able to use the whole 12 x 12 foot space defined by the floor joists, and it seems amazingly solid, and plenty of
room--just right, really. Next I want to start on the railing and stairs.
Jerry is actually having fun doing this, not that he would admit it, but
yesterday he wouldn't even stop for lunch, and I think we were both pretty pleased when we got to the point we had enough boards nailed on the deck to be able to get up there. Prior
to that, all of the work had been done from the ground or on a ladder. Eight feet in the air is plenty high. I'm
actually not fond of heights, and being very safety conscious, am overbuilding. I don't want to fall out of a tree! It feels very spacious, very soli d, very roomy and the view is really beautiful. We were very careful to
nail down all the boards as they were placed--the short ones with extra nails just in case, and soon I felt comfortable walking around.
Jerry is still puzzled about why I'm planning a stair case that would work out
nicely for the Taj Mahal, and I'm not sure I know myself. The ladder works fine to get up there, but I'm just going to have fun with it, I guess.
Now that I see that the platform is adequately roomy, I'm scaling back on the landing. I think I'll go back to the original four foot landing for the staircase, or
maybe four by six would be okay. OK call me crazy. I've also been eying the canopy, and wondering about a small second story another eight feet up...or
perhaps a bridge over to the adjacent cluster of maples...or perhaps the staircase could bridge the two trees, with a second staircase leading up to a
small platform in that tree cluster, or...! Well, you see what can happen.
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