I told the boys I would build them a tree house. I said it shortly before we knew we were going to move to a new house last year. The new house has only one back yard tree, so this is it.
The one-tree design was supposed to use diagonal corner supports that would lead back to the tree. I wasn’t a good enough woodworker to make this feel sturdy to me, so I opted for legs. I have been referencing a really good treehouse building book. (Amazon link)
Two pairs of perpendicular cross-beams, screwed to the tree, form the main support structure. The plywood floor was a re-use scrounged from a thrown-away mini-golf putting green! I’ve only installed half the floor and none of the railing or roof parts yet.
MORE PAGES ABOUT THIS TREE HOUSE:
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Jimmy Cracked Corn 
Posted by Randomability on May 21, 2008 at 2:32 am
YEAH!!! Progress is progress. It’s still more of a tree in your backyard than what we have. We have a puny tree that is still a stick with some leaves on it.
Posted by look4amerika on May 23, 2008 at 5:28 pm
That treefort is sweet! It’s nice to see that people still build these things for their kids. Nice work.
Posted by Shae on May 23, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Aww, that’s uber sweet. ^^
Posted by Simon Payne on September 24, 2013 at 5:40 am
I run a tree house company called Blue Forest (www.blueforest.com). We have just started a tree house competition and would love you to enter your tree house. It is just a bit of fun, if you are interested please click on the link and upload a picture… you never know you may win! http://woobox.com/m2ragc
Posted by Maurice Barkley on January 29, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Jimmy, Ran across your blog quite by accident.
3 hours later my wife came looking for me. “Where have you been since noon?”
“Found an interesting blog,” I replied.
“What’s it about?”
“Gardening – tree houses & stuff. I haven’t finished reading.”
“Who wrote it?”
“Some guy in Indiana, if I remember right.”
“Good stuff?”
“Yeah, He put a picture of my first tree house book on one of the pages. I agree with everything so far. Could be my illegitimate son.”
(Wife whacks husband with rolled up magazine.)
“I wish you’d unretire and get out of the house.”
“I’m 80 years old. Who’d hire me other than Walmart?”
(Wife sighs and changes subject)
“Why not send him a link to your web site?” http://www.mystrees.com “That way he can burn up 3 hours and the Universe will be in balance.”
“I suppose I should let him know that the book he shows is my first and is out of print, My second is titled THE BEST TREE HOUSE EVER. Not a barn burner, but it pays my taxes. (And in New York, that’s saying something.)
Posted by Jimmy Cracked-Corn on March 13, 2014 at 10:28 am
WOW! That post was amazing. I feel truly blessed that you took the time to tell me how you enjoyed reading through my blog. Thank you for that pick-me-up. It’s a big part of the reason why I decided to get back at it in 2014 instead of shutting the whole thing down.
I love your tree house book, and I’ll be sure to check out the newer one!