continuing tree house construction..

We try to get the family to talk more to each other during dinner. One thing we've learned is to have everyone say what is their good thing and bad thing for the day. Last night, Miles and Ella were arguing about who should go first and eventually came to a compromise that Ella would go first with the good thing and Miles would go first with the bad thing.

Miles: My good thing is that the tree house is almost done.
Ella: My bad thing is that the tree house is not done yet.
Heather and I: Miles, your turn for bad thing.
Miles: My bad thing is that the tree house is not done yet.
Ella: My good thing is that the tree house is almost done.

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The Biowash deck oil from EcoHaus arrived Thursday. The Garapa decking 1x6 arrived Friday. The weather was perfect for working on the deck this weekend. Temperature was aroud 80 deg F. What more can you ask for for mid-November?

I spent Saturday afternoon staining. Garapa has a really different look from Ipe. While Ipe is more reddish, Garapa is more yellow and golden. Here's a picture of the stained vs. the untreated 1x6s.


I took a 1x6 Ipe left over from building the deck, sanded it down a bit, and use the deck oil on it. It really brought back a lot of the color. Here's a picture comparing the two. May be next spring I'll clean up the deck and refinish it.



Back tracking a little bit, while I was waiting for the decking boards to arrive, I was able to work on the tree house a little using materials I already had. I added two more joists at places where the span might be too great. I also put in two floor boards using the Ipe 1x6 left over from the deck construction. Here are the pictures.


Here's the view from the ground looking at the bottom of the "V".


Here's the view from the top. The metal plate you see there is a gutter I put in to channel rain water away from a hole in the tree. Rain water was collecting in the hole, mixing with fallen leaves, bird poop, and gave off the most foul rotten smell.


This picture shows the two Ipe 1x6 I put in. You can also see the single railing post on the right.

There is not one single right angle on the deck. Plus the fact that I have to make the boards go around the tree trunk in a few places greatly slowed progress. It took me the whole afternoon to put in about 10 boards. This is what it looked like when it got too dark to continue.