thanks for the kind comments, guys.

more progress on the decking, with a little focus on the fitment near the tree. space if left for tree to expand some. boards cut faithfully to the contour of the tree really give the project a pretty, organic feel.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th054.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th055.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th056.jpg






.

Your son is adorable Poop! Thank God he has a father such as you to guide him.

thanks, man. i'm lucky for the front row seat to something so special.

decking finished:

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...29912595_o.jpg


edges cut straight:

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...35766576_o.jpg


posts reinstalled:

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...93258362_o.jpg


and this one straight cracks me up. full pee wee. treehouse playboy, contemplating all the ass he'll pull up here one day.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...96365885_o.jpg

so, the progress pretty much stopped for a few months from there, while i focused on my son's transition out of a special education classroom and into a private pre-school with "neuro-typical" children. it was a roll of the dice, and a somewhat controversial decision, but we had worked hard to get him to that point, and the goal all along was for him to be able to do that by kindergarten or first grade.

he was able to do it his last (3rd) year of preschool, with a good bit of support. he was in a classroom with a teacher not trained in special education, with no experience with a child with autism, but determined to do the best she could. he finished top in his class academically, and made friends with several children without special needs, further closing the gap we've been focusing on.

so, in the meantime, lunchbox and i did frequent the platform numerous times to smell the fresh air, eat a fast food lunch, and just chill.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th061.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th062.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th063.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th064.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th065.jpg



.

so...

after a few months to pull everything together for my son's transition into a typical classroom, iron out the wrinkles that came with that, and maybe catch up a little on work, too...

it was time to take trump's advice, and build some fucking walls. these were going to be the best walls, magnificent, trust me. ;)

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th066.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th067.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th068.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th069.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th070.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th071.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th072.jpg




.

this wall has a tree run right through the seam between it and the wall next to it, so i had to put another stud a few inches away, and brace above and below where the hole will be cut out for the protruding branch.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th073.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th074.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th075.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th076.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th077.jpg

and here's the adjoining wall that also has to accommodate for that protruding branch. i must've measured this forty times, sure that after we finally got these bitches up on the platform, i'd realize i fucked up somehow. amazingly (AMAZINGLY) this all came together pretty easily once it was up there.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th078.jpg

5 of 6 walls ready to install up there:

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th079.jpg

and finally, the trickiest of walls to prefab, as it would have to go around two additional protruding branches. it only gets minimally framed on the ground, deconstructed into two parts to install around branches, then from there constructed up there around the branches.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th080.jpg




.

oh yeah, and those walls are HEAVY. all the lumber is salt treated, and pretty freshly so. i cannot overstate just how fucking heavy these things were. :HMMM::HMMM::(:(:mad::mad:

Quality workmanship all the way. It's the only way to do it.

BTW, what a cute kid. Awesome Dad. :cool:

I have a couple of grandchildren now. I have so much fun with these little kids. Love it. :LOL:

thanks, rhode!

5 of six walls framed and sheathed, ready for installation.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th079.jpg

sixth wall will need to be constructed around two additional protruding limbs. a very minimal skeletal frame is constructed on the ground, to be partially deconstructed on the platform and reconstructed around those limbs.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th080.jpg

so, like i said, those walls are heavy as hell. my dad and i tried to figure a way to rig from an overhead branch to hoist these walls up, but still they were so heavy we just hit the damn easy button, and called my buddy will gomer up again. i've truly been blessed with some good friends.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...79677105_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...81242366_o.jpg

since he came on a workday morning, we called my assistant out of the office to help move heavy ass walls on the platform.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...30411933_o.jpg

great attitude there, abby. :LOL:

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...29423995_o.jpg

three of the walls sit on outside edges of the platform, and those have a lip of sheathing that overhangs the platform. these are hardest to install, so we screw those into place while we still have the crane truck available.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...86117061_o.jpg

at this point, i'm sure my dad is wondering, once again, how he got roped into some mess like this.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...08018119_o.jpg

four of six walls in place. amazingly, everything is fitting like a glove so far.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th087.jpg

five and a half out of six, now. the last wall will need to be completed in place, around those protruding limbs. it's a lot harder to do this than to cut those limbs out, but they make the treehouse, i think.

the other protruding limb, that came at the seam of the two walls front right, fits perfectly, with room for sway during hurricanes. i have to admit, i was a little shocked.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th088.jpg

first view from the inside!

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th089.jpg

okay, time to get this handrail right. from here out, the project is mostly a solo effort. so it goes, sometimes, but we bear it out.

so, saturday morning work crew:

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...90401113_o.jpg

now, to gather up the four corner posts for a complicated top cut.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...04104311_o.jpg

weird angle.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...36604931_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost..._o-819x461.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...08493383_o.jpg

corner post reinstalled using small l-brackets hidden under the decking.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...06488872_o.jpg

top rail installed. very, very solid, and should not gather water to promote rot.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...40820115_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...82688322_o.jpg




.

out of chronological order, but... surprise visit from a prospective tenant!

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...42667761_o.jpg

the mother of one of my son's classmates donated some windows to the cause. some were top sashes, some were bottom, but all were the same width, and we used the table saw to make them all the same height, with a 20° bevel at the bottom to ensure rain water drains away.

once again, my father-in-law toils away with me.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...20158109_o.jpg

along with the windows, we picked out a pre-hung door for the front of the treehouse. all get two coats of oil based primer, two exterior acrylic.

i hate painting.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...26411826_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...23717358_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...49630365_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...75800450_o.jpg



.

a little middle school math gives us the supplemental angle to the interior one, to split this fence board with for exterior trim.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...32223990_o.jpg

a little high school math helps me figure where to put that split so that the two sides will evenly cover the edge. some quad sealant underneath and between, and i'll consider the corners weatherproof.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...98333097_o.jpg

a little extra trim work around handrail and bottom joints...

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...52211275_n.jpg

and a final look at the hand rail and trim all done, with that last wall sheathed in around those two protruding limbs.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...34562096_o.jpg


.

Impressive.

thanks!

when it came to the roofline, things got complicated for me. never having done this, and having no skills in cad or sketchup, i was left with pencil and paper to figure rafter angles and what not.

my first attempt was an embarrassing failure. i imagined that i could figure it out as I went along, and i couldn't.

so, it was time for this english major to resurrect high school math again.

nerdzerker: one of the toughest things about building around branches and tree trunks is the near impossibility of charting them in 3d to fit in plans. unsure of how to approach this roof without drawing two million triangles in space, i kind of winged it one morning with my buddy, who was kindly donating his time to the cause. it was a great embarrassment, as i quickly realized i was poorly prepared, and didn't really know what i was doing. so i went back to what i did know but had been hesitant to do: drawing two million triangles.

another limitation to building in a tree is fastening to the tree; the tree will endure a few large fasteners much better than it will many small ones. this can be particularly challenging, however, with a hip roof comprised of six different panels, to include three major trunk breaches.

my solution: to place the apex of the roof just a few inches away from the trunk, so that multiple hip rafters (the ones comprising ridges between roof sections) can join at one bracket, supported by the tree through one large fastener.

in the drawing below, the apex is placed 4.5 inches away from the trunk, to allow that much expansion of the trunk on that side without interference with basic structural geometry of the treehouse. four of the six hip rafters are joined at this point, and due to the distinct geometry of the tree, the two others could connect directly to parts of the trunk far enough away to prevent a larger compartmentalization by the tree. (what that basically means is that if several wounds to the tree trunk are too close together, the tree seals off the whole area as a single wound and lets it die, seriously compromising safety of the structure.) by this design, the roof only connects to the tree at three points, all safely far enough from each other to avoid this phenomenon.

using a compass, protractor, digital caliper, calculator, and known lengths and angles of walls, i was able to calculate lengths and angles of various imaginary lines between walls, corners, and the imaginary roof apex, in two dimensions. using these values, i'd be able to calculate roof pitches and rafter angles at various imaginary apex heights, to best select an ideal height for the roof. this, of course, is done by another generation of imaginary triangles.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...76252653_o.jpg

nerdzerker, cont.: a little scratch work inspired by my trig teacher gave me the basic mechanism by which to figure various rafter angles depending on a variable height. this would determine the angles needed to be built into rafter attachment brackets, and attachment locations on the tree.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...49705629_o.jpg

nerdzerker, pt. 3: though i'm a bit too simple to figure out cad or sketchup (computer drafting programs) to make these calculations for me, i figured it would be relatively simple to get excel to do it. so with the help of my office assistant (who quickly found out how to write trig functions into excel formulas), we made a little spreadsheet to execute the formulas from the preceding page for various roof heights. this allowed me to select the lowest roof height that would provide a roof pitch steep enough to use my desired roofing material. looking for a minimum 20 degree slope, this spreadsheet made clear that 114 inches would do the trick.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...88743447_o.jpg


.

all that for a few angles. now back to my father-in-law's, to put ' em to steel.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...83332393_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...07724061_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...95027980_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...88297341_o.jpg



.

Great project!

Sorry if I have missed in the previous posts and sorry for my ignorance.
Do trees usually survive those deep embedded anchors without any longevity problems?

Thanks

yes, they do, when done correctly. they actually stimulate growth, then.

the key is for a clean, sealed application. the hole should be drilled clean, debris removed, fastener installed tightly without chance for much air or water to enter the wound. some experts advocate using an epoxy to help seal the site at the time of installation.

another important phenomenon to be mindful of is compartmentalization. this is when a tree treats several wounds in proximity of each other as a single wounded area, cutting off life to a larger chunk of wood which can later rot. this occurs when several small fasteners (nails, deck screws) are used instead of a single, large, weight bearing fastener.

modern treehouse fasteners mimic the effect of a heavy limb, stimulating growth under and around the site to reinforce the weight bearing capacity of the member.

This is so cool!. Thanks for the info. I had suspected that you wouldn't do something like that without proper research and deliberation.
Keep the pictures coming!

and it does the trick perfectly.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...03218947_o.jpg

the remaining two hip rafters each have their own bracket, as they intersect the tree at points far away from the others.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...96305082_o.jpg

all around, plenty of allowance for tree growth.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...35398340_o.jpg

another view from inside, with door installed.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...30461504_o.jpg

and a peek at the roofline:

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...66212005_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...49300713_o.jpg

came out a couple of weeks later to take measurements for roofing, got a couple of pretty ones in the snow. i'm stoked on that roofline.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...-1020x1023.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...01834683_o.jpg



.

all six hip rafters in, it's time to install the jack rafters. these were all days with highs in the low 20s, or lower, which meant no help. freshly treated 2x6s of that length at that height, by myself, and needed to be test fitted after to cut to accurately measure for birdmouth cut at the bottom... well, i'll not whine about it anymore.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...-1024x1008.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...84476700_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...86163408_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...18496575_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...-1141x1151.jpg



.

trimming the rafter overhang, new haircut.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th128.jpg

now to the home depot for cedar lath (skip sheathing).

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th129.jpg

curious if the structure moved before tying in the roof. Waiting on pics with the tree and surrounding area green.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th037.jpg

by the time i got to this stage, the platform was pretty tightly locked into its space. certainly by the time the weight of decking was added, and when you jumped on it it was tight, felt like the tightest deck you've jumped on.

i was originally interested in something other than an asphalt shingle roof, hoping for a country cabin look and feel. i liked the idea of a galvanized metal roof, and would love to hear it in the rain, but it wouldn't help the structure blend in with the tree, which is kind of important. a cedar shingle roof, on the other hand, would gray out over time to blend perfectly with the gray bark of the red oak. plus, the texture might help the roof to fade into the shadows of the tree better in summer.

several old timers have sold me on the old lath, or skip sheathing, method for supporting shingles. several have recalled looking up as children in their grandparents' attic to see the backs of the shingles through the open lath, and a thousand specks of light magically shining through the somehow watertight roof.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...04596047_n.jpg

below is not a picture of my double top secret secret project, but rather a reconnaissance photo of the look from within the structure i hope to approximate. of course, my structure is an irregular hexagon rather than the regular octagon pictured, plus i have four breaches by the tree trunks with which to deal, so mine will not be as symmetrical as this. but it is to this standard i'll aspire.

also, it is clearly illustrated here how heavily the skip sheathing figures into the look from beneath the roof, guiding my material choice.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...55615622_n.jpg


.

first panel, done. turns out, this is a lot more work than just plywood sheathing.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th130.jpg

now 3 out of six done. really taking a long time.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th131.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th132.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th133.jpg

now 4/6. shaping up well.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th134.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th135.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th136.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...dium/th137.jpg




.

now, a break to enjoy a visit from cousin miles! my sister's boy. love 'im.


http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...-1024x1024.jpg

these last two roof panels are more complicated for two reasons. first, they have most of the trunk breaches to work around. second, the bottom eave line is sloped, while lath strips need to be installed level. if strips were installed parallel to eave line, rainwater would run slightly diagonal to cedar singles, possibly contributing to long term drying and rotting issues.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...03603074_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...16779265_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...56153181_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...14237045_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...54426504_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...60739761_o.jpg



.

finally, all six done. that lath stripping was some serious work.



http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...64343412_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...10141385_o.jpg

and now, a gazillion cedar shingles...

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...95465282_o.jpg

... which, incidentally, make for one powerful air freshener in your car.
http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...44021015_o.jpg

figuring out the cedar shingles biz...

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...58708426_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...75734943_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...4-1152x648.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...17658516_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...78738923_o.jpg

1st panel down.




.

the second panel to shingle has the side-sloped bottom line, a trunk breach, and the steepest slope on the roof, which makes it difficult and tiring to work on, because every move i make sends me sliding. but, slowly, we're getting there.

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...87856747_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...31577758_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...27631525_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...44397514_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...79140368_o.jpg

http://www.clubchopper.com/photopost...14766769_o.jpg



.