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 Here we have the old treehouse. It came with the house, and we never did anything with it. Basically it sat for years weathering away and, if you remember, became a temporary residence for a colony of wasps  First problem with this thing was that the two elm trees that supported it were eaten away by borers (as were all five of our elm trees - sigh)  I was all ready to Craigslist this thing, and heck, even burn it away, but then I had an idea...  ...tear it down from the trees, disassemble it, drag it across the lawn, scour it clean, then reassemble it over in the play area. Of course not content to leave it as the rough playhouse it was, I decided to make a few improvements. Windows for one, as you can see  Devin and his handler supervising construction  Prior to installing the windows, I had powerwashed it inside and out. The scar you see on this side was from one of the elm trees that used to hold it up  Also, I stripped off the old shingles in preparation for a nice new layer  Tar paper going on, while Maybelle takes her turn supervising  A few courses in, all things going well so far  All shingles on  Jared completing a mid-construction inspection - I passed  Ridge vent installed and tada! The roof is done  Prepping for the next phase of construction  Getting all the trim in place for the siding  Almost done encasing the house in a fresh skin of vinyl  Master Devin is pleased  Jared in his almost-done brand new, kinda, playhouse  Painting the door. Problem was, there's no door that I could find easily (and not insanely expensive) that would fit the house, so I basically took a full sized, raised-panel door and cut it down to size. I found one for a couple bucks at Ann Arbor's construction recycle store and after some carpentry, sanding and a couple coats of paint, here you go  Installed! Note it even has a peephole so the boys can check out whoever's knocking on the door to their new house  Maybelle hanging out on the porch  Jared peeping out - hello!  After a nice coat of waterproofing stain on the porch and base, now she's perfectly protected from the weather  Finito! (Though really, are these kinds of things ever?) Soon afterwards I added a skylight vent (just like I have on the big shed) so the boys would have a bit more light and ventilation in there)  Devin gearing up for his very first swim! Lathering up the littlest one with some sunscreen  C'mon little boy, let's go!  Hmm, I dunno about this Daddy  Not quite getting the point of this Daddy  Ok, now I'm getting into it A beautiful bobbing baby boy  Big brother coming over to help out  Well hello there little D  Ok, I'm into it now. I can get used to this Daddy  He certainly likes the boat, the same one Jared used for his first swim no less. Note, in the background you can see the skylight vent on the playhouse that I mentioned above  Pool fun!  He really got comfortable quickly, here the boy is splashing up a storm  This is just like a great big bathtub Mama!  Somebody likes the water  I have a feeling our boys will be part of the swim team  Jared was a great help in getting Devin acclimated and we all had a great time |
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