My finest "Mom with Nails" Moment: DIY Treehouse!

"Mom, I want a tree house."


It started with one simple request. An eight year old boy wanted a tree house. We had the land, we had the trees, we just didn't have the know-how or ability. So we took the next obvious step: find a tree house builder, and get a quote. Easy-peasy, as they say, right?


Wrong. The quote came in at $3,000. If you are having trouble digesting that, it's three thousand dollars. Yep. and Nope.


So we still have trees, land and an 8 year old that still wants a tree house. Next logical step? Ignore it, and hope it's a phase we can just get over.


But if you've ever known an 8 hear old boy that wants a tree house, it isn't a phase, and it doesn't go away.

I started reading, googling and researching and kept coming up with one name over and over: David Stiles. David Stiles seems to be the guru on building your own tree house. Soon I was the owner of one of Stiles' books, and simply put, I was hooked.

And motivated.

And fired up and nervous and wondering "could I really do this?"

The honest answer was that I really didn't know. But I could start. This is how a lot of DIY or fixit projects start for me: What's the worse that can happen? If I fail, what would I do? Can I take step 1 and 2, and see what happens?

I probably stood outside at the tree Carter had picked out and stared at it for weeks. He kept asking when I was getting started, and I said I was.....just in my mind.

So I decided I could take step 1 and 2, had nothing to lose except a little cash, and if I failed, we were no worse off than we had been.

So I headed off and bought my first pieces of lumber, some nails suitable for outdoors, and just hammered them in. And had this:
...a nice level set of 2x4's. Yep, after all that planning and thinking, this is what I had after day one. But it was a start. And because the ground sloped off at a 45 degree angle, I needed all the support I could get before I tried to heft 2x6's, alone, up against the tree.
Again, I doubted, more than any other DIY project I've undertaken. I was awake at night; I processed and fretted over each step. But I had taken the first, and it was a start.
Stay tuned for the rest of the DIY tree house: A Mom with Nails finest moment!

And for the record, I think this is one of only one photos of me with the tree house:



Check out David Stiles website here:stilesdesigns and start dreaming of your treehouse project: Really, you can do it!