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Elinor Florence (Company name) Elinor Florence

We Built a Tree House!

We built a tree house! Now our little grandchildren have a place to hang out when they come to visit.

A treehouse with green siding and brown shingled roof sits on a platform, surrounded by a deck with cedar railings.

Building a Back Yard Tree House

When playgrounds were closed because of the pandemic, it became more important to provide a place for kids to play.

Since we have four acres here on the edge of Invermere, British Columbia, we decided to install a play structure for our grandchildren.

Apparently everyone else had the same idea, since playground equipment is currently sold out across the country!

So we came up with another plan: to create our own play area.

Our four acres are mostly treed mountainside, but we found a nice level spot on the slope below our house (you can see the house in the background, just above my husband’s head).

First we had to clear away the brush and trees — and the kids were eager to help. This is Nora, aged seven, and my husband Heinz.

A man wearing a plaid shirt and a hat hauls away a dead tree in an open, grassy area while a little blonde girl in white shorts and sweater watches.

Next we had the building materials delivered.

Two men carry a heavy beam up a grassy hill from a truck, while in the foreground there is a pile of beams on the ground.

We hired a couple of local carpenters to put it together.

Two men in work clothes work on assembling a frame of lumber in a cleared, grassy area surrounded by trees and dappled with sunlight.

The trees here in our alpine forest are too spindly to support an entire tree house. But we fastened a beam between the deck and a nearby tree that was strong enough to support three swings.

Since it’s connected to a tree, that’s how we can get away with calling it a tree house!

Closeup photo shows a heavy beam running from a framework of lumber and anchored to a nearby tree trunk.

And here is the finished product, measuring six by eight feet with a two-foot deck on three sides. Note the three swings hanging from the beam.

Treehouse made of raw lumber assembled on a platform, surrounded by a deck with cedar railings, a wooden ladder, and a beam running to a nearby tree with three swings hanging from it.

Next, my husband installed a sheet of treated plywood and built a climbing wall.

On the other side of the structure there will be a slide, if and when it ever arrives. As I mentioned, playground equipment is back-ordered for months!

My husband has it in mind to add a zipline through the trees — I’m still not sure about that one!

Man wearing blue plaid shirt and baseball cap kneels on the ground beside a sheet of plywood, nailing colourful red, purple and yellow footholds in place for a climbing wall.

It was quite a job to lay out all the footholds and decide where they should go.

Plastic footholds for a climbing wall in various colours are strewn around on the ground.

All five grandchildren were excited to get into the new tree house by Canada Day on July 1, 2020.

From left: Jack and Axel, both two years old; Juliet, four; Nora, seven; and Quinn, four. Since they all live here in our town, they will make good use of it!

Five children's heads peek over the cedar railing around the treehouse, all smiling, while the deck railings in front of them are covered with a large Canadian flag.

Nora decided that it needed a sign, so she painted this one.

A side view of the unpainted treehouse shows a hand-painted sign reading TREE HOUSE while underneath it are rocks, spare lumber, and a toy dump truck.

She also thought the area underneath should be the designated “Truck Zone” for playing with toy trucks.

Sign painted with blue paint and nailed to a board in child's handwriting reads: "Truck Zone."

A small picnic table is being enjoyed by some Little Ponies.

A child's wooden picnic table sits in a grassy clearing surrounded by trees while three Little Ponies in pink, yellow, and white sit on the surface of the table.

The kids are getting a huge kick out of this basket, which they use to lift and lower toys, rocks, flowers, and anything else they can find from the ground to the deck.

A wicker basket with yellow twine tied around the handle sits on the top railing of the tree house.

My husband painted the exterior, using leftover paint from our own house.

A man wearing a denim shirt and a baseball cap paints the siding on the treehouse green, using a paint roller.

Here’s a shot of our main house, taken at sunset last spring.

To see interior photos of our home: How to Make a New House Look Old.

The room that juts out on the right side is my office. To see photos: Home Office.

A handsome two-storey house with blue siding, cream-coloured trim, and fieldstone foundation is dappled with sunlight as it shines through the surrounding trees.

When it was time to paint the interior, I had three trusty assistants: Juliet, Quinn, and Nora.

(We waited until the two-year-old boys were napping because we knew they would want to help!)

A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and glasses poses with three little girls wearing colourful shorts and tops, all of them smiling at the camera and holding paintbrushes, in a small structure made of unfinished lumber.

At first it was like the kids in Tom Sawyer — everyone was wildly enthusiastic!

Little girl with brown hair and a red T-short grins with delight as she slaps green paint onto a wall of unfinished lumber.

Juliet stuck it out the longest, painting herself in the process.

Little blonde girl with hair in braids and a pink T-short with a rainbow on the front hunches over the paint tray with a paintbrush; her face and hands are covered with green paint.

I show you this photo only because I want you to sympathize with my aching right arm! I painted the ceiling after the kids had gone home.

Interior of small structure with peaked roof and one window is made of unfinished lumber, painted green.

When the paint was dry, we moved this item of furniture inside. We always called it the “doll dresser.” It came from my mother’s family and is probably 100 years old.

A miniature brown sideboard with double glass doors reveals a set of child's dishes on the shelves inside.

And we added this cute hand-painted table that I purchased at a garage sale.

A child's white painted table and two chairs has a floral stencil of pink flowers and green leaves on the surface, and bears a green pitcher filled with pink roses.

Juliet and Nora tell me that it will be used for many picnics and tea parties!

Two little girls, one blonde and one brunette, sit at a child's white table stencilled with pink flowers, while a green pitcher filled with roses sits on the table.

Outside, the swings are also getting a good workout.

Two little blonde girls in shorts and colourful tops swing side by side in an open area surrounded by trees, while a wooden ladder leading to a treehouse is seen in the background.

We added a wooden bench nearby, purchased at an Amish auction in Montana, where the parents can sit and watch the kids.

This is my daughter Katie and husband Tom, parents of Nora, Juliet and Jack.

A woman with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing a white top and blue pants, and a man in a blue plaid shirt, blue shorts and a blue baseball cap sit on a rustic wooden bench painted dark red, smiling.

The kids have started to line the path up to the house with stones.

A path leads down a gentle hill through a wooded area, while fieldstones line the path on both sides.

And I added a personal touch. I found this piece of driftwood at Qualicum Beach, B.C. and painted a sign for the play area. “Shady Nook” was the name of the cabin that belonged to my grandparents, George and Mary Margaret Florence, at Meeting Lake, Saskatchewan. Shady Nook passed out of the family decades ago, but the name has many happy childhood memories for me.

A woman's hand holding a paintbrush applies red paint to a rustic piece of wood, the word "SHADY" has already been painted.

We hung the sign pointing down the hill toward the tree house.

We hope that the kids will make many of their own happy memories in Shady Nook!

A rustic sign is nailed to a tree, the red painted words read 'SHADY NOOK."

* * * * *

Friends, I am on a membership drive. After six years I still enjoy writing my blog, but it is a ton of work — and I’m also trying to come to grips with my new novel!

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Thanks, as always, for your ongoing support. Fondly, Elinor

 

 

 

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