One year ago, as I was driving home with parts of Ellie’s new-to-us playset in my car, I spotted a slide at the end of someone’s driveway. It was cracked, but I couldn’t resist so I loaded it into the car.
As soon as Matt’s Dad and I set up Ellie’s playground, I started dreaming about expansion plans.
I quickly realized that a playground was not super complicated to construct, I had better quality lumber stored in the barn than what her playground was constructed of, I didn’t really fit in the playground, and Ellie was going to quickly outgrow the set.
When I saw this treehouse playground, everything clicked in my mind. We had a big pine tree near her current playset that would be perfect. We also had an old deck worth of lumber in the pool. Oh, and we had that extra slide.
Construction on the playground began after a timely text from a cousin. He asked if I needed help with anything, so I replied, “How do you feel about building a treehouse?” A week later, he helped me build the underlying structure of posts, beams and joists.
We made it as big as our lumber allowed. Roughly 10 feet by 12 feet. The platform is 5 feet up from the base of the tree, which was recommended for a 10 foot slide. It feels high enough. The tree is on a little mound, so the edge of the platform is 6 to 7 feet off the ground.
It’s big and tall and open to so many possibilities.
I contacted a local deck company, and they let me (and Matt’s Dad) dive through their dumpster to get boards for the decking. I’ve been slowly working my way through the decking for the last couple of weeks, and yesterday I finally finished it.
We have a collection of tires here at the farm, thanks to previous owners. I picked out 8 that are roughly the same size and have begun bolting them together to make a ladder.
I’m still on the hunt for a firepole (one of Ellie’s favourite activities at any playground).
And obviously we need a railing.
This very sophisticated crayon rendering might help you to visualize the final playground.
So far, we’re having a lot of fun building—and already playing on—the treehouse.
Home on 129 Acres 
Oh my goodness I would have loved that at her age!
My brother and I spent hours in the woods at our house and at our cousins house. We never had a tree house but we made plenty of forts and lean-tos with branches we found!
I would have loved it too–and still do. I think that’s part of the things I’m building and doing with her now–things that I would have wanted for myself! Now I finally get the chance.
This is awesome! I would have loved this too. It’s wide open for fun, adventure and imagination for years to come. Great idea!
The openness was important to me. Even though I say treehouse, it’s a platform that can do a lot of different things–and that I can fit in!