Treehouses and Playhouses — by Guest Mom Rochelle Greayer

We are building a tree house where we live — we have the base platform in place and my husband and I are in heated discussions about what will be on top. I have visions of a smaller cabin (just enough that 4 people can sleep inside) and a balcony. Even though the whole things is technically ‘for the kids’ I want to use it to sit on, read, and admire the particularly nice view toward Mt. Wachusett from our property. My husband conversely wants a large cabin to take up most of the square footage — no balcony — allowing us more space inside for other things.

We deliberate other details too, real windows or just shutters (we happen to have some spare windows that we found in a crawl space)? what kind of roof line? Can we hide a catwalk in the pitch of the roof? If not, then how will we access the most necessary crow’s nest? And exactly what kind of bridge will we have to allow access to the zip line that will shoot our small children and probably way more adults 100+ ft down the hillside. And how will we afford the homeowners insurance increases?. . . maybe we will sell tickets to our 8th wonder of the world. Clearly we are out of control.

It is great fun to imagine what you can create in a tree; our daughter has plenty of her own opinions about what will finally happen on top of the platform. She envisions a stage and the color purple.

Our Tree platform, stage 1, is pictured above. It should be noted that all construction on this was completed by Grandpa whom we appreciate very much.