As a kid, we built things. It runs in the family I suppose. My dad and all of his brothers were either part or full time carpenters. My uncle built houses for a living and had around 80 acres that he was in the process of developing, so my cousins, my brother and I were always building something from the remnants in the woods. We loved to climb trees and build forts in the woods.
I had this grand vision for a three-story treehouse. It was a bit excessive, but we did build a single story edition with Dad's help on our property. He used two oaks and a maple and ran the structure between those three trees and it was a great place to hang out.
I've been trying to envision different properties in the town of White Haven with occupants who have different hobbies or ideas of what their properties should look like. I figured that one of the properties was going to have a treehouse...
There is one commercially produced treehouse kit in HO scale out there, but I didn't like it too much. I wanted something along the lines of "Treehouse Builders" on Animal Planet. You know, a place to hang out. Walls, windows, a small deck. I was thinking about scratchbuilding something and decided to look into what Clever Models had (see the Fun with Paper blog for some of their other kits I've procured). There was a small Yard Shed kit that I thought would be perfect for a treehouse. Instead of the smoke stack in the center of it, I'd run the trunk of the tree through it! The kit didn't have a deck on it, but I thought I could probably building that out of bass or balsa wood.
I also distinctly remember my first trip to a drive-in movie theater. It was up in Maine and a double feature - "101 Dalmations" and "Swiss Family Robinson". Loved them both, but the tree house that the Robinson's lived in - that was an awesome takeaway. This property in White Haven will be owned by the Robinsons.
First, I had to pick a tree. You can't suspend a building from a tree that isn't substantial, so I dug into my bag of dried Pyramidal Hydrangeas and found one with a nice thick base. I figured I'd run the completed building right up the trunk and secure it with glue once I'd found a good orientation.
Armed with a potential tree, I went ahead and started assembling the Yard Shed kit, trial fitting each piece with respect to the selected tree - the hole for the smoke stack had to be enlarged to take the trunk.
I then added structural joists below the floor and started cutting joists for the deck that would run perpendicular to the floor joists.
Then I joined all of those deck joists and put a deck of leftover basswood down to simulate the flooring.
I messed around with some options for railing and then ended up using some leftover picket fence. I figured any responsible adult would want something fairly sturdy to keep the kids from falling out.
I put a bench on the deck outside the windows and glued the roof interface to the trunk of the tree and added leaves.
A set of steps pulled out of my plastic parts bin sufficed as a way to get into the tree house.
Now I'll have to finish the Robinson's lot and then I'll be able to spend time finishing the lots directly adjacent to the railroad tracks. The treehouse was an interesting little project. More little details to look at in town as trains travel through.
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