ever had a treehouse?

[mrmontie]

was it as sweet at this?

Hell, I dont even have cable in my normal house. and no kid of mine would in their treehouse either. unless maybe if they got a job and paid for it.

I did have a pretty sweet treehouse when I was a kid. It was in Saudi and my parents hired this Filipino contractor that did renovations for normal houses to build it. He was quick to mock the ideas my parents had saying that the trick to a nice treehouse is to build it as you would a regular house, only smaller.

mine was just one room, but had this awesome slanted ceiling that he insisted on as the flat kind wear out quickly and suck when it rains. it had a wraparound deck with a railing. a door and window that closed and were lockable from within. i spent many many nights in that sucker. it was also how i met a partner in crime. it was set on stilts as few trees in saudi were big enough to hold one of these. it rose up above the walls that divided our back yard from that of our neighbour. who was this mormon guy from my class that i'd never talked to.

the treehouse ended up bringing us together for many exploits.

how about the rest of you? any treehouse stories from your childhood? are any of your kids lucky enough to have one?

[Sir Golgotha, KEoPS]

That's not a treehouse, this is a treehouse.

I only got close to having a treehouse once, but then we moved to yet another country. I decided that, instead of being upset, I would use that as an opportunity. I chose all trees and my own body to be the only treehouse I would ever need. I could choose any part of any tree, anywhere, and trade the time building & maintaining a construction for time spent in imagination & adventure.

I thought that was a really neat idea as a kid, but re-reading the above paragraph now, it just sounds sort of sad.

[mrmontie]

ah, deathtrap barns.

When I was growing up my dad had 50 acres of land near Durham, Chapel Hill NC. Used to be a tobacco farm before I came along. When I was growing up the remains of maybe 8 sheds, shacks and barns littered the property. each fraught with its own unique perils. Wasps, bee hives, snakes, structural problems, rusty metal abounded. And of course there were ghost stories unique to each structure.

Today only the largest of the barns survives. and is still creepy as hell.

[mrmontie]

wow, right up there with the Swiss family Robinson.

of course you could cheat and go this route.

[Xose Lucero]

The best I had was an open invitation to share my friend's damp blanket and scrap lumber lean-to that smelled like pee. Much later I had a backyard half-pipe, which is kind of a skateboarder's treehouse, so the story has a happy and not very related ending.

[Berin Kinsman]

I didn't have a treehouse. The closest I had was... how to describe this...

One place we lived was an old two-story house that had been modified into two apartments. They modified the front so there was a separate entrance to the first floor, and the original foyer the entrance to the 2nd floor - staircase was there, doors to the first floor rooms walled over.

There was a back staircase that originally came down into the kitchen. On the second floor they... put in a floor, made it a closet. On the first floor, it was still a staircase that led nowhere, just ded-ended into the ceiling. It had a door on it, so it could theoretically be a closet. It was in the kitchen, and today I'd use it as a closet and use the stairs to stack canned goods and stuff. But the 'rents didn't want to use it as a closet for some reason. So I moved stuff in there and hung out. There was a round "port hole" window that let in light, and an electric socket to plug in a lamp. I added some throw pillows, used the upper stairs as bookshelves, and would hang out in there and read.

Yeah, I was a weird kid with a sad childhood.

[mrmontie]

actually sounds like a cool space. I like old and renovated houses and such that have staircases to nowhere and secret rooms and such. That barn i was talking about had this room with a window that looked out over the front. It had a curtain that was only open on one side just enough for someone to peer out of. We always swore we saw somebody doing just that. or saw the curtain move just a bit.

The weird thing was that the first dozen times we went into the barn as kids we simply couldn't find the room. part of it was all the junk in there being in the way. part of it was being too scared to conduct a proper search.

Eventually we found that you had to slide a book case out of the way to find the hole that led to the other room. it was at the floor level of the upper story so you had to kind of crawl through. but then you had a 3 foot drop to the floor of the secret room, which is kind of far when you're a kid. The room was kind of creepy too since it looked like it'd be cozy enough for somebody to live there. had a couch and some other sparse furnishings.

The barn isnt as creepy through adult eyes. but sometimes at night... the window in the upper left is the secret room. though the curtain has long since rotted away.

[Charlie]

Actually... Never had a treehouse as a kid, but I'm actually considering one as an adult. :-)

http://www.treehouseworkshop.com/port_getaways_01.html

[Sir Golgotha, KEoPS]

Treehouses are becoming like Halloween: cooler as an adult than as a kid.

[mrmontie]

Just don't anger Mel Gibson or that sucker's comin' down!

[Lindylane]

Hello there! I saw your post and joined this network in order to reply.
I had a treehouse, too. I don't have any photographs, but I drew a picture of it exactly as I remember it:

[mrmontie]

now thats a pretty sweet treehouse. kind of a bad neighbourhood though.

guess buffalo is for dinner.

[Charlie]

... bit of a drainage problem too... :-)