We seriously LOVE having our friends’ kids over. They’ve grown up with our kids and so when they’re together, they just pick up from where they left off last time and play together so well. They know our house rules and follow them (at least as well as our own kids d0) and best of all, they are a great distraction for our kids.
So with the kids good and distracted, we leapt into the final stages of Ben’s treehouse bed. We just had a bit of sanding and polying to do and then we took all the pieces of wood up to his room for assembly. They started out looking like this:
It actually reminded me quite a bit of building an IKEA piece. All the pieces were there and we just had to assemble them. But instead of OSB with laminate on top, this was solid pine, lovingly finished with our own hands. And instead of pre-drilled holes and cambolts, we had to make pocket holes or counter-sinks for each screw that went in, like so:
Assembly took quite a while. Luckily, about halfway through my mom, sister and grandma showed up. We had dinner together and then they took over distracting the kids so we could finish. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it everyday from here on out – we’re so lucky to have such great friends and family to help us!! The building drug lateish into the night, but we finished up and it was an immediate success.
All the kids are in love with it. They have already made it into a fort, a ship and a launch pad. Ben loves his big boy bed and is so proud to climb up there at naptime. Matt said he wasn’t sure about the whole thing (he never told me) but LOVES how it turned out. I love climbing up there with Ben to give him a snuggle.
It’s like a very cool mini world inside our house. Tabby is just a wee bit jealous. Heck, so am I!
It truly is an amazing room!
Jess, that is so rockstar of you all. It is FABULOUS! I know we are too slackery to get a project like this underway, but maybe someday, when we find we are itching for a real roots up craft, we will pester you for plans and details. What a great project and how lucky for your little man Ben!!
Aww thanks! We’re complete nerds about this kind of thing, but overall it was a lot of fun to make and he is LOVING it. We still need to put up some shelves and some other little tinkering to do here and there, but it’s 95% done. Do let me know if you ever want the sketch-up docs – Matt did a great job on the design and it was pretty straight-forward to build. I think it could be done with just a jig-saw and a circular saw and drill, so not too high tech!
I LOVE THIS!!! I’ve been googling tree house beds and yours is the best! Would you consider posting your plans/measurements/drawings? It’s high enough off the floor to be a “treehouse” without being unduly dangerous!