Tree Houses You Can Actually Build

Provides information on tools, ropes, knots, ladders, and other equipment and supplies needed for building a tree house, and offers five basic designs that can be built.

Featuring beautiful images and a lyrical text with an exquisitely readable cadence, this book gives life and meaning to all the requisite elements of a treehouse, from time, timber, and rafters to ropes of twisted twine that invite visitors to sprawl out on a limb and slide back down again. For anyone who's ever wanted to escape real life and live in a nostalgic dream come true, this poignant picture book captures the universal timelessness of treehouses and celebrates all the creativity and adventure they spark.

Provides instructions and plans for fifty projects for parents and children to build together, including a swinging treehouse, a model sailboat, and a totem pole.

Treehouses & Playhouses You Can Build shows how average "do-it-yourself" families can easily and affordably bring to life a "Hobbit's Treehouse," a "Pirate's Playhouse," or a "Crow's Nest" in their own backyards! There are a lot of books out there filled with enchanting photos of elaborate treehouses and playhouses built by professionals and costing tens of thousands to build. For the rest of us, there's bit of elbow grease, a lot of imagination, a trip to the hardware store-and Treehouses & Playhouses You Can Build.

This expanded edition of The Complete Guide: Build Your Kids a Treehouse covers every aspect of treehouse building, from choosing a tree and safety considerations to adding interior furniture and even a zip line. Now featuring two all-new treehouse plans with step-by-step photo-illustrated instruction. For kids, a treehouse is a room that never has to be cleaned, a place for muddy shoes and bug jars and adventures real and imagined; a house that you can paint whenever and however you want, without gaining approval. For adults, it’s a room that never has to be cleaned, a place for muddy shoes and…well, you get the idea. But best of all a treehouse is up in a tree. And that’s just cool. Filled with inspiring photos of finished treehouses and easy-to-follow instructions for building your own, learn with your family treehouse basics—choosing a tree, planning and design, treehouse safety—followed by building techniques for: Platforms designed for various tree configurations Framing and finishing walls and railings Finishing interiors with paneling, shelves, and flip-down tables and bunks Doors, both classic and in fun shapes Windows, including shutters and pop-ups Building and framing roofs Modes of access, including ladders, stairs, trap doors, and a fireman’s pole Playthings, including swings, a zip line, a rock climbing wall, slides, and more You can get started right away by following the complete plans and step-by-step photos for making your choice of two popular treehouse designs: an open-air treehouse and a gable house with entry deck. To give you even more to choose from, you will find fully developed plans for six additional treehouse types that you can adapt to your particular trees and wishes. Build the treehouse you and your kids have always dreamed of with BLACK+DECKER The Complete Guide to Treehouses, 2nd edition.

It seems that almost everyone likes treehouses. Smiles of recognition turn into grins of enthusiasm as more people discover them and dream about making their own private retreats or family play spaces. And it's nice to remind ourselves that treehouses are built into the oldest and most forgiving, living things on earth. Also, history records treehouses as being built as deliberate follies, as challenges for arboreal designers, for merrymaking, and for keeping the spirit of fairy tales alive. But treehouses can also be social places. We will visit many that were built to entertain, to hang out with friends, or as guest houses. Trees come in all types. Master treehouse builders Peter and Judy Nelson, with David Larkin, have embarked on yet another treehouse-discovery expedition across America, this time adding the investigation of backyard playhouses to their agenda. Now, in The Treehouse Book, they reveal their findings, illustrated and described in the most complete volume yet. From casual treeshacks made from discarded lumber to multitiered feats of fancy, they found shelters representing myriad builders--interesting characters ranging from childhood fanatics grown up, to weekend carpenters, to those who want their grandkids to have the best clubhouse on the block. Detailed how-to information, including plans and drawings, is woven with behind-the-scenes tales of each structure's occupants and stunning interior and exterior photographic exploration.

Enclosed DVD.

Finally, a practical guide to building castles in the air.