Treehouses And Other Cool Stuff

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Build your own treehouses, swing sets, skate ramps, Ninja courses, and more! Kids and families of all ages are rediscovering the great outdoors, including their own backyards. It is more important than ever to be able to entertain our kids at home, teach them about nature, and give them a great time building, exercising, staying in shape, and working together. All of these actions help foster independence, confidence, and growth. In Do-It-Yourself Backyard Playgrounds, authors Jean and David Stiles offer user-friendly plans (all hand-drawn by David) and step-by-step instructions to help you build something great in your own backyard. They offer a range of easy, timeless projects that can be made in an afternoon—trolley ride, treasure chest, circle swing, lemonade stand—alongside more ambitious projects, like the warped wall and treehouse. Learn how to build a complete Ninja adventure course and see how the treehouse can double as a home base for the adventure course that radiates from it! The book includes photos of projects (during construction and completed), and explanatory step-by-step illustrations.

A dreamer's handbook for kids—and parents—offering practical results All kids love the idea of a hideaway—a place that is theirs, no parents allowed. But how on earth can they actually build one? In Forts for Kids, an inspirational yet practical guide, David Stiles, the most trusted authority on DIY building projects, shows them how. Assuming no previous experience from the fort builder, the book starts with the basics for kids and their parents: how to buy wood, and essential skills such as sawing and nailing. It includes a brief history of forts and more than twenty projects ranging from the simple (a blanket and umbrella fort) to the more challenging (a stockade fort). The book even includes forts made of snow, sand, or branches. An accessories section features projects that can be made in just a few hours, such as a slide, swing, catapult, periscope, cannon, and water balloon launcher.

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.