How To Build A Treehouse, by Christopher Richter and Miriam Ruggeberg

Growing up, I spent a substantial amount of time in the mulberry and kumquat trees that used to be near the front gate to my grandparents’ place outside of Plant City, Florida. I have also known friends of mine who had treehouses and spent time there. Living the arboreal life is not something, in other words, that is unfamiliar to me, and when climbing was easier for me and less painful for my feet, I once had the dreams of building a large tree house in a thicket that was part of my father’s family farm. Such childhood dreams are very common in the United States, it must be admitted, and to my pleasure, this book demonstrates that such dreams and practical tips on how to achieve them are also present in Europe as well. It led me to wonder what exactly the boundaries are on those areas where children grow up and where those who have not yet entirely grown up continue to dream about treehouses. Perhaps international readers can let me know if this sort of dream is common where you are.

There is something that this book reveals about the difficulty regarding treehouses. On the one hand, treehouses are easier to build for children (and this book, helpfully, includes ways that children can help with the design and construction of treehouses in age-appropriate ways), but children must be helped to a great degree by competent adults with a fairly substantial budget in most cases (given that the authors estimate the sort of treehouses envisioned here will cost in the realm of ten thousand dollars or above, even with the use of refurbished materials). For adults to build treehouses that are fit for themselves, though, it can cost even more and take far more effort, because of the much greater space that would be necessary for a treehouse to be comfortable for an adult as opposed to a much smaller child. It is odd how treehouses relate to what ends up being a pretty common trade-off that exists between childhood and adulthood, in that things which are easier to do for children are just about impossible to do as children, and that which can be done reasonably easily or cheaply for children is far more expensive and difficult to do for adults, who may nonetheless have greater means to fulfill their fantasies than those means that are available to children.

In terms of its materials this book is a bit less than 200 pages. It begins with a foreword and introduction. After that there are discussions of what someone needs before they begin building a treehouse (1), namely thinking about safety, setting up a work area, choosing wood, planning permission (if needed) from local code enforcement, and making sure one has the right tools and materials. This is followed by a discussion of preparing the site (2) for the treehouse, attaching it to the tree, choosing a tree (or trees), taking care of the tree to minimize harm, and positioning the treehouse properly. After that the authors spend a lot of time talking about building the substructure for the treehouse (3), discussing how to do it with larch posts, using a tree attachment bolt, hanging a loop strap, designing and cutting the post, as well as building the substructure with robinia logs, no tree, or even four trees. After that there is a great deal of attention on building the components of the treehouse itself (4), including the platform, baseboards, walls, wall frames, cladding, upper floor, door, windows, roof truss, roof, corrugated sheeting, bargeboards, alternative roof coverings, handrail options, and a ship’s ladder. Comparatively little time is spent focusing on building the interior of the treehouse (5), with its floorboards, fixtures and fittings, insulation, and interior cladding. The book then ends with some special features (which are photographed but not explained), sources, index, acknowledgements, and information about the authors.