Here's a view of the treehouse from the yard. You can see some of our new chickens in the foreground.

You can see the stairs in more detail here and the door made out of rescued shutters. The rope weaving on the deck is still strong after five years out in all weathers

I used some handmade struts to stabilize the deck. Now even with 4 or more large adults it doesn't budge.

Detail that shows how the steps are attached to the stairs. I used a router to get a groove that's about 1/4" deep. The steps are glued into place. The overall result is a nice open set of stairs.

Detail of the lumber I used for the decking. I got it from a local lumber yard. It's unplaned 1x4 lumber which is slightly rougher. This gives the children a better grip even when it's wet and makes the whole deck look a little less professionally finished.

I also cut the boards to slightly different lengths and angles to make it look almost (aargh) pirate-like.

We salvaged the shutters from the scrap outside a neighbors house. The half-door was made by my wife. You can also see the transparent roofing. This is nice and light, so less weight is being carried by the trees. And it lets a lot of light into the house itself.

I made the lightweight wall follow the line of the tree itself. So the tree is both inside and outside the treehouse.

This shows how my wife made the half-door. The vertical lumber is attached by screws to the Z shape supports. There's also a small piece of horizontal lumber that gives the children something to rest on and also adds more stability to the door.

I hope you like these new photos. If you want me to post some more, leave a comment on my blog and let me know.

I built this treehouse using a lot of ideas from the book, Tree Houses You Can Actually Build. Even if you're not a serious woodworking person (I'm not), you can probably build a tree house in a few weekends just using the information in this fun to read book.