Our Family Treehouse: August 2006

Muggy Sunday

The weather today was 75% humidity, not a breeze in the air. One good thing, the deer flies must have thought it was too hot and humid to irritate us today.

As you can see, we're still working on the railing. HOWEVER, it's almost completed. Next weekend, for sure, we should be done with it.

Then we will complete the bracing underneath the flooring and start building the actual house. There is only one problem, we have hurricane Ernesto bearing down on us and this dude can't make up his mind. One minute he wants to be a hurricane, then just a tropical storm. Just like all hurricanes Ernesto seems to have a mind of his own and is being unpredictable about who he's going to visit on his trip north.

Our neighbors, Melanie and Jose (Melanie is my jogging around the neighborhood partner) trimmed up some oak trees in their yard and gave us some of the branches for the newest section of railing.

Another section completed and just in time before the thunderstorm.

Saturday's Summer Day

During the week Royce worked on his woodburning and added his special touch to the treehouse railing posts. If anyone knows Royce, they know he's into street rods. So no one is surprised that his wood burning creations were, of course you guessed it, old cars.

Our 15 Minutes Of Fame

Elizabeth Bettendorf, writes the My House column for the St. Petersburg Times. Her articles are a breath of fresh air among life's chaos. (Click on the picture to enlarge.)

Lance as in Freelance Photographer

No. . . more like, Lance as in photographer for the St. Petersburg Times. I was kinda expecting a Jimmy Olsen kinda guy. But as you can see he doesn't look anything like Clark Kent's side kick. Lance has this really awesome job, loves his work, and travels the world! I've decided I'm going to have those things when I grow up . . .

I think he was a little disappointed that he couldn't take some pictures of us actually working on the treehouse, but if you've seen the way I look after working in this heat. . . well let's just say I really don't want those kind of pictures of me plastered on a page in the newspaper. Not a pretty site I'll tell ya . . . And he has such a nice camera . . . why would he want to risk breaking it?

Anyway, Lance took some really great shots of us hanging out in our treehouse and made me feel like I was a celebrity. So now all we have to do is wait 'til Saturday.

Here's The Scoop

Elizabeth, a columnist from the St. Peterburg Times, came to our family treehouse for an interview. How she found out about it is still puzzling. Seems a Times editor was on a plane, sitting next to "Tim" who was talking to this editor about his friends' treehouse. Then this editor told Elizabeth's editor who told Elizabeth about it and . . . the rest is posted here on our Blog. We know several guys named "Tim" but we didn't know they knew about the treehouse. Maybe the editor got the name wrong? So if you can solve this puzzle, please let us know.

In the meantime, back at the treehouse, it appeared Elizabeth enjoyed her visit and as nervous as we were, the interview was quite a pleasant experience. After all, in my almost 52 years on this earth, the only interview I've ever had was a job interview. Oh . . . did I forget to mention this Thursday, August 17th, it's my birthday. Who said women don't like to tell their age?

Tomorrow Lance, a photographer for the Times, is coming to take our picture for the article. Rumor has it that Saturday the St. Pete Times will let you know the rest of the story.

You Ready For This!

St. Petersburg Times - www.sptimes.com/home.shtml

We're at work today, you know the same old, same old. . . THEN Royce gets a phone call. He comes into my office and says the St. Pete Times is on the phone and wants to do an interview with us about the treehouse. Talk to them. "Yeah, sure they do; so who's really on the phone?" I say as I swivel around in my chair. But he has a serious look on his face. OMG HE'S NOT KIDDING!

Interview, tonight, 6:30 PM, stay tuned . . . we'll let you know how it goes.

In Between Rain Showers

Sunday was a challenging day attempting to avoid the rain. We dragged all our tools up on the treehouse, started working, and out of no where a rain cloud open up and drenched us. Then within minutes out came the sun and our friends.

Cecil and Fern came for their first visit of our treehouse. Nadine and Greg said they just had to show it off. Cecil and Fern have been working on a project of their own, the old movie theater in Plant City. They have been renovating the theater and turning it into a museum. What a neat place to visit!

Depends On How You Look At It

View from the north

View from the east.

View from the west.

View from the south.

Work on the Railing So Far

South side

Not quite finished yet

West Side

North Side

Burn Baby Burn

That seems like that's all we have been doing lately, burning, burning, & more burning.

Still waiting on the last three posts to be burned and then the railing can be complete. . . (HINT. . .HINT Stephaney & Stacey!)

So What Do You Think We Are Still Working On?

Yep, you guessed it, the railing. I don't think we will ever get done with it. It seems like the more we work, the more there is to do.

We completed the north & west sides of the railing. The branches went into place faster than the ones on the staircase.

So now we have moved on to the south side of the deck. We have the wood burning almost complete on all the railings, only three more to go.

Royce is making sure the board is going to fit, so we can mount our dragon's, Soubert, head to the body.

Soubert has her head and the south side of the railing is coming together.

The wood burning takes time but we like how it accents the railing, see for yourself.

This wood burning on the post is in Celtic Runes and states: Royce, Lesley, Stephaney, Stacey, Meachelle, Taylor, Rod, Nick Built this treehouse, 2006, Age of Pisces.