Has It Really Been That Long Ago?
This article was published in the St. Pete Times, in 2006, the year we started building the tree house. Note in the article Elizabeth writes that we hoped to complete the tree house by Christmas. (She didn't say what year.)
Living among the trees
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published August 19, 2006
WESLEY CHAPEL - The truth is, we all long to be a little like Peter Pan.
His famous words are burned into the wood of the grownup tree house Royce and Lesley Kroenke are building in a thicket of tall pines beside their real house in rural Pasco County.
"First star to the right straight on till morning."
That's what Peter Pan said to Wendy and her brother while standing on the hands of Big Ben.
That's what the Kroenkes believe:
Climb high enough into the trees and you might navigate your way back to childhood.
Or maybe back to something lost.
Pan's storybook instructions greet visitors who climb high into the trees to stand in the Kroenke's tree house, which was inspired by a program on the CBS show Sunday Morning that aired last spring.
Lesley was sleeping late; Royce was enchanted.
He was about to embark on a journey that would inspire their friends and family and change the way they all look at life.
Who needs a Hummer when you can have a tree house?
Who needs a real house when you can have a tree house?
"It's every child's dream. When I was little I wanted a fort or a tree house," Royce recalls. "But more often than not, most of us don't get the house of our dreams wh-en we're little. I wanted to make this happen. I thought it would bring our family and friends together."
So, Royce, 52, who owns a building supply business and dreamed of being an architect when he was young, found two inspirational books on tree-house building. Inspired by the cozy adult spaces, from writers' nooks in the woods to small, lighthouse inspired structures near the sea, he drew out his own imaginative plans on graph paper:
A sturdy tree house constructed from pressure-treated lumber, embellished with
architectural touches, like banisters made from gnarled oak limbs he found on the side of the road.
Though his family tree house is only partially built so far, it is an amazing bit of whimsy. Pine trees soar up through the sturdy center planks, giving the illusion that the structure floats in the tree tops. When a late summer storm thunders in, the pine needles rustle in a whispering whoosh that sounds like childhood and lullabies.
When the sun shines and the sky is clear, Lesley can lie flat on her back and study the shapes of the clouds.
"We didn't take down any trees to build this, we didn't want to disturb anything," says Royce, 52. "We wanted to enhance, not destroy."
Lesley, also 52, who has written an unpublished novel and loves Web design, even launched a highly creative blog devoted solely to the building of their tree house: www.mindtripwriter.blogspot.com .
Visitors to the site are greeted with a quote that sums up the Kroenke's passion for their project.
"For childhood fanatics grown up ... for grandkids who want their grandparents to have the best tree house in the neighborhood ... for keeping the spirit of fairy tales alive."
The site also features blow-by-blow photographs of the construction and stories about everything from Royce's fear of heights to the meaning behind some of the quotes.
Making it extra sturdy was a priority. Their tree house is no kid's shanty thrown together with a few nails and planks of wood. It can easily hold adults thanks to corner braces, heavy duty galvanized bolts, custom-made angle-iron brackets.
Construction has been slow, but loving.
"We're building it in dribs and drabs," he explains, "on weekends or nice evenings when we get home from work. Our neighbors come and help if they happen to be walking by and see us out here."
Friends, intrigued with the idea of a grownup hangout in the trees come by to help, too. So do the couple's three daughters, ages 19-32, and a band of merry grandchildren.
Lesley Kroenke, who recently received a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida in interdisciplinary studies, is fascinated with myth, culture, anthropology, fairy tales and fantasy.
Just shy of 5 feet, with big eyes and a natural sense of wonder, it's not hard to picture her as a child.
She loves Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and mythological stories.
Literary words burned into the wood were her idea.
"All who wander are not lost."
And "Beyond this place, there be dragons."
She's burned intricate scaly dragons into the wood, the castle of the Unicorn, the sun, moon and Celtic runes.
She's already accessorizing the nook with the kinds of dreamy, unusual finds that stir the imagination. She's ordered a 19th century manual doorbell, a rustic Victorian doorknocker, a solar-lighted wind chime, oak leaf shelf brackets, dragon door handles, a decorative fairy and a skeleton lock from an old plantation house.
When it's finished, she says, the tree house will just be a little retreat, a place to come look at the stars and dream alone or with the friends and neighbors who are helping the couple build their dream, which they hope to complete by Christmas.
High in the pines, elms and maples, with only the sound of the wind in the branches, even an unfinished tree house is a temporary retreat from a harsh world.
"It's an escape," Lesley muses. "It's a way to get away from the stress and strain of work and everyday problems.
Says Royce: "It's our temporary retirement - at least on weekends until we really do retire."
Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at mailto:ebettendorf@hotmail.com.[Last modified August 18, 2006, 23:24:53]
posted by Mind Trip Writer @ 12:31 AM
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