Our Falconhurst

Hi friends,

One of our favorite read alouds from last year was the Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss. My children loved this book!

I read the unabridged version and it took some time to make our way through the book, but it was worth it.

And hearing about the awesome tree house ( named Falconhurst) that's mentioned in the book  made the children want one of their own. They mentioned it to their dad and the planning began.

Thankfully, we have a small patch of woods on our property, and in that patch of woods is the perfect sycamore tree for tree house.

My boys helped their dad every evening after he got home from work. It took several weeks to build it, and the best part is that it cost very little because my hubby's boss gave him most of the lumber that was left over from jobs; lumber that would have eventually ended up getting thrown away.

Here are some photos of the whole process...

Building the deck of the tree house..

The "bridge" that leads from the platform of the rope swing (pictured below) ...

Hubby put in this 40-ft. rope swing a few years ago...

The kids like to do this trick and give me a heart attack lol..

Ok, back to the tree house..the decking for the bridge leading to the tree house..

All of the supporting posts were cedars taken from our woods. Hubby wanted to give it a rustic look. :)

Handrails on the bridge...

 More of the rustic look....pickets are made of cedar branches.  :)

Bridge to the tree house is finished..

Deck of the tree house. I love the way hubby built it around the trees. And this fall, it will be carpeted with red oak leaves and yellow sycamore leaves.  :)

To get down from the tree house, my hubby cut the top off a dead cedar tree and attached it to the tree house as a ladder..

Next, he decided that we needed a crow's nest. But from the tree house to crow's nest (14 feet high), we needed another bridge..

Looking up at the crow's nest from the ground...

Now for handrails and pickets..

The bridge and crow's nest are finished!

Looking up at the finished product..

 And last, but certainly not least, hubby wanted a spot for us to sit and watch the children play. So he used cedar to posts to hang this swing on. This swing is very special to us. It's the porch swing that belonged to my beloved father-in-law. He used to love to watch the children play when he came to visit. Now we sit and watch them on his swing.

So there you have it  - our very own Falconhurst. I need to be careful about what I read to my children. You just never know what they're going to ask for.  ;)


Thanks for reading, friends. Hope you have a blessed week!








sharing with The Modest Mom