And then there is the heavy lifting…as we found some 6m poles. Most were around 3+ meters that we had cut previously, thinking to use them for the fencing project.
lifting and moving a large pine pole
walking with large pine pole on shoulders
Nearly there
Done!
There is always something new to build…and we have lots of pine poles to use up. The school children counted 470 of them.
De-barking pine poles
Cutting off the branches
Resting the initial logs on our new stone pillars
Dr Udhogo treating poles
Eddie
Didi
Thinking time
Hmmm – we have to get this right from the start!
After building the tree house in pine it was time to try our hand at hardwood. Here are the results so far – creating an enclosed porch and tack room for the school house:
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Didymus as an Austrian
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Building in wood: 114mm saligna
Wait till you see this…. a 6 berth tree house with bathroom and view!
Our new 6 berth tree house
Inside the tree house showing our sweeping staircase up to the bunks
It’s been tastefully done!
The triple decker
Have a good night!
The porch foundations were a bit more complicated than the main tree house. The porch is supported by what I may call an inverted 3D roof truss which spans between two tree stumps. Below you can see Didymus balancing on the mid point of the truss (temporarily supported at each end).
Didymus balancing on the inverted 3D truss
To make matters more interesting you can see that the last tree stump (on the right – below) was way too short.
Inverted 3D truss
The last stump was too short!
Thus we used an “Alpine” style cross made of simbi (metal) by Soko. This anchored the centre of the truss firmly into the tree stump with the help of some cement. So technically the tree house still doesn’t touch the ground (yet) – it just has a steel-cement support in one tree stump.
Metal cross inserted into hollowed out tree stump
Cement being added into the stump
Now a well anchored inverted 3D truss foundation
Porch floor and steps up to main house
Porch window
Looking north through the porch
Working on the stairs up
The banisters
Looking north again – with roof in place
Porch roofing structure and lintels
Its taking shape now
(Just in time for the phantom rainy season – its a drought year)
Roofing continues with a layer of Alububble insulation followed by the fish scale tiling.
Edmore the roofer
A roll of Alububble
A layer of Alububble insulation goes on first
Yes that is a tree sticking out through the roof
Rear view with Alububble in place
‘Chimney’ starts with green fish scale tiling
Chimney frame being hauled up
and lowered into position
Chimney frame in position
You get the idea
Looking good
Eastern Highlander 