Finished treehouse

Welcome to our treehouse. The siding is on (but still needs to washed), it's insulated, has electricity, and the oops section of the hardware store provided some cheap paint ($5 a gallon). Tom even found an ingenious way to make those beds fold down against the wall. Sure, it's overdone and sometimes I wondered if my husband would ever stop working on it. He was obsessed with his creation. But really, how can I complain about a man who spends his free time building a dream treehouse and doing it responsibly? I'm so thankful he isn't off playing video games or racing cars. Seventy-80% of that thing is salvaged building material or donations of leftovers from friend's work projects (Amanda's wood for the door, Brian's insulation from remodeling his basement, the neighbor's torn down garage). We tried to find ways to make the girls contribute---they bought the paint (and did some painting)and the bean bags, chair and rug. Teaching them to shop at garage sales and only buy furnishings for their treehouse was a good lesson in self discipline. Sometimes as we browsed they would hiss, "Mooooommmm, we aren't looking for _________." Now, if I could only convince Tom to make the inside of our house look this good with new coats of paint...

But if you are ever in the neighborhood, come check it out (Chris, we could use the front porch of the house or of the treehouse!). And if you know anyone with a slide we could have, we would be grateful.