It all started when my best friend Chip and his wife Lisa bought a piece of riverfront property on the Tygart River (most often referred to as "Arden" among the locals) in Barbour County, West Virginia. After seeing his recreational camp, I liked it so much that I told him that I really had to butt in and use a little portion of it as well. He laughed and agreed to let me come to use the camp as much as I wanted.

   During our high school years, we spent a lot of carefree weekends in the woods partying with many different crowds of people. We absolutely loved the rusty but friendly aura in which everyone would offer you anything that they had - a soda, a beer, a meal, or a blanket if you needed it. We woke up so many mornings to the sound of roaring rapids and warmth of bright sunshine on our faces, often forgetting the fact that we had slept on a rock all night long - comfortably I might add.

   Chip was lucky that his Dad had offered him an older pull-along-camping-trailer that he rarely used himself. Since I did not have an abode myself, I started to muse over ideas that might work out for me. At first, I thought of making a simple platform that would hold a Tee Pee frame and could be assembled with tarps as the shell. This would ultimately leave me sleeping on the ground, exposed to whatever perils lurking in the night. Besides, I needed storage space for camping accessories so that I would not have to cart everything every time we went. I went over numerous ideas, ranging from a Pop-Up trailer to small wooden cabin, but none of them seemed to work for me. On day, my girlfriend Joyce came home with a few books about tree houses that caught my eye and got me really excited.

The Treehouse Book by Peter Nelson (Author), Judd Nelson (Author), and David Larkin (Contributor).	Treehouses: The Art and Craft of Living out on a Limb by Peter Nelson (Author), David Larkin (Designer).

   That was it. I was hooked. A tree house it will be. Now all I have to do is run the idea by Chip and ask him if they'd loan me a couple of trees. Really Lisa, come on now, their married and we all know how that goes. Long story short she didn't mind at all. She actually thought it was a really neat idea. Immediately, I went deeper into researching. I scoured the internet, spent numerous hours at Barnes and Nobles or Books-a-Million, and playing around with a few sketches in a doodle pad. You should have heard the comments I would get once I let on what I was up too. "Why don't you just buy something?", "Really? And Why?", "Awe, that's cute. It's for your kids … Right?" That was the one that burned my ass the most. No it's not for my kids. I don't even have any kids yet I would reply and then the look on their face grimacing as they realized that it was for a 33 year young man. Whatever, It's about me, so who cares what the naysayers have to say.

   We walked the property looking at every tree - its type, height, girth, and physical location. We ended up choosing two very large red maples that sat right over the top of the river. They were massive and full - sixty-five feet tall or so - with dazzling color. They offered the perfect shade and shelter that I wanted. Bingo! Step two is complete. With the trees selected, it was time to do some design work. One thing that I might need to inform you about is that Chip already had his contractors' license and was a seasoned builder. So I lucked out because I had my contractor, too. I guess I'll say that another step is complete as well.

   I talked with my colleague and friend, Doug, about the design because he had plenty of experience designing and building things using all kinds of materials (e.g., wood, steel, uni-strut). He is also an avid hunter and has spent many hours sitting in tree stands, many of which he had built himself. I explained to him my idea of building on "a floating foundation" as the first step and then adding things to the platform. I built two prototypes of some brackets on poster board (exact size and dimensions) for him to critique, ending up with a pretty solid design right off the bat. He gave me the information on who might be able to help with fabricating the metal brackets.

   One day at lunch, my buddy Virgil said to me that if I was serious about building my tree house, he could give me some help. He just had a pole barn on his farm that fell over. He told me that I could have all that lumber if I wanted, as long as I dismantled it. I immediately said that I would. Apparently it was a 60 X 90 foot open-ended barn that used to store all the farm hay for the season and the farming equipment. This was an instant jackpot that just fell into my lap. These were all 1X6's, 2X6's, 6X6's, and roofing tin and the kicker of it all, many of them are of old hard cherry wood - rough cut and true dimensions.

   I spent about three months beating up that barn and stacking lumber. God, it was hard work but a stress reliever, nonetheless. Those stacks of lumber were eventually loaded into a 24-foot Ryder truck and were driven to the property where they were then restacked.

   A quick "thank you" to the guys that helped to move the lumber that day. They really had no clue what they were into and hated me afterward. But it was all for a greater good and luckily they could be bought off with hotdogs and beer.

   So to recap, I found my trees, had plenty of lumber and metal brackets, and designed a 3D model of a tree house using 3-D Studio Max. I gave a lot of thought to the design. After many revisions, the final blueprint ended up being a two-storey house nestled on a platform between the two trees. The house had a bedroom upstairs with a private balcony, and downstairs there would be a living / kitchen / common area with a wrap-around deck. I had envisioned that in the future I will put a deck below where a picnic table and a couple of chairs could be put in place for guest to congregate. I didn't want to have people hanging out in or on the decks of the tree house because of weight concerns. After studying my design for a while, I noticed a problem. If it rained, we wouldn't have a place to hang out and would be forced to stay inside. I talked with Chip about this and suggested that somehow I wanted to have a covered roof as well. He responded that we would build it however I wanted. However, he was concerned about building something so elaborate with old warped lumber and suggested that we use new treated lumber for most of the outer parts of the frame. I was reluctant at first but he was my builder. So I listened.

   Please feel free to browse through the photo albums or video clips and leave any comments that you may want to share with others. This is a picture diary that shows the progress. I hope this could be useful to those who want to build their own tree house.