Asking for tips on this

[RanmaBushiko]

Ever since I was pretty young, I've been wanting to build a tree house. Around the age of 10 or 12, my parents got me this old play house/fort, and put it in part of the back yard that they labeled as being "Mine". Over the years, as I've gotten older, it's gotten smaller and smaller compared to my own size, and a couple years back, I decided that it would have to go and be replaced by something much bigger and better. Now, as an adult of nearly 25 years, I've been deciding to replace the old play fort with something like a treehouse/apartment. I've done a lot of basic designing, but I thought I'd ask for tips on how to do the framing. I hope to utilize this as an actual apartment, of sorts, but I wish to keep costs down to a low so that I don't have to worry about going over my mediocre budget.





Due to the size limits, as you can imagine, this is a massive undertaking, so I'd like any tips anyone could share for to pull this gargantuan project off. Does anyone know any tips for doing the framing and the like, for this? I plan on having parts of it being supported by poles of sorts, and I'd use that old play fort, but the sides are starting to go a light green, from mold, and I don't know if it's started to rot with how many nails I put into that with "additions" for to protect it in water fights with squirt guns and the like. (The fact alone that it's lasted for over 13-15 years is a testament to how well it was made.) The spot is rather well shaded, so I don't think too much rain water would get on it, but I still can't tell how easy or hard this would be. Tips would be appreciated, and I hope to achieve this during this summer.
Ranma Bushiko

[pushkins]

simply put there would be no mediocre budget for what your wanting to do, a bathroom, full kitchen and bedroom ?....The plumbing and electrical alone will dictate city approval and how your going to get the toilet plumbed to the house plumbing (which you will have to do) is not going to be cheap.


YES there should be extra room left in the bedroom of your tree house in case you get married, where else would you expect your new wife to sleep>>>> in a real house with a roof ?

[RanmaBushiko]

simply put there would be no mediocre budget for what your wanting to do, a bathroom, full kitchen and bedroom ?....The plumbing and electrical alone will dictate city approval and how your going to get the toilet plumbed to the house plumbing (which you will have to do) is not going to be cheap.


YES there should be extra room left in the bedroom of your tree house in case you get married, where else would you expect your new wife to sleep>>>> in a real house with a roof ?

*laughs* oh, I don't disagree, I'm just trying to work out the steps for it. Thus, me asking. I hope to utilize a type of water purification that I picked up in a book "Sunshine to Dollars", which is rather useful, as well as methods for heating the treehouse more easily. However, those are in the loose planning stages. I'm just trying to figure out a general idea of what this might cost, so I can have the cash for this summer. As an approximation, the tree house has about 430-500 square feet, though I can probably do the math fully, later. The notes I wrote up on the original designs are 2 years old, from May 2006, so the last picture was me re-referencing the sizes because of 2 years difference in sizes for growth. I'm just trying to figure out how the framework will work, and asking for tips so that this will work properly, with no problems, or very little problems. I know to go to Home Depot, and get outdoor wood paneling, which is supposed to be rather cheap, as well as to go to a nearby lumber yard for plywood and wood for the beams, but I'm trying to figure out the costs NOW so I have a budget approximation for this summer. I don't want to have it half done, and have to quit in the fall, only to find out that it's rotted over the winter, in summer 2009.
Ranma Bushiko

[fixer_noob]

Is this going to be between several trees? What will you do when the wind blows? Won't the structure be pressured by the fact that the trees won't always be in sync with each other?

[HayZee518]

HGTV had a show on installing a tree house apartment. you could try there. they had large double ended bolts that screwed into the live tree's core. off this they installed the supporting "beams" 4X6's.