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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

MORE photos (gallery) of "The Wolfe's Den" Guest Treehouse in The Catskills

The Wolfe's Den Treehouse- Built and designed by Derek "Deek" Diedricksen. Exterior photo- taken slightly before full completion.
      For all you tiny home/house, small living, and tree living enthusiasts out there- here are MANY more photos of the treehut / treefort / treehouse (call it what you will) that I designed and built over in the Catskilll region of NY. The whole structure's shell was prefabricated into five pieces that we drove to the site (from the Boston area originally), and the posts, support girder, tree harness, and the deck were built from scratch at the final locale. The doors and windows, all of them, were salvaged from street curbs during trash day runs, the tongue and groove cedar is all sustainably grown Vermont cedar, the furnishing are all simple Ikea pieces, or built-ins I made on the spot (as additional after-thoughts), there is a built in bird viewing window in the FLOOR, and the overall floor area is a 10' sided equilateral triangle. We shot a TON of video on this, and it will eventually be an episode for "Tiny Yellow House TV" and Make Magazine. Thanks to Steven Sherrick from Modern Vintage Productions, and to NY local, Steve Sporaco- who were had to luxury (for a change) to hire in order to help me with some of the heavy lifting, hardware store runs, and more.                                 -Derek "Deek" Diedricksen.

The interior with many Ikea furnishings, and a few lanterns I came across
A large knee brace was later added- but not really needed....
Night exterior- with the candle lanterns....
This tiny little armchair/reading area overlooks a view of the woods through the small window to the left.
Deck shot, with the unstained french door (a curbside find) in the background- we later stained it a "Gunstock" finish.
Like a spaceship in the woods....
The "Third Leg" of the treehouse/polehouse- the doubled up girder and floor supports/framing sits in a heavy-duty galvanized steel cradle, that is attached to a bolted and nailed set of brace boards on the tree. The base of the tree (below the support) angles TOWARDS the structure, so that if the treehouse were to drop over time, or attempt to settle, it would only serve to further wedge and tighten the support against the tree. The girder itself its also toe-nailed (with huge gauge spikes/nails) into the brace boards on the tree.

The design from this treehouse partly comes from my sketch/plans for "The Beak 2"- which is in the NEW EDITION of my book "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks" (Lyons Press). You can pre-order it, REALLY cheap, at the link below...