“I love it when a plan comes together.”

More than one person has observed that this project was taking on qualities of the Winchester Mystery House. In the sense of what I had originally intended to do this year, that is true. We had always talked about a second platform, a bridge and stairs to the ground, but we moved up the time table on these features when it became clear that the height of the main platform was a bit challenging for many people.

So, as you’ve seen, there is a second platform, a bridge and stairs. The remaining tasks as of the last update were to install railing on the staircase and a gate at the bottom that can be locked. I went up this weekend and finished those things. Finally, the construction phase is done for this year!

As there was adequate time to complete these tasks and I was down to the details, I took a little extra care with fitting a few pieces with intricate cuts so they could interlock with other features. The most vivid example was a short piece of rail cap that needed to be installed next to a stair rail. The path of the stair rail extends through part of the space that the rail cap would occupy. The simple approach would be to rip the rail cap to a narrower dimension, but I wanted to keep it the same width as the rest of the railing, so I cut out a void where the stair rail was.

Here are the two posts that need a rail between them. Note how the star rail terminates right next to them:

This is the piece I cut to fit in there, alongside the tool I used to make the cut:

And here is the piece fitted around the stair rail:

By Saturday evening, the railing for the upper staircase was complete. Sunday morning, I started on the railing for the landing and lower staircase. In the early afternoon, I had a pleasant break in the routine when Dale and Karin stopped by for a visit.

They walked up to the work site with me, picked their way through the construction debris and climbed up to the tree house. We visited for a while and then I resumed working as we chatted. Right before they had arrived I had sawn the slats for the stair rails and merely needed to lay them out and screw them on, so it was nice to visit while doing that. Karin saw the trail I had roughed in to access the staircase and asked if I wanted to line it with fallen branches to define the path. That sounded good to me and she busied herself with doing that and wearing in the path a bit more. Dale kept me supplied with slats as I needed them and we caught up while our hands were on autopilot.

After a time, they needed to get back on the road. By then, the rails were finished and I began working on the gate. By dusk, the gate was completed. Following is a series of shots showing the approach to the gate and the ascent up the stairs, into the tree house:

Before winter sets in, there is a bit of sanding to do, a little more rope work and then I’ll apply a finish. As far as the construction goes, everything that will be done this year is done. Next year, I’ll set my sights on the roof, which should be comparatively simple.

Continued