Big Treehouse Push Today

After a month's negotiation between four different households about retractable roofs, the walls v. rails question, screen and netting options, visibility & liability issues, the aesthetic advantages of branches over lumber, the logistical advantages of lumber over branches, and the importance of getting some kind of barrier up around the edge before the rains set in, we agreed on a design that seemed reasonably attractive and quite possibly doable -- though there was a rather high we'll-work-out-the-details-as-we-go-along factor that was a bit unnerving to some of us. Last weekend we got this far:


Then today we got the corner posts up:


And then the top rails:


Voila! (Fear not, grandparents: there will be more balusters.)


We want to take this opportunity to thank a dear friend for his unwavering moral support:


Thanks for everything, Joe. We couldn't have done it without you.