Did anyone actually have a treehouse?
Posted by FrebTheRat@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 407 comments
It seemed like a lot of kids in movies and tv had a treehouse when we were kids. Did anyone actually have one? My wife and I talked about it and neither of us knew anyone that had one.
Spare_Basis9835@reddit
We had a large boat suspended in a huge oak tree. You could really get that thing swinging. Its was probably 16ft long and the top was probably 12-15 ft off the ground. Good Times!!!
emilyyancey@reddit
Not exactly a tree house, but surrounded by 88 trees (my Dad counted!). My brother & I had matching playhouses on stilts, all built by our Dad, connected by monkey bars. Mine was white with rope ladder…my brother’s was red with a brass fire pole. We loved those playhouses & even relocated them from VA to TX when we moved. Thanks Dad!
Brown-eyed-gurrrl@reddit
My friend and I built one ourselves. Girls. We worked on it every day
cabinet123door@reddit
My dad built ours. It had a10x10 platform, railings to keep us from falling out, a trap door to keep the "enemies " out, and a swing.
ImpossibleEnthesis@reddit
My stepdad built us a bad-ass tree house. It was absolutely a one room studio up in the tree. Loved it!
SquareConfusion@reddit
I built both a tree platform with sides and a plain tree platform. My crazy friend, RIP, had a legit tree house though. We’d climb up and get lit. Partied up there with 4 guys at a time. Thing was robust.
SquareConfusion@reddit
I built both a tree platform with sides and a plain tree platform. My crazy friend, RIP, had a legit tree house though. We’d climb up and get lit. Partied up there with 4 guys at a time. Thing was robust.
gentlemanplanter@reddit
I was a self employed carpenter in the early 90's. A buddy was caretaker for a popular movie star at the time. His kids watched the Sandlot and they hired me to build a replica of the treehouse from the movie. Maybe my most fun project. Was paid to "research" as well which meant watching the movie a few times and making notes of the build.
Little-Football4062@reddit
Kinda. It was a large weeping willow that had a frame and platform in it.
Mysterious_Cry_7738@reddit
There were some kids down the road from me that had a legit tree house. Dad had money and was a contractor. It had a fuckin firemen’s pole to go down. Electricity/heat. It was awesome lol.
jacksraging_bileduct@reddit
We tried building a community tree house in the woods out of junk we could find, didn’t go so well.
Higglety-Pigglety@reddit
My grandpa built a treehouse at his place for us grandkids. He built a platform suspended between multiple trees. It had a small structure on it, framed with wood and sided with fiberglass panels. It had a ladder that could be suspended up or pulled down. In the structure were several hammocks, so we could comfortably stay overnight in it. It wasn’t terribly huge, but it was plenty big for us as kids.
alligatorhalfman@reddit
I did. It was awesome! The only downside was how the honeysuckle creeped up the side of it. It looked pretty cool, but it was covered in bees all summer.
MNConcerto@reddit
We did, we built a multi level one at my cousins house. No parental oversight. It was sketchy as hell. We were there at least one weekend a month so I consider I had part ownership of that treehouse.
So yet again, when our children asks how did we survive, my husband and I say sheer numbers, there were a lot more of us, we actually weren't a small generation we just were killed off.
Humble-Grapefruit-64@reddit
Haha, I lived in a trailer park in the 70s in a middle tn small town. One of our neighbors built a two deck with clubhouse in a giant oak in a field. Many memories.
E-Rawk@reddit
We had an abandoned bus in a field next to a pond. The amount of firsts in that field across from my house as a kid are mind-blowing
HVAC_instructor@reddit
No treehouse, just a nearby woods that we built trails and explored
nhwrestler@reddit
Mine was a big plank of wood. No walls or anything else.
thisoldguy74@reddit
I definitely climbed into a few friends' tree houses that was a structure, but we never had anything more than a rusty swing set or basketball goal.
Spirited_Voice_7191@reddit
We had a home-built modular fort in North Dakota. Moved it across the base when we moved, then sold it to a neighbor kid and helped move it to their yard when we moved to Arkansas. Where we had real trees and built a three-room tree house each higher up the tree. You could climb the outside or within. We could "escape" down a great loop of heavy webbing that doubled as a great rope swing.
BunsenHoneydewsEyes@reddit
We put a three foot platform in our willow tree. Never were able to add walls. It was super sketchy, but I loved going up there. When I was in high school I tried convincing a girlfriend to go up with me. None would because by then it was even more visibly a bad idea.
Expensive-Day-3551@reddit
We did. It was more like a tree platform than a tree house. Dangerous as hell
kg51113@reddit
My dad built us a small rectangular platform and we called it a tree house. Enough to hold a few kids under age 10. No sides or rails or anything. Just the tree.
thebeardlywoodsman@reddit
Falling out of it is how I broke my arm the first time!
Ecra-8@reddit
Same. Made out of spare lumber when I was in second grade. Plywood platform. I climbed the limbs higher than the platform and fell 20 ft. breaking my arm, scratching my eye and had to get 40 stitches in my gums because I hit the ground face first into a bed of mulch. Mulch pieces were embedded in my gums.
10/10, would do again.
amopdx@reddit
Same we had a really janky platform tree house built on a tree on the embankment behind our fence. My older brother did most the work when he was like 12, I was 10 and little bro was 7.
Prestigious_Chard597@reddit
Same. My sister and I built ours. We were 6&9 I believe. My dad did add a brace. It was 18" by maybe 2.5 feet.
He offered to make the kids a tree house, and my sister and and I told him no. So he built them a platform! Lol
MarsR0ve4@reddit
Yeah I had a tree platform, and eventually broke my arm on the rope swing.
Expensive-Day-3551@reddit
I told my brother he wasn’t strong enough to pull me up by the rope. He pulled me all the way up and then dropped me down. So I was wrong about that.
ommnian@reddit
Yup. Dad talked about adding a structure on top of it for years but it never materialized. We built an actual treehouse for our kids several years ago.
SpyCats@reddit
Same. I still have a scar on my knee from falling out of it.
MassOrnament@reddit
Same.
icarustakesflight@reddit
Sure was. My younger brother fell off the side and needed some pretty serious emergency dental surgery.
c_b0t@reddit
Same. It was so janky. The kid across the street built it out of random lumber we'd had in our garage.
kswildcatmom@reddit
I love it when someone else uses the word janky! Lol
lizeee@reddit
Same! My mom ended up tearing it down. It made her nervous.
begayallday@reddit
I see that we had the same mother.
conanmagnuson@reddit
Yep. New England. Had a tree platform with a few walls. I think my dad ended up being too busy to help with the roof. Definitely made a six sided one at a friends house though.
Expensive-Day-3551@reddit
Yeah ours didn’t have walls more like a rail made of boards to decrease the likelihood we would fall off
redditprofile99@reddit
Lol. Same. We built several of these so called treehouses and connected them with paths through the woods.
brianonthescene@reddit
We did the same. We built a whole network of stuff all through the wood.
melissisms@reddit
The only person I can think of who had anything resembling a treehouse had just a platform too. I think her dad started it with plans to build a whole treehouse but put the floor down and decided that was good enough.
idontknowhowaboutyou@reddit
Same here.
goldenscales@reddit
Same here. We nailed boards into a tree to make a ladder and then had a little perching spot in the tree. Awful, lol
UnluckyCardiologist9@reddit
Ours, too. And made out of cardboard. lol.
Proud_Cauliflower400@reddit
Yes, sort of. It was a 10'×10' house with a 5'×10' deck space, on a 10' foot tall four post platform, pressure treated lumber.
It was built in the forest on our property.
MNPS1603@reddit
My friends had them - but they were more like a freestanding fort/house on independent legs, not actually mounted to the tree. Both were under trees though so they felt like a treehouse.
Molly_latte@reddit
Not when I was a little kid, but one of my best friends in HS had one from her childhood that we used to hang out and get high in.
It was pretty rad; I remember feeling like I was in a movie or something being in it.
Global_Walrus1672@reddit
My boyfriend when I was a teenager built one. It was above roof level, tall enough to stand up in, could hold about 8 people comfortably, had electricity, windows, a trap door that went up to a sitting area on the roof. It had a heater in the winter, and we just opened all the doors and windows and trap door in the summer. It was a major hangout - he was a certified genius.
Maleficent-Web2281@reddit
That dude sounds like the man, did he continue that legendary status later into his life?
Global_Walrus1672@reddit
Unfortunately not. There seems to be some kind of connection between geniuses and schizophrenia. In his early twenties he pretty much lost his ability to deal with it, refused medication and therapy. Even though he knew things were not real he could not fight it anymore. After 3 suicide attempts, I had to leave for my own safety and he did end up taking himself out a few years later.
Maleficent-Web2281@reddit
Oh I’m so sorry! Damn, life sure is rough for so many.
Accomplished-View929@reddit
I’m really sorry to hear that. Losing an ex (even if you were teenagers) that way is hard.
The_BSharps@reddit
Still lives there to this day.
Life-Meal6635@reddit
Not going to lie. Kinda jelous
EagleEyezzzzz@reddit
That is epic. I can’t imagine anything cooler as a teenager!
Dog_Baseball@reddit
Had one. It was awesome.
Thanks dad!
Small_Fox_3599@reddit
My brother built it in a pine tree, a couple of levels of platforms. I was the only girl with brothers and they wouldn't let me up, they would let down a plastic spider on a string to scare me away from the tree when I'd come near.
Treehouse came to an end when my brother decided to have a 'campfire' in the tree to toast marshmallows. Yes yes, he's still a massive moron to this day!
Ineedavodka2019@reddit
I had a really high playhouse made by my dad. Like 20 feet in the air and you climbed up a ladder. Slid down a slide made out of a countertop.
DA_9211@reddit
Why did I read that as a threesome 😭
skith843@reddit
My sister and I had a club house. It was not attached to a tree but had a canopy, slide, swing and ladders to it. Great fun growing up with that. It's been torn down some time now since I'm 37 lol. But I have great memories in that clubhouse. Including my first kiss.
valhallaswyrdo@reddit
I did, it was just big enough for like 2 kids and was only 4 feet off the ground but it was built between 2 trees by my dad.
LooseSealsBanana@reddit
Not an elevated thing built into a tree but a fort out in the woods made out of plywood and other scraps.
profoma@reddit
There was an amazing 3-story death trap treehouse on some state park land where I grew up. It was in an oak tree and had trap doors and coaches and amazing shit in it.
analogswampwitch@reddit
My brother and I didn't - but his friend around the corner had a really nice one his dad built before his parents divorced. Him and I use to jump off the treehouse onto the trampoline and somehow I didn't break anything! I would love to go over to his house because he also had that trampoline too. We were poor kids.
No_Zombie2021@reddit
We had one at my grandparents summerhouse. Mostly it was my brothers built with my granddad, but it was the coolest place for little 6 year old me.
suspiciousyeti@reddit
We didn’t but we had one built for our kids at our last house because the yard was too steep for a swingset and we always wanted one. We miss that treehouse.
retro_lady@reddit
No I didn't know anyone with a treehouse. This did remind me that my friend had a rope swing in a tree that I loved.
ToBePacific@reddit
I had two. There was an old abandoned deer stand in a tree in the backyard. And I built a rickety platform out of some boards on the tree in the front yard.
LatinBotPointTwo@reddit
I lived in São Paulo when I was a child. There were barely any trees, let alone ones big enough to support a tree house, and my parents would never just let me leave the apartment building by myself, unsupervised.
BirdWalksWales@reddit
I didn’t even have a tree
Global-Jury8810@reddit
We had a Newfoundland. We used the house that my great grandpa built for him.
bipskiddy@reddit
My dad built a 2 story playhouse that I designed with glass windows and shingles roof. Also had a zip line that went the length of the back yard.
SchwillyMaysHere@reddit
We had many sketchy treehouses growing up. At one point I ended up with a nail 100% through my foot.
Phylace@reddit
How many actually had a tree? There's generations of kids, especially in suburbs who never had a tree.
JackBlackBowserSlaps@reddit
I yearnnnnned for one! Still do tbh.
Familiar_Raise234@reddit
Yes. We’d keep in it. It was a platform with sides.
Strange-Mouse-8710@reddit
Not in the trees, but me and some friends did build a big wooden box between two trees, And we did build like platform in the trees above the wooden box.
We did call it a tree house, but it was not really a tree house, it was just a wooden box between two trees, with a platform above it.
Accomplished-View929@reddit
We built forts out of wood we found in lots where they were building houses. Does that count?
Mud_Landry@reddit
I was obsessed with the village in Sherwood Forest in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves as a kid and I built 3 platforms in the woods behind my house, I even built a rope and log bridge connecting them. My older brothers and dad helped. A few years later I got really into skateboarding and building ramps. 25 years later and I’m a woodworker, I think I was onto something. Thank you Robin Hood.
Admirable-Cobbler319@reddit
I've never even seen a treehouse in real life. I knew one kid who had a hand built playhouse, but it was on the ground.
ChevyJim72@reddit
i had 3, they were building a new subdivision in my area and we ummm ummm well we had access to materials and a huge field in the middle of a 45 acres woods. None were safe by any standard but they lasted my entire childhood and beyond. They were community treeforts more than mine. My home was closest to 2 of them and every kid in the area had a part in building them.
Dayzlikethis@reddit
not something in a tree but my dad custom built a play shed that was elevated off the ground. had a sand pit below it and pole to slide down. After we grew up, he took back down to ground level and its now a storage shed.
sassinator13@reddit
Had a tree in the woods that opened up to about 10 feet wide 10 feet off the ground. Filled that whole space with floor. Was a great spot, hung out there with friends from 10 until I could drive.
General_Good_9623@reddit
I made lots of treehouse when I was a kid. I made one that was two stories with wood I stole from construction sites. I built it in a public park area though so the city came and tore it down. That had to attach a chain to a truck to get the main support beam out of the tree cause I put so many nails in it.
Getitoffmydesk@reddit
My brothers and I had a treehouse hanging in the trees over a hill that led down to a big pond, so you know dad built it with our “help”. Our backyard also had a trampoline, a winding bike path complete with ramps and jumps, a pet tree frog that lived in the hot tub, and a three wheeler for ripping around the yard. It was the ultimate late 80s kid’s (well, boy’s) yard. As the girl of the family I remember —at some point around first grade— being sternly told that I need to wear a shirt outside. I was very upset because, “my brothers don’t have to! why me??”
phishmademedoit@reddit
I knew 2 kids who had them.
Economy_Dog5080@reddit
Yep. My dad built two really good ones for us. And then at my grandparents house we had several more that were much less safe, built by kids and added onto by subsequent generations of kids. I think there were six in their back forest.
forgettingroses@reddit
My best friend had a tree house at her house. We had a play house on the ground my parents built that was a miniature version of a real house. It was pretty amazing.
CuriousRiver2558@reddit
Yep. We were raised by a big forest. We had a nice one my dad built, and several janky ones we threw together with pilfered lumber pieces we’d find in our dads’ workshops.
mvislandgirl@reddit
Yes! It had a porch and a "garage' underneath to park our bikes. It was great
Teslaviolin@reddit
Our next door neighbors had one! It was really nice.
Safe_Statistician_72@reddit
Yes! It was like a platform built between sone limbs in the woods not a fancy thing like on tv
ghandi3737@reddit
Mojave desert, so only trees in your yard. Most not big enough or not well suited to a tree house.
Seraphtacosnak@reddit
We tried to build one in my friends back yard when we were 10 and would probably be shut down by the inspectors if they saw it. Not sure how we didn’t die.
Cisru711@reddit
One of my neighbors had this star wars Playhouse, but that was the closest I got: https://images.app.goo.gl/FMWdna2ts6hNx1Y37
MattyRixz@reddit
Yes, it was a rickety crazy ass structure. My step father had tons of building material and a massive detached 4 car garage filled with stuff. Made boobies traps, secret entrances, and elevated walkways going thru the trees.
flamesweregolf1ng@reddit
We built wood maybe 7-10 feet high up in trees, but since we were like 12, it was far from a tree "house" lol, more like wooden planks to stand on
kak-47@reddit
Not a treehouse you see in sitcoms but a platform in the tree. I built my kids a log cabin tree house, or a raised log cabin playhouse.
Silliestsheep41@reddit
This is what my dad built us. We got a ton of use out of it
madsci@reddit
I had a fort about that size too! My dad built it when I was little and it got many years of service. Had a rope swing next to it.
My friends down the street had a more elaborate one - their dad was a tradesman and went all out. It was up on two big telephone poles and had a deck.
And we did make our own attempts at treehouses way up in a pine tree, but they were mostly just benches.
MikeLinPA@reddit
I didn't have a tree. 😭
MissDisplaced@reddit
Interestingly, we grew up in a rural, wooded area and didn’t really make tree houses. A few times we created some platforms, but mostly we just made fort type things on the ground.
Switchblade83@reddit
I was too scared of heights. But as an adult, my best friend of 30 years and I rented a treehouse airbnb in New Hampshire. It was so amazing! Highly recommend.
Delilah_Moon@reddit
We had a playhouse. My Dad built it from scratch.
It was a wooden house with a loft. We’d call it a “tiny home” today or a casita if you’re rich. It was about 500sq ft. It had two windows that opened, a Dutch door, and a pitched roof. The loft slept two.
The playhouse had electric, and we could watch movies on the little tv/vcr combo. There was a futon on the lower level and an old velvet chair. We had some shelves for snacks, a small table, and lots of toys. There was a bathroom in our garage - so we would use that when we played in the playhouse.
When I was little it was the epicenter of the neighborhood. It was Ghostbusters headquarters, our pirate ship, a log cabin in the woods - whatever we needed it to be.
By the time I was in middle school it was my oasis. I had almost every sleepover in my playhouse, smoked my first cigarette, and hid my Boone’s farm.
My parents sold that home in 2000, new owners tore it down.
evolkitty@reddit
You must have been a city kid!! In the country we had 2 tree houses and my cousins down the road had an incredible three story one with trap doors and a zip line to ANOTHER tree house. Small town country living was the BEST
AshDawgBucket@reddit
I did.
thisbitbytes@reddit
No but I had the rusty swing set that raised up out of the ground when you swung up too high.
FrebTheRat@reddit (OP)
I fell off one of those but forgot to let go. Pulled all the skin off my pointer finger...
Dhonagon@reddit
Yes. I had an illegal tree house made out of state road signs. Boy, did I get into trouble. But it was a 3 story tree house with fence and bridge. Oh and a deck. It was beautiful. Made with nails and a handsaw.
Electrical-Pie-8192@reddit
Yup, dad gave us tools and scrap wood and my friend and I built it. Nothing fancy
Prestigious_Door_690@reddit
I had a shitty one I built in a dead tree that fell over our pond in the backyard.
My bff and I used to pretend to live out there and I tried to start a fire in our “fireplace” which was a large pewter bowl I stole from my parents. The whole thing melted and we almost burned the thing down lol
North_Artichoke_6721@reddit
I had a play fort with a slide and swings.
None of our trees were big enough to climb.
MotherofaPickle@reddit
Yep. Dad built it. It even had a bridge to a platform on the next tree.
ghoster32111@reddit
All the kids in the neighborhood scavenged stuff to make our tree house. So kids got pallets and cardboard things of that nature and we built it very illegally in a patch of woods. It was 3 floors with a dry moat around it obviously. We actually dug a 4 foot deep ditch around this thing and built a "draw bridge" for it. This thing was so not stable. It's a wonder no one was hurt. We were all sad when they developed that patch of woods for a house and bulldozed the whole damn thing. A true sad day all us kids watched it happen 😢
papercranium@reddit
I didn't, but I had a friend who did! I was super jealous of it, to be honest.
My stepbrother recently built one for his kids, and I'm so glad. It's good for kids to have their own space to escape to.
dirtyredog@reddit
Filled with tree roaches. I couldn't get anyone else in it more than once.
jdeuce81@reddit
We had a multi-story tree house. We had stole wood from jobsites around our neighborhood. It was HUGE. You could rope swing off the second floor. It was definitely sketchy AF. We(8-10 of us) were in our early teens when we built it. Alot of beer and weed were smoked. We had smaller ones in different spots in the neighborhood. The house we chilled had a half pipe we built, and the big tree house was close to it. Damn, I miss those years. What a great time 94-97.
ScumBunny@reddit
We had forts. We’d go into the woods with an old tarp and whatever wood pieces and construct these little ‘houses’ to play in. Complete code violations.
price101@reddit
I did. My dad helped build the platform and we built the rest.
Cook_New@reddit
I didn’t, but my younger brothers did. :/
Former_Balance8473@reddit
My neighbour had one growing up. I fell out of it and broke my arm. Good times!
I never saw another one my whole life.
TomCatInTheHouse@reddit
My dad built a platform in set of 4 trees that was our tree house. You climbed a wood ladder to get to it.
travelinmatt76@reddit
I had a fort on stilts. We didn't have good trees so my dad built a fort on 8 foot stilts with a drawbridge ladder that you could pull up
LordLaz1985@reddit
No, but I had one of those plastic play houses.
Expert-Lavishness802@reddit
We had some 2x4 lumber nailed into the base of a tree to make a makeshift ladder high enough to get to the first few branches and then about 20 feet higher up we roped up a couple scrap sheets of plywood and nailed them to a somewhat level area of branches making a floor area maybe 7'x9'
So I didn't have a treehouse per se, more of a rudimentary balcony in a elevated position to spy on the enemy (cops vs robbers, cowboys vs indians etc)
CaesarAlesia@reddit
2 story tree house with a deck on top of the 2nd story. Scavenged construction sites for a whole summer. We had to cut down 2 trees and make a 35 foot ladder from them with 2x4s to get to the deck. Sketchy as anything, amazed we didn't kill ourselves.
ddmf@reddit
I had a wee den under the weeping willow at the bottom of our drive, had a stool under it. Was very cool in summer.
Immudzen@reddit
I did have a treehouse. My stepdad built it because he wanted me to go outside more often and stop reading and building things. I spent very little time in it because it was just not my kind of thing and more something he wanted. The same way I got signed up for boy scouts.
ianmoone1102@reddit
I did. I was lucky to have a dad who enjoyed building and knew how to do almost anything. He built my brother and I a tree house at 2 different homes. Looking back, they were both engineering marvels, and the fact that he built them by himself, with no help, is absolutely amazing.
EmmalouEsq@reddit
I wanted one so badly! Nobody in our neighborhood actually had one, though.
badteach248@reddit
I knew one kid who's dad made an actual tree house. It had electricity, and windows, a tiny kitchen that actually worked...
ddiknosaj@reddit
I didn’t but my best buddy did and we loved that fucking thing
pinkteapot3@reddit
I’m in the UK and literally no-one had one. Thanks to TV I thought every US garden had one? 😂
Bijorak@reddit
My friend did. It was tiny
tasukiko@reddit
Yes. Both of my grandfather's were into building things so they made it for my sister and I from scraps as they were helping my family redo the kitchen.
me-1985@reddit
Just got to my mom’s house from a long drive. Will post picture of dilapidated treehouse tomorrow
Sunshinehaiku@reddit
Yes, but after a year it was all crooked because the tree grew.
Curious_Version4535@reddit
Yes I did.
woolsocks11@reddit
No, but I really wanted one. Never mind the fact that I grew up in very urban area so trees for tree houses were few and far between. 🤣🤣
Adventurous_Bit1325@reddit
A pretty basic one when I was quite young. Just need the right tree limb situation and some scrap wood.
HugeTheWall@reddit
We did! It had no roof and you had to climb boards nailed into the tree. It was literally a little platform and it wasn't even on our property, it was in the woods on the edge of our town but nobody ever went out there or knew it was there when we were kids, just us 3.
My siblings and I drew all over it with those good smelling Mr sketch and it would wash off in the rain so we could always make up new games and stuff on it.
Where I live now there is a treehouse in someone's backyard and I walk by it daily. It brings me joy thinking about the family who built that in their house nowadays when everyone is worried about resale value and stuff. The treehouse warms my heart.
AggressiveCommand739@reddit
We didnt have a tree that could accommodate one, but we did have one at my grandmas. A friend had a dad that was a skilled tradesman that had an amazing treehouse we called the clubhouse. It was sizeable, had 4 walls, a roof, a door, and windows with shutters. We slept out in there all the time.
MalkaviousM@reddit
I did! In fact, that's how I ended up having to get a tetanus shot once! Was coming down and one of the 2x4s used for the ladder came loose. I fell about 3 feet square onto my ass... or I would have if not for the 2x4 that fell nail up onto the ground before me. I didn't feel a thing until I stood up and realized there was a board hanging off of my butt. Good times!
Brainfewd@reddit
We had a pretty legit one, platform was probably 6x12’ ish, about split in half with a deck and a covered “fort” area.
haole_bi@reddit
I did with a two story staircase and all. Had some really fun things as well. Grandpa was a carpenter and lived building us things.
JBCTOTHEMOON@reddit
Not a tree house. But when I was a kid in Germany, we lived in a small town, and down the road from our barracks, there was a forest area that was pretty much untouched. But some other kids made a fort in the woods. We adopted it as our own. Was pretty awesome.
ViceroyFizzlebottom@reddit
I lived by railroad tracks, a glass plant and a softball field. Using what I now assume was asbestos blocks and an old discarded wood scoreboard we made a fort of sorts next to the tracks and an unused warehouse dock. I also collected a 5 gallon bucket of railroad spikes and another bucket of green glass electric pole insulators for some reason.
brownbostonterrier@reddit
Yes. My backyard backed up to what was called “wildcat mountain” in fort smith ark. We spend the entirety of days out in the woods. It was the best memories of my childhood
SekhmetScion@reddit
Military brat? I spent 6yrs total at NAS Sigonella, Sicily (between '89 - 97 with a break in between). Our house off base (same one both times) was closer to Mt Etna and there were literal hills of lava rocks surrounding our little neighborhood.
I used to climb & explore those ALL the time! Instead of a tree house, I found concrete remains of small buildings and made forts out of them, campfires and all. They basically just had a few walls and doorway left. There was also a bigger, mid-construction house (1 story with a driveway & garage in the basement) that had been abandoned for years. THAT was my big fort lol
I was in Germany several times, but just visits up to Frankfurt and back with a parent.
JBCTOTHEMOON@reddit
Yeah, 88-91 just outside of Frankfurt. Miss it a ton and actually plan on moving back here in a couple years.
SekhmetScion@reddit
Cool! I was 89-91 & 94-97. Last year we were there, my parents rented a van and we drove all over Europe, exploring all the sites, and catching a ferry to England. My dad was retiring and we weren't sure if we'd ever be back. I still want to go visit some friends over there one day.
JBCTOTHEMOON@reddit
It's the best. Just kinda done with here and all the political chaos....I know it's there too, but at least there is history, culture and better food there lol
SekhmetScion@reddit
Amen to that! I'm actually from New Zealand and REALLY plan on moving back this year lol My dad adopted me when he married my mom, I was still a toddler. He was stationed in Antarctica and took his leaves in NZ.
JBCTOTHEMOON@reddit
Heard it's beautiful and definitely on my list. Good for you! Do it!
SekhmetScion@reddit
It is and will do! Be nice to see the parents and have free healthcare again lol
JBCTOTHEMOON@reddit
Lucky son of a bitch lmao
NameIdeas@reddit
Grew up in SE USA. We didn't have a tree house, but we did have an area in the woods that became our small fort area too!
SisterInSin@reddit
East coast, mid-Atlantic region here. We also made a fort in the woods made from various wood scraps.
It was awesome!
Hike_Life_247@reddit
Midwest, USA and I did the same back in the 80’s. My sister and I discovered old fire trails in the woods near our house and it became our place. We built a fort out of all kinds of junk. I don’t think we ever did tell our mom about it. Hahaha
NameIdeas@reddit
Same! We found old rusty metal, broken glass and all sorts of pipes and made our fort. Used some old busted pipes to be our telescope and our cannon
Indubitalist@reddit
This is pretty much what we did. There was a forest to the west of our neighborhood lining a creek. We built a fort in a tree out of lumber scraps from the neighborhood they were building next to ours.
Distinct_Safety5762@reddit
My cousin had a legit treehouse they’d inherited from the previous owners, but ours was exactly like yours- “scraps” that in retrospect were actually quite usable and just stolen from construction sites.
Side note, I once found a cool fort down by the river, but it was a meth lab.
Sudden_Cancel1726@reddit
My friends and I had a fort in the woods build out of garbage.
Kulban@reddit
My next door friend did. It was a proper tree house like you'd see in a movie. Ladder leading up, walls, roof, windows, very well done and crafted.
jackfaire@reddit
Tree house no. clubhouse yes. My brother and I took a bunch of old doors and a barrel and built a tree house in this rock pile that dominated our side yard.
_R_A_@reddit
I'd say it was more like tree scaffolding than a tree house.
BossDjGamer@reddit
One of my best friends growing up had one. It was awesome
Fresno_Bob_@reddit
My cousins had multiple platforms well up a very large tree in their back yard. It wasn't enclosed at all. Miracle nobody died falling out of it. My dad's best friend built a really cool fully enclosed one for his grandkids, supported on about a 6' high stump in the middle of a cluster of pine trees in their back yard.
thorsbeardexpress@reddit
Dad built me one in the back yard, best 4 years of my life
singlesunbeam_enough@reddit
Yesssss! I would sit up there and spy on the neighborhood 😂🤣
Morriganx3@reddit
Yes! My dad built me the best treehouse. It was probably 15-20’ off the ground, and fully enclosed with shutters on the windows.
It originally had a fold-up rope ladder so you could pull it up after you, but the ladder got anchored to the ground once I started hanging out up there with boys
Aslanic@reddit
My brother and dad built ours as well! It was basically a hunting cabin in the trees. It ended up being taken down when I was in college, because it was rotting through or the trees were failing, I forget. It had a deck and ladder, windows, ventilation, etc. It was like 15' in the air, supported by like 4 trees.
Morriganx3@reddit
Mine got taken down when I was in my 20s, before my dads sold the house. The trees are still there, though, and you can see where they grew around the support beams. I kinda wish I could have one now!
schizrade@reddit
That’s bad ass.
Morriganx3@reddit
I have a really awesome dad :}
pop5656@reddit
I had a friends who dad was a carpenter. He had two. They were legit AF
TurdFerguson2OOO@reddit
I did, and so did 2 buddies in the neighborhood. They were awesome. We'd ride bikes around all day hopping from treehouse to treehouse.
No-Falcon-4996@reddit
My neighbors had a tree house, it was very very cool and I tried to have one built for my own kids but $$$ It had a door in the floor accessible by climbing a knotted rope, which you could then pull up so nobody else could enter the fort. Way cool playhouse.
NW_Forester@reddit
I had 3 tree houses. First one was short lived, my dad made it, super high quality but my parents sold the house the year after it was built.
Second one was some platforms in a maple tree. Third one was an epic 3 story with 2 rope bridges and a water balloon launcher built in doug firs.
Tree houses are limited by a few things normally.
We used it through high school when we would have paintball wars.
Western_Ingenuity489@reddit
I totally had a treehouse. My dad built it. We had a pulley and everything.
WalkielaWhatsUp@reddit
Sure did! The floor was a 4’x5’ platform that dad built. We had 2x4s for the railing and chicken wire to make sure no one fell out
Me on the left, age 8. Niece, age 2. My dad, the engineer/architect
Schmuck1138@reddit
I had a left over piece of 2x4 in a tree, does that count?
The_BSharps@reddit
Absolutely
Its_The_Water360@reddit
A bunch of my friends did but I grew up in the pacific NW so trees aplenty. We would have sleepovers and play gameboy in them all the time. Once we became teenagers it is where we would drink beer and smoke bud. Many hungover mornings waking up in it.
MoulanRougeFae@reddit
Not a treehouse but a playhouse that was 10x10. My dad put a window ac in it, tv, and some furniture. There was this really tacky cheap chandelier he got at an auction. I thought it was the prettiest thing as a kid. It was a fake crystal monstrosity in reality lol. It was glorious. Outside was a greenhouse he made from two of those solar room things off old Wendy's. We weren't rich by any measure but my dad was amazing at building things and sourcing all sorts of shit.
ind3pend0nt@reddit
Cousins had one in the undeveloped land behind their neighborhood. It was a a creation.
hvacigar@reddit
I did, but I am Gen X
yuccu@reddit
Nope. Killer creek though. Many an adventure there.
eggs_erroneous@reddit
I had a best friend whose dad was an engineer. The dad built my friend a 3 story treehouse complete with real glass windows in the fully enclosed top story. The shit was incredible. It really was like something out of a kids movie.
peggysue_82@reddit
We built them every summer, and every fall the hoa would tear it down.
MsBlondeViking@reddit
My siblings and I did.
Mind-of-Jaxon@reddit
My cousins had a platform in one of their trees. It fit 3 or 4 of us
begayallday@reddit
Yeah, it was super ghetto and covered in moss, but yeah. I camped out in it once and got chewed alive by insects. Never again.
BibFortunaCookie@reddit
I had an under a dock fort.
HistoryGirl23@reddit
My family had one in our backyard and several friends and we built them in the woods around our house too.
CarRamrod72@reddit
Yup! Eventually decommissioned and turned into a chicken coop
spanishpeanut@reddit
My neighbors did and I was so jealous. It had a ladder on the tree and everything. I never got to go up in it, but I watched it from the ground desperately.
My BIL made one for my niece and nephew. They love it.
Responsible_Dog_420@reddit
My dad built a platform with a railing and a ladder in a tree. I fuggin lived up there.
eyecue82@reddit
Yes, circa 1990. Made it behind a nearby park. Really it was a bunch of branches thrown together on a tree and we hung out like monkeys, but to our young brain it was a “treehouse”.
Past-Adhesiveness150@reddit
Not like a huge cool one. But we managed to get a few sheets of plywood & supports up in a tree. It was more like 3 sides & a floor. But it was on the side of a hill that overlooked a small stream.
Dustbustin@reddit
Not me but a buddy of mine had one. It was a solid place to stash a stack of penthouse and playboy mags. A great escape for an early adolescent kid.
Nicolas_Naranja@reddit
We had a tree fort, basically a platform in an oak tree about 10 feet off the ground. I remember nailing 2x4s to the trunk as a ladder
peritonlogon@reddit
We had a couple of tree houses around our property and our neighbors in and near the woods. We also had a pretty awesome rope swing from one of the pine trees that could swing way out over the road. It was a lot of fun but very dangerous. I never got hurt, but whenever we had friends over there was a good possibility. But we were 6-12 so we were obviously responsible enough.
EggieRowe@reddit
We had a “neighborhood” one that everyone contributed to build in the woods, but some high school kids got drunk, built a fire in it, and it burned up.
Boring_Pace5158@reddit
Not a tree house, but we built a platform on the tree. We connected 3-4 wooden pallets. And built steps to it
Life-Meal6635@reddit
I know a few people who did! And then when I moved out I moved into a spot that was almost like the creek version of the Swiss family Robinson home
SaucyNSassy@reddit
I did! We built it in a huge tree on my grandparents farm
def_unbalanced@reddit
I'm not sure if this is in the same ballpark, but my brother dug a hole along the pine tree line directly behind our house on base housing whilst growing up. A few weeks later, we noticed that he was building a pine straw hut out of sticks and branches. It was pretty massive and quite impressive, really. It was totally enclosed, except for the entrance.
One day, I was walking home from a friend's, and I noticed firetrucks racing down the street. I knew that it was my brother...
Idiot was cooking ham in the "firepit" he dug in his fort. Fortunately, there was no damage really to the trees. But that fort went up quickly! Yes, my brother was fine. He called the fire dept.
No more treehouses or forts after that! Twas forbidden for both of us! He admitted later that he's has had a few cookouts in the fort before successfully. 😒
BarelyThere78@reddit
Yep. Two of them. My dad (carpenter, handyman) made my brother and I an awesome one. And my brother and I (along with friends) built a janky one, using scrap wood, old chicken wire and whatever nails we could find/scrunge. [We grew up in the country, in the Pacific NW.]
broadwayallday@reddit
my neighbors up the hill had a whole avatar complex in their back yard trees. all kinds of bridges and ramps and ladders. they grew up to be builders so it makes sense
Jingoisticbell@reddit
Yep
Just_Another_AI@reddit
We had a fort. Next to a tree. Like a 4x8 elevated structure with ladders and no safety railings.
StillDouble2427@reddit
I had a neighbor with one. Built a few feet into the woods behind their house.
IllustriousGeneral12@reddit
I had friends down the street that had one! We even slept over in it one night. The ladder was just planks on the tree and I feel like the thing was really high up, so I’m surprised none of us fell and broke bones tbh.
ospreyguy@reddit
So we cut a huge pine tree down in the woods behind our house. It only fell a 1/4 of the way and got hung in the other trees. This made a perfect ramp and canopy at least 30 feet up. We lived like kings in a castle, bringing up supplies and making a great little nest. Lasted about 2 weeks before it gave out and fell while we were in it. Only scrapes and bruises that could have been so much worse. The next fort was on the ground.
Unpainted-Fruit-Log@reddit
We had one. It was built by the previous owners of our house. My brothers and I would climb up and stare into the windows of the creepy swinger house behind ours.
tampapunklegend@reddit
I lived near several grandfather oaks in central Florida, and we would salvage plywood and 2x4s and make what we considered treehouses. Another friend of mine, who of course is now an engineer, made a 3 story treehouse in the yard of his mom's house.
xrobertcmx@reddit
We did for a few years. Then moved.
pennie79@reddit
My cousins had one. We loved it.
We didn't have a tree house, but my parents got us a big A frame and some planks. We used sheets to make a cubby out of that.
EastTXJosh@reddit
I had a wooden fort. Not as cool as a treehouse, but the same concept. My best friend that in my neighborhood had an actual treehouse.
ohCaptainMyCaptain27@reddit
My neighbor Brad, 2nd grade. Prick.
beezchurgr@reddit
My cousins had one. They lived on this huge property and the treehouse was next to the henhouse, although they sadly did not have chickens.
Ok_Percentage5157@reddit
Yup. We built it with my dad. It's still there 40 years later.
EagleEyezzzzz@reddit
We did! My dad was a politician and it was made with some of his enormous wooden campaign billboards 🤣 It was multi level and had his giant face and slogan on it. Pretty epic lmao!
We went back and visited our old house like 15 years after we moved away when I was a tween and it was still there.
sapperbloggs@reddit
I had a tree that I could climb and be hidden from the world. No house up there, just a solid branch that I could sit on.
taylorwmj@reddit
Not a treehouse, but a fort on top of the "tower" of our swingset.
My father (an architect) built it. Was about 8'x8' w/7' ceilings hinged locked door in the floor to get up into it, siding, 3 windows, slopped roof (we are in Wisconsin -- need that snow and ice to come off easy) with shingles, and electrical run with 2 GFCI outlets. He put insulation in the walls and ceiling and we'd put a box fan in it in the summer. Would do homework in it after school in 2nd and 3rd grade (moved before 4th grade) from Sept - Snow and March - June. Sister and I would just chill in it in Summer until it got too hot in July/August and would even just fall asleep in there. Became THE place to hangout in the neighborhood for the younger kids.
miianwilson@reddit
I built several as a kid. I have 2 in my backyard currently for my kids.
SnoopDoggyDoggsCat@reddit
Ghetto one in the woods
mercyful_fade@reddit
I did, in our redwood tree. It was gorgeous. I totally rammed a hot wheels into my friend's forehead and the blood drops were on the steps for years and years.
scotttydosentknow@reddit
My father built one for my sister and I when we were kids. Was fully enclosed with a window, door and small deck off one side. Big ladder going up. It was tall enough that you would have gotten hurt pretty bad if you fell out. Spent a lot of time playing in that thing!
zaxxon4ever@reddit
Yes, I had a great tree house. My dad built it for me. It had real shingles on the roof and real windows. Very wel built.
CurtIntrovert@reddit
No. I had a cubby made from chipboard it was the only nice thing my stepfather did he built it for my 4th birthday. It was only because his brother and their kids were coming over so it was for show and he destroyed during one his rage fits.
noonesaidityet@reddit
Kinda. My grandparents had what we CALLED a "treehouse". My grandpa built it when my uncles were kids. It was on 4 big wooden poles, the floor was about 15 feet off the ground, had 1x6s nailed to the poles as half walls and had a roof. At first there was a wire ladder, then they built steep stairs. Directly under it was a sandbox, and off the side of one of the poles was a tire swing and a wooden plank swing. It was used until the youngest of the cousins outgrew it. The thing was really sturdy, but it seemed like as soon as it wasn't being used anymore, it started falling apart. One of the poles began sinking, the floor started to give. They finally pulled it before it fell on it's own.
fumbs@reddit
My cousin had a two level one that we could see into an expensive arboretum. We used to throw water balloons at people and cars from it. They also had an epic fig grove where I ate my weight in figs every summer.
Another cousin had woods on their property and we would wander in there for hours with no supervision.
And one of my older relatives had a prohibition house where you could get from inside to outside in so many ways. It was the best hide and seek ever because even though we were told to never use the passages we were feral lol.
Still-Base-7093@reddit
My older brothers built a sort of platform in a tree that was unsafe and no one was allowed in it. That was as close as it got.
snowmaker417@reddit
I built a complex among the trees that included bridges and a zip line.
fairlyaveragetrader@reddit
Yeah, definitely did and so did both of the neighbor kids. I lived out in a rural neighborhood where we all had farms though. I had a cool treehouse in a giant apple tree. We used to hang out up there with BB guns and shoot it stuff just for the hell of it, especially when the apples would fall, either shoot them out of the tree or on the ground, whatever was easier, I remember other fun and exciting things like Apple wars and some of the creative ideas we came up with, the best one was a number to Phillips screwdriver could punch a hole in an apple exactly the size of a firecracker so you punch your hole in the apple, stick a firecracker in there, light it and you have about 1 second to throw it before it blows up in your hand which stings, ask me how I know 😂
joyfullofaloha89@reddit
I did. Was the most awesome thing about my childhood
Enge712@reddit
My grandfather had a tree house at his farm for all the grandkids
We hade several forts and cabins we built later on the ground but not in trees. Although at one point we had walkways between cabins, towers and palisades… we may have watched Braveheart and 13th warrior too many times
johnvalley86@reddit
One of the biggest memories I remember from my family's tree house is my brother and I having a paintball war. Everything was going great until he thought having The High Ground AKA The Treehouse, was a good idea. It had open slats for walls, not solid. He learned a hard lesson about Firepower differences that day. And I ended up being grounded from my paintball gun
Holiday_Snacks@reddit
No. I climbed the tree and pretended it was my house. There was a perfect Y shaped branch where I sat and talked so much shit to myself 🖤
Glass-Influence-5093@reddit
No, but there was a rudimentary one on a vacant lot/drainage area on the far end of my block. Spent a fair amount of time there!
free-toe-pie@reddit
Actual houses in a real tree are rare in the YS. It’s easier to make a play house in the back yard built higher up near a tree. But it’s not built into a tree. Play houses and swing set structures with a play house are fairly common.
FionaGoodeEnough@reddit
No, but there is a baller one in my neighborhood right now.
lunedejoao@reddit
Yes and a friend had one with a zip line. We had so much fun playing in them.
antisocialnetwork77@reddit
My neighbors did. We loved it. And the older generation of kids in the neighborhood built a couple really awesome forts in the woods. They were teenagers when I would have been like 8.
AnimatronicCouch@reddit
My best friend did, and a girl I went to Sunday School with did. We lived in the woods though, so I guess it was a function of our environment.
Nacho_Sideboob@reddit
I grew up in the woods, so we built a lot of forts.
seiggy@reddit
Sort-of. My dad built basically a shed on stilts in our back yard. It was about 10 ft off the ground, next to a tree. We called it our tree house. Had screened in windows, a trap door, and a tin roof. Hurricane Floyd in ‘99 dropped a pretty big oak branch on-top of it. I don’t think the family that bought the house repaired it. Think they tore it down. Lost my virginity in that tree house. Good memories.
granolabeef@reddit
It was more of a platform
BiasCutTweed@reddit
I had one and it was honestly amazing. Like a tiny cottage in a tree, with built in storage benches.
My dad also built our actual house though so I am assuming this was kind of nbd after that.
emmy_lou_harrisburg@reddit
We had a wooden play structure with 3 swings and a wooden platform. It had a ladder and rails. It was probably 6x6. Maybe 6 feet tall? It was pretty simple. We would cover it in blankets and call it a fort. It was awesome.
0nSecondThought@reddit
Yes. 25’ off the ground with a rope bridge to another platform.
Middle_Earthling9@reddit
We built really janky ones out of 2x4s and ply wood, but my grandpa did build us a rad 2 story playhouse with a skylight.
esocharis@reddit
My brother in law made one for his kids, but it's the only one I've ever seen.
Of course, I grew up in Phoenix, and ain't nobody making a Saguaro-House lol
78judds@reddit
Yup. I suppose technically kind of suburban but undeveloped. Wasn’t on our land and when someone finally moved in/ bought the lot, it got torn down. My friend and I built half a log cabin kind of against a hill. Again, not on ours or his property. That sort of thing pretty much can’t happen any more.
tikisunshine@reddit
Yes! My grandpa built us one. It was like a "loft" with rails around a tree and over a creek. Two girly girls so it also had stairs. Spoiled. Was so sad when it finally came down about 30 years later.
Waughwaughwaugh@reddit
We did! My dad, who sucked in so so many other ways but was an amazing woodworker and builder, built one for my siblings and I around an oak tree in our backyard It was more like a really high deck, it had a drop down staircase and no roof but we had so much fun playing up there. It went around the tree with the trunk in the middle. He also fixed the screened in porch so we could have sleepovers in it.
Electrical-Bacon-81@reddit
Yes , it was a little one that was fine until we got caught smoking weed.
Doublestack2411@reddit
Funny you say because I somehow remembered we did have a treehouse, but it wasn't in our yard. There was a field close by we could ride our bikes to and we had a makeshift tree house. It wasn't anything fancy, some wood blocks nailed to a tree for a ladder, come plywood for a floor, that was about it.
christhomasburns@reddit
I did, built it with my dad and brother when I was six or seven
False-Impression8102@reddit
Yes! Well, we called it the fort. It was a house on stilts between a cluster of trees near a creek.
It was a big reason for my parents buying the otherwise unremarkable tri-level 70’s house.
TooTiredToWhatever@reddit
Yup. We had one and that was about five or 6 feet off the ground, and then when I was 11 or 12 years old, we used it as a working platform to build one that was about 10 feet off the ground in the same tree.
Crystal-Clear-Waters@reddit
A fort.
wubrotherno1@reddit
No but my cousin did. It was rad!
jtho78@reddit
Yes, it was more of a platform with some half walls but I think that counts. Two cousins had full treehouses.
aardw0lf11@reddit
I had a neighbor down the road from me who had one. It was small and very low, maybe 5 feet from the ground.
KinderEggLaunderer@reddit
It was more of a tree platform with railings. Now that I remember it, it was pretty dope of my dad to make it for me. It was built into the middle of a tree which in summer you would be completely obscured inside leaves.
HeyKayRenee@reddit
I’ve never seen one in real life. I’d probably be too afraid to climb into it though. I was not a very physical child. lol
Budgiejen@reddit
I remember this girl moved in down the street for about a year. She had a playhouse and I was paralyzed with fear. I still don’t really remember how I got down.
Budgiejen@reddit
I didn’t, but I knew a couple kids who did.
My next door neighbors’ dad was a construction guy. He built his kids a playhouse in the backyard. It was up on stilts with a ladder to get to it. We had some sleepovers in it. I was bummed when the new neighbors moved in and put it on the ground.
EmergencyAbalone2393@reddit
Clearly you are watching the Treehouse Masters marathon
Mr-GuyIncognito@reddit
My friend had one that was built in the late 80s. Her dad was a carpenter and it was built very well. Probably 20 ft. off the ground. It even had an electric outlet and an overhead light. It was really cool.
Auferstehen78@reddit
We had a pit in the forest. Only rich kids had treehouses.
Quirky0ne@reddit
A fort. Probably double the size of an outhouse. Had a window, a doorway and a roof. Fit 4 kids standing up, two maybe three sitting on the floor. It was not in a tree but boy do I wish it was.
ApothecaryFire@reddit
Not a treehouse, but my dad built a raised playhouse over a sandbox. He’s a cabinetmaker so it was pretty nice. My friends that had farms often had sketchy 2x4 platforms with a rope ladder in a tree somewhere on the property though.
Dangerous_Spring5030@reddit
My grandfather built one for my brother and his friends to annoy me with their Super Soakers and Nerf Guns while I tried to hang out by the pool.
He also built the classic tree stand on our other property during hunting season, which that’s still there and in full use.
Asleep_Onion@reddit
Sort of. It was more like a tree deck, a platform with a railing around it. I didn't really use it. I'm not really sure what my dad envisioned that I'd use it for when he built it
williewoodwhale@reddit
We had a whole compound of forts in the woods. Some huts, some up in trees. Early to mid teens though. More for a party/delinquency spot than a wholesome entertainment.
Ornery_Adeptness4202@reddit
Does a tree fort count? We made it in the “woods” all by ourselves but that’s what we called it on the ground. Sounded cooler than stick fort I guess. But ours was indeed constructed initially from a downed oak. We just built around it.
wex118@reddit
My dad built me one. It wasn't enclosed or fancy, just an old ping pong table wedged/attached between 3 trees growing nearby each other in some woods by our house with 2x4 planks nailed into one of them for a ladder, but my friends and I thought it was pretty awesome.
Loud-Strawberry8572@reddit
I didn't have one of my own, but in the neighbourhood where I lived in 4th/5th grade, there was one in a tree that wasn't really in anyone's yard, so me and my best friend would hang out up there listening to tapes and reading. (1988-90). I went to see if it was still there in 2006 and it was not.
bloodpriestt@reddit
Multiple tree houses.
My first one my dad built and then at least 2 others that I built with my friends.
The rest were basically platforms that we gave up on
AstralSoul64@reddit
I didn't have one but I was friends with someone who had one and it was fantastic. He even had a zip line in it like Home Alone.
StillhasaWiiU@reddit
We had an abandoned car that was left in a field. the parents were not fond of this once they found out.
Ok_Egg_471@reddit
No, but if I ever get to own a house that has suitable trees, I plan on having one.
icanliveinthewoods@reddit
Not a tree house, but my grandfather built us a playhouse up on 6 foot high stilts. I was big enough that my two brothers and I each had our own little room in it, with a door and a shelf on the wall. Milk crates to sit on, and each room had a screened window. Narrow porch like hallway in front. We had a homemade ladder made of lumber scraps that we used to climb up to get into it. When we got older he pulled it off the stilts took out the interior room partitions and used it for a storage shed.
Vegetable-Floor-5510@reddit
My brothers (Gen X) did, but by the time I was old enough to use it it had fallen into disrepair. My mom wouldn't let me go up there. My one brother grew marijuana in it 😆
My dad built me a playhouse though, from scratch. He was an engineer.
Fr4gd0ll@reddit
Does an oversized cardboard box on a pallet with a door cut into it count?🤔
TurboJorts@reddit
I had a fort in a giant mulberry bush. My kids have a fort in a big cedar hedge AND a tree to climb.
DrMcJedi@reddit
I had a couple different ones. One wasn’t much more than a couple of ladder-boards leading up to a perch with a rickety platform. Another was a pair of old growth 8x8 beams bridged between two old oak trees about 10 feet up that we built a platform onto when we moved in, that one had a rope to climb up through a gap/opening in the middle. The coolest one was a box built on a stump that had a gantry ladder up to it. My dad put leftover siding on it with a single pitch shingled roof to keep it mostly waterproof to play in. It looked sort of like an AT-ST, so we got a lot of mileage playing Star Wars in that one…
Silly-Shoulder-6257@reddit
I had a homemade DIY treehouse. And tire swing. But what I really wanted was those fancy wooden playhouses complete with a slide.
abuzz543@reddit
My cousins and I built a treehouse over their creek. Those were the days.
mom_bombadill@reddit
Yes! It was awesome. My dad built platforms in a maple tree with a bunch of trunks radiating out from the center, the way some maples do. After my dad passed, my stepdad built more platforms and put in hammock nets. We spent so much time in that treehouse. I wonder if it’s still there.
cahliah@reddit
Not a treehouse, but we did have a plywood play house in the back yard on probably 2' stilts.
out_day475@reddit
We built one in a friends backyard. We used wood taken from leftover piles from home being built near us. Once the tree house was built, we put up a zip line.
FreeTicket6143@reddit
Basically same story here
KelseyOpso@reddit
Same, but it was my backyard. And we may have stolen some nails from the construction site, but the wood was from the trash heap and my dad’s garage. Did you also 1) do your zip line with a rope that eventually snapped while someone was using it, and 2) use handle bars off of a bike someone grew out of for the thing you hang onto?
DimplefromYA@reddit
Nope. we tried to build one… but there were too many bees
Straight-Event-4348@reddit
Yup. Nice one w a tin roof and trap door w rope ladder
Bulky_Necessary_7052@reddit
My dad built one with/for me. He got super into it. Ended up running electricity and a phone line out to it. Put a small tv with rabbit ears out there. I went up in it almost every day after school to do my homework after school. Mom called on the phone when dinner was ready. I was living the life!
PersianCatLover419@reddit
No, but my friends did. It sucked when in the summer of 1991-1994 their older sister took it over with her "boyfriends" to use as a place to take drugs and have sex.
XXsforEyes@reddit
Had a platform up in a tree… probably a deer stand as much as anything it was on the property when we bought it.
schizrade@reddit
Grew up in California gold country deep in the Sierra and we just played in abandoned mining buildings and ruins. Not too much more dangerous but definitely way cooler. 😂
CranberryApart7799@reddit
My dad, who was in construction built ours, but not in a tree. it was on stilts with a sandbox underneath. siding, shingles, a couch, carpet, and a trapdoor. it was pretty sweet.
Celebratory_Drink@reddit
How many of us watched Ernest Scared Stupid and wished that tree house was ours!?
kansas_slim@reddit
Everytime we tried to build one (once even with a cool zip line) it always got torn down by other asshole kids or asshole neighborhood adults.
healywylie@reddit
A friend did. I was more impressed with the broom stick swords with bike handlebar grips .
Celebratory_Drink@reddit
I didn't, but my friend did and it was the scariest ladder that climbed up to a really dangerous platform. I got my first bee sting on that ladder. He also had a zipline that went down a big hill and it was way faster than it should have been. It was painful hitting the bottom. This was in like 1994.
AbbreviationsGlad833@reddit
a small platform. Actually a pallet nailed to a tree limb a few feet up a tree is closest I've seen to a tree house in my childhood.
BbyJ39@reddit
Didn’t have one but always dreamed about it as a kid. My dad thought it would be better to sell cocaine than work a job so he was too busy being in prison to build one for us.
throwingwater14@reddit
I did! Dad built it when I was in about 4th grade. All my friends and my bros friends wanted to come over bc we had a treehouse, swings, woods, and a “small dump” next door to play in. I wanted to go elsewhere to trampolines and such. lol
Existing-Barracuda99@reddit
Yes, a few growing up, plus lots of other outdoor forts. Growing up next to a forest helped.
Lilith_Christine@reddit
My dad made me a free standing one next to a couple trees.
Tarp roof that always caved in when it rained.
Loved that. Used to shoot bb guns off and pretend I was holding down the fort.
TransportationOk657@reddit
My buddy and I built one at his house. He lived out in the country. I also had a cousin who had a decent one.
hcgilliam@reddit
My cousins did, but only bc it came with the house and my uncle was really slow about taking it down. It wasn’t fancy though, basically just a box in a tree with a window in one side.
Oldpuzzlehead@reddit
My step brother had a kid in his class that had one. It was pretty fun the one time I climbed into it.
DefyingGravity234@reddit
My friend's dad was a carpenter and built her a playhouse in a tree. It was pretty cool.
GF_baker_2024@reddit
No, but my friend had a play house in her backyard. Her dad was a carpenter, so it was really well made.
TheLastBlakist@reddit
Never lived anywhere with a sturdy enough tree.
We had a barn, outbuildings, storage sheds, the like.
joshhupp@reddit
Not at my house. I grew up in a developing neighborhood that looked like the homes in E.T. so nobody had big enough trees, but there was an undeveloped area nearby with some old eucalyptus trees that were littered with various tree houses overlooking a dirt bike track.
Mandze@reddit
My godparents’ kids had one. And a pool. And a trampoline. And bunkbeds.
I was jealous, lol.
faderjockey@reddit
I had one, it was about 8 feet off the ground. It had a tin roof, two windows, and a door. It was great!
ZedGardner@reddit
We had a fort we made of old building materials in our back yard. It wasn’t in a tree but close enough.
rjcpl@reddit
Built a few with friends. Then some developer bought all the land behind us and knocked them down for houses and a golf course. So…we took to playing with throwing saw blades and such in the under construction houses and riding our bikes on the golf course.
ConfidentBother6@reddit
My best friend had one. It's the first place I hooked up with my husband lol. Married 20 years together for 30
SweetEuneirophrenia@reddit
We did. My dad built houses. So one day my sister and I said we wanted a tree house. We left for the weekend to visit my grandma and when we came back my dad had built a damn house in a tree. Apparently he'd worked around the clock, and even overnight, for 2 days straight to have it done by Sunday afternoon as a surprise. Roof/shingles, wrap around deck, siding, door, proper windows. And a giant ass staircase to get up to it. Cool dad's are pretty great. He even got the neighbor involved (who had helped him build our actual house several years prior.) So good cool neighbors are great too.
modenotcompute@reddit
Nah. But did I build one “for my kids” as an adult? Damn right I did.
water_bottle1776@reddit
Yes! Me, my older brother (by 2 years), and two of our friends who were the same ages as us built one in a small wooded area behind our friends' house. On the other side of the woods were train tracks, so we spent weeks roaming along those tracks looking for abandoned places to scavenger materials from and built it ourselves. I think our friends' stepdad helped plan it, otherwise I cannot imagine why my parents allowed us to spend the night up there after it was finished.
Fat_Krogan@reddit
A friend’s dad was a carpenter and he built them a literal small “house” to play in and it was amazing. It had an upstairs and screened-in porch. Haven’t thought about that in years. 🙂
Busy_Knowledge_2292@reddit
The trees in our neighborhood weren’t the right kind for treehouses. Some of my friends had playhouses up on stilts that we would call treehouses, but no tree was involved.
When I was already an adult, my parents bought a cottage with a perfect tree for a treehouse, so my dad started building one using the scrap lumber for our old swimming pool. Now my kids and my nieces and nephews have one to play in.
mckmaus@reddit
There was a big one at my grandparents farm. And a tire swing.
stavago@reddit
We had a fort in the woods. I didn’t like climbing trees
I_Love_Hooters@reddit
I had one! It was a platform with a roof platform above, two by four rails around, and a ladder of two by fours nailed into the tree. The tree was hit by lightning and had to come down, though.
impurehalo@reddit
My neighbor had one. He let us all play in it.
CemeteryWind213@reddit
We built one in a parkway (acres of wooded area in a designated park). It wasn't big or well built and only survived a couple of weeks.
TheZillionthRedditor@reddit
I did!
WittyClerk@reddit
Yes, and not a fancy one. My dad built one in my grandparent's back yard (which had a very small thicket with some tall trees on which to build, just North of Boston by the sea). Def makeshift, but it was a blast. Totally forgot about that, thank you for the reminder.
Inside_a_whale@reddit
Yes! In Alaska. It was awesome being the child of an engineer.
flatulating_ninja@reddit
I had a friend who had one. We smoked a lot of pot in that treehouse. Damn thing was 2x4 framed with plywood sheeting on the walls and and framed in door and windows.
CookieTX2022@reddit
We lived in the country with woods in the back. My older brother and his friends built one. Very unsafe and not really much room to stand for more than a few people. It was more like a platform built between the branches lol
Icy_Acanthaceae8731@reddit
Yes. It was in a very cool tree over a gully. On the same property there was an amazing one that my dad built with his siblings when he was a kid, but he didn’t trust it and never let us play on it. It was pretty high up, and we had no hope of getting to it, so we could only admire from afar.
Gogo83770@reddit
I really enjoyed my best friend's rope swing.. no tree house though. Climbed plenty of trees, and we had friends with jungle gyms in their back yards that came equipped with a little house sometimes, but that's it.
Consistent-Ad-6506@reddit
My friend had one in the yard
Chartreuseshutters@reddit
No, but we had an amazing one for our kids until 2020. It was integrated into 3 trees and had a wrap-around deck, zipline and monkey bars. I will regret selling that house until the end of my days, but it was time to get the fuck out of a red state and come back home.
My 5 year old would be rocking the hell out of that treehouse right now if she could. I might try to recreate it this summer as I’m taking a sabbatical and why not? Other than the fact that I’ll likely spend far too much time and money and ruin the view of the neighbor’s pond from my bedroom, I only see benefits.
drainbamage1011@reddit
The house next door to us did. Their sons were several years older than me.
ScreenSignificant596@reddit
Yes, but tech it was my older brothers. Our dad is very handy it had two levels a porch and a fold up latter.
spycej@reddit
💁♀️ my dad built my a two story one in the back of our property. It’s amazing.
MLDaffy@reddit
Never a real "treehouse". But we had a burned out house next door to relatives house that we used as a clubhouse
Two2Co@reddit
Hell yes I had one, and it was fantastic. Scrap wood was harder to come by, but we cobbled together a fort with two stories and a large deck. This was over the span of a year between 5th and 6th grades. So many great memories and that feeling of having my own space was priceless.
imjustpeachy2020@reddit
I had a tree “patio” I guess? It was a platform with 3 side rails but no roof. We had a pulley to bring things up, and a rope swing we could pull up to the entrance and swing off of. Think rope swing over water but no water. We didn’t jump, you climbed down the rope when it slowed.
Somehow I never got hurt, and we were NOT supervised.
FLGANALYST@reddit
Yes. Tree house that doubled as a tree stand during hunting season. Also had forts as well.
gertrudeblythe@reddit
I had one, my grandpa built it for me. He was the absolute best human to me possible.
odabeejones@reddit
Yep I built one when I was like 12. Awful construction and then the tree fell in a storm, can’t believe I survived
geneb0323@reddit
It was more a platform than a house, but we did have one at our grandparent's house. I have always intended on building a good one for my kids, but our neighbor ended up giving us his kid's old playground equipment when she aged out of it and it has a treehouse-like structure as part of it so I guess I don't need to actually build the treehouse anymore.
PsychologicalLog4179@reddit
I found one deep in the woods by my house, near a creek in a ravine. It had 3 levels and was tilted badly towards the hillside. I figured it had been built long before I found it and had shifted as the big old oak tree it was built upon grew. It was a really cool/spooky place. None of the other kids my age knew about it. I haven’t been to it since I was maybe 13. I took some friends there, but no kids from my immediate neighborhood, no one who could just walk to it. I wanted it for myself. I got teased a lot as a young kid and just wanted a place where I could go and be alone in nature. In 91 the Oakland hills burned and destroyed huge neighborhoods. We lived on the opposite side of the bay, but due to the similarities in how our neighborhood was within forested areas people got pretty freaked out. The town put up high fences all over the access points to most of the forests I would wander through and I stopped going as much. I figure as an adult I don’t want to be down there, probably get reported for casing houses or some stupid shit, get charged for trespassing or something. But I sometimes wish I could wander around down there again to feel like a carefree kid again.
xmadjesterx@reddit
My friends and I had two tree houses in two different spots, and a tree "base" behind one friend's house.
We grew the devil's lettuce in one of the tree houses when we were in high school. A homeless guy moved in to it, but he didn't mess with our plants, so we didn't care
emtreebelowater@reddit
We had one at my grandparents cabin in Colorado.
sidurisadvice@reddit
My stepdad was a carpenter, and he built a huge one that was fully enclosed with a fire pole, a shingled roof, lighting, and electrical outlets.
But it was for a rich kid whose dad had hired him to build it. He was going to build a smaller one for me, but he only ever got as far as the blocking and floor joists before he just kind of abandoned it.
Mightbewonderwoman81@reddit
I didn’t have a treehouse, per-say, but my dad built me a playhouse on a raised platform about 5 feet off the ground on stilts. It had a little staircase leading up to the door and screened windows with wooden shutters that opened and closed. I slept in that thing for a week straight that summer. I loved that little house. I painted the entire interior sky blue with fluffy white clouds. I had a foam mattress pad and my sleeping bag, also a box fan and my dad’s old black and white tv with the rabbit ears from his wood-shop, so I could watch Red Green on PBS. PBS was the only channel that would come in clear on that busted old set. The playhouse didn’t have electricity so I had to run an extension cord to the house. But it was cute and cozy and water tight. I miss that place. It was my own little sanctuary. A place to get away from my stupid older siblings. They weren’t allowed in. I never gave them the password. Plus, the door was rather small and they couldn’t fit.
Inevitable-Level-172@reddit
I did! It had a trap door and a pulley system with a bucket! My dad and all his friends got poison ivy building it.
CanadianExiled@reddit
A group of friends and I pillaged local construction sites and planned to build a tree house, we ended up building the Ewok village from Wish. I'm not sure how we didn't die running along walkways built between trees. All of it was done with zero adult supervision over the span of 2 summers. Eventually the suburbs expanded into our little forest and our work was knocked down.
Mattimvs@reddit
I did but it was up on stilts. Many sleepovers were spent there. Then we got a trampoline and the tree house was forgotten...
LikelyLioar@reddit
A kid down the street from me had one. I once watched him put his little sister in a cardboard box, tie a rope around it, and lower the box over the railing of the tree house, at which point their hung-over father, who'd been in a bar right the night before and gotten the shit kicked out of him, ran out of the house screaming, "Put your sister down!"
I grew up in Kentucky.
SoNotMyDayJob@reddit
Does it count if it was in my neighbors yard? It was epic.
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
The trees in our yard are tall and thin. They would never support a treehouse.
On our hunting property we had a bunch of oak and pecan trees with a few tree stands setup throughout the property. Those were basically treehouses, but for killing stuff.
mistyayn@reddit
Yes. And neighbor kids had a massive one.
violetstrainj@reddit
My uncle built a playhouse on stilts for my cousins. That was as close to a treehouse that I have known anyone to have.
tomqvaxy@reddit
Sort of? It was more like a weird metal deer stand. No tree. Just up on metal leggies. Maybe 6feet up?
Upbeat_Bet_6708@reddit
My parents built a two-story fort with wood in the middle of trees at one of our houses, and then an actual treehouse at another.
cmgww@reddit
It wasn’t in a tree but my dad built us an elevated playhouse with sandbox underneath and swingset off to the side. It was great for having acorn and snowball fights, it had benches up in there and everything. In my dad’s true fashion it was super overbuilt (mostly using 4x4s and concrete footers into the soil)…and still stands today, nearly 40 years after he built it. Now my kids and nephews play when we visit. If my parents’ house gets destroyed in a tornado or nuclear blast, that thing will be standing 😂
ParsleyMostly@reddit
We had a few thicket forts. Neighbors had a covered treehouse with a pole! Grandpa had platform treehouse. But they seemed to drop out of fashion in my area by the late 80s.
GQDragon@reddit
I had a fully electric insulated tree house and it was amazing.
NostalgicTX@reddit
I had an epic tree house. There was a huge live oak tree in my yard that at one point grown crooked. Allowing you to basically walk up the gigantic trunk. My buddies spent an entire weekend building it with me and my dad.
NullObjectReference8@reddit
Yep, had one with the neighbors that we all built…on somebody else’s property that eventually came along and told us to remove it lol
Wooden-Somewhere-557@reddit
Yes my mates rural property up the road. We had a flag and we adopted a kitten which gave us ringworm . Great childhood memories.
actionerror@reddit
No. We only had mango trees in the yard, and they were full of fire ants.
BoyznGirlznBabes@reddit
Not a treehouse, but a playhouse on stilts with a trapdoor. Loved it until it got full of spiders in a few months.
JessaRose720@reddit
My brothers tried to build one in the perfect tree but it was not well engineered and dad made them take it down. Our dad ended up building us an eagles nest that would attract wasps that we’d get rid of with hairspray/lighter flame throwers.
Watergirl626@reddit
Climbed a tree and pretended it was a castle tower. Does that count?
crownofpeperomia@reddit
Yes we had one. It's still at my parents' house. A ladder to get up and a pole to go down.
Woad_Scrivener@reddit
Not in a tree but on four telephone poles. My grandfather worked for Bell and had a hook up. The walls were made of old doors. It was amazing.
unlovelyladybartleby@reddit
We didn't have a tree big enough, so my dad built a little shed and put it on top of a dozen fence posts so it was technically up in the trees. He did an insanely good job - it had a glass sliding window, a real door, a front porch, and the roof had asphalt shingles.
theyjustappear@reddit
I didn’t have one but I had a friend who lived in the woods who did. It was really cool.
Puzzleheaded-Phase70@reddit
Sotra?
I made a house out of trees as a kid because my parents wouldn't let me build a tree house
No_Cartographer2536@reddit
We didn't have one at our house but there was one at our grandpa's house.
Unfortunately, he was an asshole so we weren't there often.
Tony_Tanna78@reddit
I've never had a treehouse and didn't know anyone that had one. I never had a desire to want one. I was happy to hang out in my bedroom.
Feisty-Bluebird-5277@reddit
Yes I did, I love it so much, my dad and granddad built it, with a bench inside and steps to climb up. Was wonderful for a good few years until my dad lent against the tree and down she went, tree had started to rot.
GladosPrime@reddit
My friend did, but the dad was very handy.
trixie1013@reddit
Not us, but 2 in my neighborhood. 1 was a neighbor 4 or 5 houses down in their back yard, where the trees became thicker along the creek we shared. We were allowed to use it at will. The other bordered the corn fields at the edge of the neighborhood, which was a bit more rickety, and was torn down after a couple years for new development.
Less-Celebration-360@reddit
Had a few of them. Growing up in Northern Michigan you pretty much lived in the woods. So naturally tree forts were built.
Borracho_Bandit@reddit
Movies and TV shows gave 80s and 90s kids massive expectations of their fathers. My dad was the absolute best but there was no FUCKING way he could build a tree house. “We don’t have a tree to support it “ was his reasoning but years later I realized how obscene my ask was.
GuiltyPiglet5882@reddit
I never knew anyone with one. Seems like it would be a wasp nest haven.
manthursaday@reddit
There was a kid down the street a few years younger that had one. He had what we wouldn't now call helicopter parents and he wasn't allowed more than like 4 houses away.
Me and the kids my age were allowed to go all over. We were on the edge of town so we played in corn fields and hedge rows all day. We built forts in the hedge rows. Sometimes we would put a board up in a tree to sit on but the forts were mostly on the ground.
Relevant_Horror_7311@reddit
Not personally but there was one at my great grandma's house. It was probably built in the 60s.
midnight-dour@reddit
Dad had one growing up. Then, my uncle fell out and broke his arm, so my grandpa tore it down.
A few of the boards they used to climb up were still nailed to the tree when I was a kid.
NoExam2412@reddit
I did! We had a sandbox underneath it.
sambashare@reddit
A friend had a pretty epic treehouse that his grandfather had built many years ago. It was like a garden shed up in a tree!
I "helped" build one with my uncle and grandfather, pretty high up in a tree. Unfortunately, it was just a platform with some boards nailed to the tree trunk to act as a ladder. Sketchy as hell, and only went in it a couple of times. When I was older, like 13, I built a much better treehouse in a field near my house. It was actually pretty good, although being in an open area like that, other kids would use it and trash it...
MonstersMamaX2@reddit
We had one!! Not super detailed like so many you see but I'd still consider it one. A few thicker pieces of wood were nailed in to make steps and they reached a platform. Our neighbor helped us make it.
SloppySquatchy@reddit
yes.
PetuniaPicklePepper@reddit
Best my 'rents could do was one of those two level play structures with the tarped roof.
saltybruise@reddit
I knew one person with one growing up. My buddy on my hockey team made one for his son who is now like in junior high? So two known tree houses in my 43 years on this planet.
malai556@reddit
No, but we probably should have. My grandparents had this huge pine tree in their yard that five of us could play inside of. We would spend hours just sitting at the bottom of the tree, or climbing inside the branches, and except for the fact that the tree was moving, you couldn't really tell we were in there.
brayonthescene@reddit
My 7 year old has been begging me for one and I have had to explain its thousands of dollars and they get gross with bugs and mildew and animal droppings….it’s not like the movies how they are all done up nice and you sure as shit didn’t sleep in them…..I remember as a kid the only one I ever saw the dad owned a construction company so he literally had all the tools, wood and know how, was cool but we used it a few times then like everything else moved on to the next adventure
shiftdown@reddit
I built one with a friend in 6th grade. His dad had a bunch of plywood in the garage. It wasn't exactly osha approved but we spent a few summers in it
OneWhereISeemNormal@reddit
I had one friend who had one. There were four kids in the family and I think it was just a good way to get some of them out of the house.