All mixed up

Over the weekend I did a little noodling around on design ideas for the main steps, we considered trying something with a spiral or maybe a little half-way switchback, but in the end we decided on a simple linear staircase with no supports.

We didn’t do any physical work yesterday, but we walked around and did some brain storming about our next steps. Did some thinking about the steps, mentally envisioned what they’d look like in all the potential spots they could go.

Today we decided on a good landing spot for the steps. We propped up some 2x4s to visually represent where our stringers will go. We used that info to decide where the landing on the ground would be. Dad brought along a couple bags of concrete mix so we started on that.

First we cleared a little rectangular area and put down a little gravel.

After that, we built a small frame from 2x4s to form the concrete.

Since we don’t yet have a water source at the tree house, we zipped over to the nearby river and grabbed a couple bucketfuls of water.

After mixing the concrete in a bucket, we dumped it into the form and leveled it off with another 2x4, followed by a little touch up with a trowel.

Next task is constructing the actual steps.