Snookerglu's tree house

A dead, though still sturdy, tree serves as a foundation for this multistory dwelling on stilts.

On ground level a set of roughshod stair rises under a canvas canopy up to the first floor platform. This platform is approximately 6 ft high and walled in by timber planks and sheet metal scraps. Some of the joinery is quite ingenious, but none of it is standard. Rivets, wooden dowels, and screws are more prevalent than nails, though it seems every other fasteners ever invented is employed somewhere.

The second floor, starting at about 11 ft from ground, is wider and higher ceilinged than the first. It's four walls are made of wooden planks, and these are secured with a greater degree of uniformity than those on the first floor. A small iron stove with a tin chimney snaking up is the most prominent furnishing, being centrally located. Two feet above the floor on two ends of the room rise slender openings that stop just before the vaulted ceiling. These windows have no glass, and their shutters are pulled closed and secured via thick hemp ropes.

A ladder ascends to a loft walkway on one side of the room. During warm months this loft is used for sleeping.

All in all the building rises nearly seven yards into the sky, making it taller than the watchtowers. A stovepipe chimney extends unnecessarily high-reaching above the slate tile roof.