Road trip 3/1/06 to 3/8/06

Washington DC 3/1 to 3/4: Jeff and I visit his folks, go to museums and I meet with a new client in Bethesda who wants a tree perch. They have a great big oak tree. We meet in the yard with the clients and their landscape architects for a great collaborative design session. We decide to attach a tree perch to the oak tree, then a bridge over swings to a Robin Hood’s Fort. It’s freezing cold but everyone ends up happy.

East Hampton, Long Island 3/4 to 3/6: We are off to the tip of Long Island for the sticking out process for our treehouse job.
Early Saturday morning we drop Jeff’s Dad at National airport – Dick was flying off to sunny 80 degree Flordia. We drive to Baltimore Washington Airport to hop a Southwest puddle jumper to West Islip, L.I., where it was 30 degrees and windy.

We rent a car and drive immediately to a Home Depot. There’s snow everywhere and we marvel at the icicles! We brought tools but we need to pick up a ladder and about (25) 2″x 2″x 8 foot long sticks of lumber. We cram the sticks into our rent-a-car and head off to site.

The job is right on the water, on the L.I. Sound, in East Hampton. It’s a beautiful site with two tricky trees.

I’ve done a sketch on a photo of what I want to make and the clients have approved the idea and the pricing, so now it’s time to make sure it will really work. And to get the precise measurements so I can build most of it back in the shop.

Jeff and I are bundled up pretty good but it’s really cold and windy. We first do the layout on the ground, then we prop it up in the air at deck height – about 7′ off the ground – and start looking at where the trees will pop through the decking.