The Magic Tree House...Sommi Style
NEIRAD enilno edition
It’s every kid’s childhood dream to have the perfect tree house in her backyard. A place where you can have secret campouts, play games, or just the benefit of having a serene place to escape life’s pressures. Though for the Sommi family, this dream became a reality as they took upon this momentous task and built one of their own.
“We have a lot of tall, oak trees in the woods of our backyard since it backs up to Cherry Lawn which is perfect for a tree house. We always had the idea of building one and thought it would be a really fun thing to do since we have so many kids in our family and our neighborhood who were always outside playing,” sophomore Amanda Sommi said.
Six years ago, when Amanda was in 4th grade, she and her family decided to take on the challenge of building one as a family project. Amanda’s mom, Nancy Sommi, was a big advocate of the project. Mrs. Sommi said, “I love doing projects with the kids, and since we have a yard that works perfectly for building a tree house, we just had to go for it. Plus, I knew that not only my kids, but all the kids in the neighborhood would enjoy it.”
Her first step in the process was a trip to the Darien Library where she purchased a book, “How to Build a Tree House”. The family made countless runs to Home Depot to pick up necessary supplies such as wood, nails, screws, etc. The Sommis had a plan all laid out before they began working on it as a family.
But as they say, something wonderful always takes time. Amanda said, “It was an ongoing project cause we would work on it on and off. We would go out as a family on a weekend, work on it for a day, then stop and wouldn’t work on it for another month.” In the end, the tree house took about three years to build.
How did the Sommis attack this major building challenge? First, the family climbed up into one of the trees and attached a pulley so they could get boards up more easily. They then lifted up three big planks to create a triangle between three trees. After this, the family made a large square with boards crossing it, and lay that over the triangle and put floorboards on top of that. They attached large pieces of wood on the sides to make the railings and roof. Lastly, they added a pulley system for the ladder so you could get up to the tree house.
When finished with the masterpiece, Amanda and her siblings loved playing in the tree house. She said, “My neighbors and I would have sleepovers up here all the time. It also used to be my favorite place to do homework.” Amanda’s brothers, John and Blake (who are now 13 and 10) would stage air soft gun battles using the tree house. A neighbor of the Sommis, freshman Cammie Lattimer, was a frequent visitor to the house as well. She said, “We all loved playing in the Sommi's tree house because it was a good hideout spot, a place where we could act like spies, and just be kids.”
When asked about one of her favorite memories in the tree house, Cammie said, “Our other neighbor knows how to make films, and we used to make Meadowbrook Movies.” (Meadowbrook is the Sommi’s street). Cammie continues to reminisce as she said, “One of the movies, around Halloween time, was about zombies trying to control everyone. The zombie's master was finally found hiding in the Sommi's tree house.”
“From the woods in my backyard, we have a little path from our house to Cherry Lawn. Sometimes we have found random people up in the tree house, thinking it was part of the Nature Center,” Amanda said. The Darien Nature Center is located on Brookside Road with Cherry Lawn right next to it. This has happened on multiple occasions, to the point where they had to install a lock on the ladder leading up to the tree house to prevent the break-ins and uninvited visitors. The lock has a code that only their neighbors and friends know.
Though Amanda admits the tree house isn’t used as much anymore today, it was a major staple of her childhood. She also recollects that the hard work was worth it in the end and would recommend for other families to try it too. Amanda said, “It’s a great bonding experience to build them, and once they are finished kids will have so much fun.”
