With three small boys and a garden full of trees, a tree house was high on the wish-list for this family. But the trees were really too small and ancient to build in, so we achieved the tree house vibe by building a shack on stilts, nestled in the boughs of a rather wonky apple.

This was a two-phase build: once the boys had grown too big for the slide, it was replaced by a hinged ladder that could be pulled up by a system of ropes and pulleys from inside to keep out intruders. Well, intruders who couldn’t climb trees. Spy HQ, sleep-out den, Nerf war dugout – the boys even built a ramp so that the dog could scramble up and join them – this little tree house saw many great times until the teenagers couldn’t stand up in it anymore, and a storm brought down the tree.