Someday . . .

When our little brood of children was still young, we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, where life was all sunshine and high rents. We got by, but sometimes barely, so when we wandered past the high-end toy store in downtown Willow Glen the only shopping we did was of the window variety. One spectacular toy caught my eye again and again, and I would pine for it with all my childlike heart. It was a huge, beautiful treehouse that would have delighted me beyond measure when I was a child (and, honestly, still would). I turned to my husband one day, with the absolute belief of the young, and said, “Someday, I will have that in my house. Someday . . . maybe not until I am a grandma, but I will have it.”

I never forgot that beautiful treehouse or my promise to myself. Fifteen years later, I decided it was time to find that beautiful treehouse for my future grandbabies. A quick internet search brought me to the exact model I had seen so long ago. The funny thing with an imagination like mine is that I had improved upon that design so many times that the real thing just didn’t hold up against my heart’s version at all. It just wasn’t going to do.

My dad taught me a little bit about power tools and woodworking when I was a child, and, more importantly, he taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to. I went out to my husband’s tool bench and set to work. I had little idea what I was doing and asked him 100 questions as I went. When I finished that first prototype, something was awakened within me. Over the next five years, I would slowly push Brian’s workbench aside, amass countless new tools, and learn so many new things (like how to build a kitchen from scratch), and before I knew it, I had an epic shop of my own.

I have since built countless treehouses that are working hard to expand the imaginations of the children who love them. I have designed a whole host of new toys (have you seen the Block Bots? OMGoodness-cute). I have launched a new commerce site. What I am most excited about, though, is that when my first granddaughter arrives this October, this Nana Banana’s dream has been accomplished. I cannot wait to share my joy with her. <3