Our architect sends us preliminary sketches. The architect takes our ideas and inspiration and puts them on paper. A bit hard to read, but you'll get the gist ;)
From the street (the curved part of the square on the sketch) He shows a driveway to the parking spots. From the parking, there are stairs that lead to a bridge, and the bridge leads to the main house. The main house is broken up into 2 overlapping structures. He shows a roof deck; from the roof deck, there are stairs to climb up to the bird's nest lookout. He shows a deck on the first floor and a bridge leading to another lookout cube on the side.
I'm 6 months pregnant and the reality is starting to sink in that we'll have a precious babe in our life soon. (But that also means that life is about to get real busy, as if it wasn't already.) A babymoon is in the works... What the hell is Baby moon? A baby moon is much like a honeymoon, but happens before the baby arrives. Maybe it's just another excuse for me and my hubby to travel, but hey we hopped on that train! Baby Moon in Costa Rica it is.
By this point you've probably realized my husband and I really enjoy the outdoors, being active and any new experience that comes our way is always an exciting adventure. One problem - I'm 6 months pregnant and cliff jumping isn't necesarily in the baby momma recipee book... My husband and I enjoy relaxing but we're not the type that can chill by the poolside in a hotel for the length of our vacation. Well, it just so happens that Costa Rica is very eco friendy and has quite a few treehouses of their own ;) Things always have a way of working out.
Excited to do some tree house researching, we reserve a couple nights in a treehouse. The treehouse turns out to be secluded and in the middle of the jungle; about a 30 minute ride from the small town and only accessible with a 4x4 car. Once we arrive at the home of the owners, its about another 15 minute walk to the treehouse. We arrive - the tree house is alongside a river with exotic butterfly's passing through, a 20 minute walk into a waterfall. At night we hear the running river, the frogs talking and the insects wispering. (it sounds like an album of the soothing nature sounds) In the morning we hear birds, monkeys, rooster's and that running water. It's something you dream of...We have arrived to PARADISE. Thoroughly enjoying our time, after 2 nights we say goodbye to paradise and continue experiencing the beauty of Costa Rica. Later in our trip, our last stop is an all inclusive hotel on the beach . The food and drinks are flowing, taking dips in the pool, laying out under the sun, enjoying air conditioning and other hotel amenities... We have arrived to PARADISE.
Costa Rica has taught us many things, but one in particular when it comes to the continuous planning of our treehouse... As much as being fully immersed in nature is our paradise, modern amenities and technology is also our paradise. We'll defiantly be incorporating a mixture of both ;)
Does tying into the tree, hurt the tree? This was defiantly one of our concerns. We don't want to harm nature, we appreciate it too much. I began to do research as well as consulted with our architect/engineer. After much research and reading through years of compiled reports from our engineer, we realized: Trees respond to imposed loads, adding both quality and quantity growth at stress points. This occurs quite rapidly, even in one season. Try that with your typical engineering materials ;) With this knowledge, the next step was to set up a meeting with the city and try to propose the idea of tying into the tree's. I had spoken to the city multiple times before and was told that a structure can not be tied into a tree... We had also been told by our architect and engineer that CA was one of the states they ran into the most problems when proposing this idea. We had our work cut out for us...
Trying to get a hold of someone for an unconventional type of building in the middle of December (Holiday Season ) was not an easy task but once we got a meeting scheduled, I began to collect research to help back up the idea of tying into the tree's. My husband and I arrive to the meeting a bit late (traffic...) We sit down with a safety and building contact and hope that us being late doesn't affect our proposal too much. The chat begins and we hit it off. Turns out, we're not the only one's excited about building a tree house. James (safety and building city contact) has looked at the law in place and has taken it upon himself to do some research. He finds a clause that works in our favor! Something along the lines of, if we get a professional to inspect the health of the tree's, we are allowed to attach a structure. Meaning, as long as we get an arborist to look at the health of the tree's, we're good to tie in!
Another obstacle down, now let's just hope our tree's are healthy...!
At this point we have chatted with our architect multiple times and have exchanged ideas and inspiration. David Fall (architect) has been on it from day 1! Always responding ASAP, providing ideas, truly being amped about the project and putting in 100% effort. (We are very happy with Dave.) As mentioned in an earlier post, we are not able to tie a structure into a tree and we have been told by both our architect and engineer that CA is one of the stricter states when proposing the idea. So the 1st set of fun sketches from our architect show some basic designs that incorporate stilts but sill have the feel of being in the tree's.
The project is moving along and I'm constantly keeping my eyes open for inspiration. (Thank you to everyone who has sent links my way to check out; I've been having a lot of fun looking at those). My husband and I have conversations for hours on end of all the fun things our Treehouse can have. Some of the idea's being ridiculous (financially) but still fun to talk about and get our gears going.
Key Elements to the tree house:
- Incorporate Wood, Metal & Big Windows
- Bridge
- Bird's nest
- Balcony of some sort
- Modern/Clean Simplistic look
I have no idea where to even start... at this point in the project I know I don't need an engineer for a little while, so it's not a pressing matter but it would help to chat with an engineer to answer my many questions. Our architect (David Fall) puts us in contact with the engineer of the Treehouse Masters T.V. show. We begin to chat with Charlie Greenwood and realize that he's extremely knowledgeable as well when it comes to tree houses and actually lives in a treehouse himself. He's created a system that allows for the hardware to grow with the tree instead of having to completely re-install all new hardware in 5-10 years. He also explains that tying into the tree can actually make the tree stronger ;) Happy to have Charlie on our team!
Now that we have the lot as well as the architect we have one small obstacle - our architect is based out of Washington, which means he is planning without ever stepping foot on the lot. This also means that my husband and I will need to create a site plan (measurements between tree's, diameter of trees, height desired, etc) We continue onwards and visit the site...
My husband has always been a McGyver, hands on type of guy and is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to ropes and knots. This being said, he somehow created his own pulley system to get himself up the tree (always impressed). By this point, I'm pregnant so I opt out on climbing the tree and trust in my hubby to find a good height for the treehouse. Life continues to throw surprises at us and I feel my husband and I have pretty good luck (or maybe it's our outlook) Either way, to our surprise, my husband finds that if we build high enough, we have a lake view! - Pretty Legit. We later have lunch in town at this place called Grub and Whisky - We're liking this place more and more ;)
I have realized being an architect is an oversaturated profession, which in turn gives us many options :) Only 1 small problem; the tree house architect is slim to none, and many architects are turned off or nervous about doing something different. In the end, we were between 3 architects (all talented) After screening the architects, we have chosen David Fall. He is the architect for the show Treehouse Masters. He has 10+ years of experience in treehouse architecture and continues to create new ideas with each project. We look forward to working with him and creating something beautiful.
We found a lot! The lot is filled with trees and 2 specific tree's that look like they will work. The lot is located in Crestline, which is the town before Lake Arrowhead. The lake in Crestline is Lake Gregory. I am familiar with this lake, as it's the kid friendly lake my parents took us to when we would stay at our cabin in Lake Arrowhead. (a plus for the future family) The lot is about a 5 minute drive to the lake. We were pretty stoked on the lot and put in an offer; Our offer was accepted and we began escrow. Being a real estate investor, I made sure to follow through on our due diligence (check title, get a surveyor on the lot, etc) We closed escrow and the lot is ours! First step down ;)
From the moment we decided we were going to build the treehouse I went a bit research crazy. (internet, books, taking pictures of the slightest inspiration)
A few key things we want to incorporate:
- Mixture of wood, metal and big windows
- Bridges
- Look out point (birds nest)
- Balcony
The inspiration continues to grow the more we see and experience...
