Corrections Corrections Corrections

After a long journey of a Major Variance, we submit designs.  We we're expecting quite a bit of corrections from the county on this "not so conventional home"... Treehouse... and our expectations were pretty spot on.  Right around 25 corrections from the county is what we received... (sort of comical)  Architect and Engineer are on it and we are searching for a way to please the code, yet stay true to a treehouse ;)  Designs to come soon ;)

Trip to WA: Meet Architect... Meet "Treehouse Master's"....

I head to Washington to work (not treehouse related) but it just so happens that the treehouse world is here too ;)  

This time of year...

No water drought here...

I set up a meeting to finally meet my architect face to face (and I don't mean on Skype)  We decide to meet at Treehouse Point, where Pete Nelson from Treehouse Masters has built a wonderland of treehouses.

Treehouse Wonderland

Look Out Point on a Treehouse

Couldn't have been a better spot for inspiration, for David Fall (my architect) and I to finish the final touches on the final design (you know, after we realized we had more land, 4 tree's close to eachother and more secluded - this is a learning process)  Both my architect and engineer work with Pete Nelson in creating treehouses, so it was quite nice to have the hookup and have Dave set up a time for us to walk through the treehouses and the land!

Dave Fall (architect) - Odly enough, the treehouse in the back was my 1st blog post... coincidence?... I think not

After climbing into the treehouses, Dave and I sat down with a hot tea and figured out the finishing touches on our treehouse >>>>"Lover's Treehouse"  Handing off to Engineering SOON!

Sneak Peak to Our Latest Design

So as you know, we are currently in the Major Variance process (which can take anywhere from 3-6 months)  In the meantime we are getting all our ducks in a row, so that we can be ready to move once we hear from the Major Variance.  It's been a while from my last post, so let's recap -  I've decided to move the treehouse location.  Once we realized we had more land, we decided to move the treehouse to a different set of trees (more secluded)  Originally plans were for a single tree, and now we are looking at a multi tree structure.  Check out our post preliminary plans (plans which are still being tweeked)  The link below gets you access to the full set of current plans ;)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_6AA0hs6PYaX0s3VmVhYU84aTQ/view?usp=sharing

The Tree's Are Calling...

After realizing we had more land than we thought, I was curious to see how our architect would take the news (having to re-arrange the treehouse to the new tree cluster... eekk)  Dave's response: The more tree's the better!  We like more Trees!
I gotta say, it feels good to be surrounded by such a great and like minded team ;)  With Dave on board, we continue to move forward and time is starting to move quicker than we thought.  We must start the build around March/April to finish before the snow season hits again....

Magic is in the Air - Meeting with the Surveyor

Early in the lot buying process, our surveyor Mike, placed marker's on our lot to easily define our property line. After doing so, Brendan and I went for a site visit to check out the property line and we were never able to find the corner flag to our lot... we assumed that the weather knocked it down. Current time: I have been talking back and forth quite a bit with the architect and every time we talk, it seems that our measurements are off....  I go a few times to the lot, to do additional measurements... the additional measurements confuse us even more.  Our architect suggests getting a surveyor to do a full survey and locate the tree's on the lot, as well as utilities.

We give our surveyor a call and Mike comes to the rescue ;)  I can not say enough about Mike; he's easy to work with, has a calming and confident energy about him, really enjoys the outdoors and is excited about the treehouse.  I meet Mike at the lot and mention the flag that we were never able to find... we begin to climb the lot and to my surprise, our lot is about 30%-40% bigger than we had originally thought!  (I guess we never found the flag, because we hadn't walked far enough...!)  In addition to our lot being bigger, we also found a cluster of beautiful tree's tucked away from the street.  My mind was going wild as I was standing on this lot, with the sun on my face (things felt magical)  The new cluster of tree's will give us a lake view from our living room, and we're far more tucked away and secluded!  Mike then proceeds to let me know that he thinks Lake Arrowhead water owns the lot to the right (18 acres of land) of which most likely will never be built on- space to hike, meditate, let the kids roam, run around naked....hehe  The possibilities are endless.  Back to the architect...  Things continue to move forward and work so well - we have special guidance ;)

Land we discovered 

More Land we discovered nestled in the trees

Preliminary Meeting and Red Tape to Cut Through

After a few months of dialing in the design/architecture for the treehouse, there was still one big question:  We have an exterior staircase going from the main structure to the "hang out" structure; Will this pass as a minimum of 735 sqft that is required?  We were getting to a point in our design in which we were ready to send to the engineer, and I didn't want to be sending the engineer a design that may have to completely be re-done if the city didn't give the OK.... 

Jams on the road are a key component to any important meeting...

I set up a preliminary meeting with a few city contacts - Building and Safety Land Use and the architect was going to be on the phone through the meeting.  With any important meeting, I make sure all my ducks are in a row; the night before I was gathering any information that would help my case and make it easier for the city contacts to see the vision.   A key component with any important meeting - Throwing jams on my car stereo at a good volume to pump myself up...After 1.5 hrs of being well pumped, I walked into that city structure ready to dominate (yet nervous the city may shoot down the plans completely.....)

San Bernardino Land Use Services Department

I walked in to the meeting and more and more people started coming in; apparently there was a lot of interest in this project and I took that as a good thing ;)  By the end of the meeting, there was a good 8 of us in the room discussing the project and it felt good to have all those city contacts at my fingertips with any questions.  In the room we had the following city contacts:

Supervising Planner
Building and Safety Supervisor
Land Development Engineer
Structural Engineer
Building Official
Fire Prevention Officer
Architect

And may I also add, in the building department you don't see too many females, so I used that to my advantage and worked my charm ;)  Needless to say, the meeting went well and we were given the "preliminary official" OK that the architectural design is a go!

Soothing the Bump in the Road

Shea checks out the tree's, while dad
does some off-roading

Last we talked, the city mentioned the treehouse was too small and we were most likely going to run into city problems.  After talking with the city, we had 2 options

1. Go the Major Variance Route (Pricey and still a big chance it wouldn't go through)
2. Go Directly for the Buiding Permit with 2 buidings on the property

I called the city contact and did a pre-chat and told him we were thinking of possibly seperating the minimum square footage in 2 different structures.  (One above the garage and the other being the treehouse)  I was trying to get a feeler from him, and if this would pose an issue on the project.  He let me know that if we proposed that, we would essentially be proposing for a duplex (because there are 2 seperate structures on 1 lot....) 

I then asked the golden question: What if we have stairs attatching the 2 structures?  It sounds like this idea may be easier to obtain a buidling permit for and so we are on this path.

What that means for the next step:  Get with the architect and design a seperate structure close to the main structure and have it connected with stairs.  We have been playing with the design and once we get it down I will post it ;)

3D Walkthrough of Our Treehouse

We are loving the design process of the treehouse and although it's constatnly changing, we have a 3D walkthrough of the design thus far ;)  Lots of fun balconies, which we are loving.  Our architect has some great indoor/outdoor designs.  (He has created the windows on the first floor to open up to the balcony, creating a shared living space with nature)  Not included in the video is the bedroom and bathroom on the first floor.  This video is also not accurate to the material we will be using for the structure.  Have fun checking it out!