Inspiration is Everywhere

These days it feels like everything is inspiration... from the leaves on the ground to beautifully done buildings..  Check out our pinterest board for the treehouse along with other projects we're working on ;)

Lover's Treehouse Pinterest Board

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

Our Interior Decorator

Dressed up for a Design Event in Long Beach - fun!

Let me introduce you to Danielle DeCarr (interior decorator)  Danielle has a natural talent and is part of the Fogel Interiors Team.  She is consistently fine tuning her talent and attending UCLA's Architecture and Interior Design Program and is certified from Newport Interior Designers Institute.  Danielle can create an atmosphere just by looking at an empty room and we're so excited to have her on our team!

Design work from her current job at Fogel Interior

Besides Danielle being talented, she's also fun, easy to talk to, and a beauty.... Oh no, I sound like I'm creating a dating profile...  but really, all of these characteristics make her the complete package. Danielle is one of my best friends so I'd say I know her pretty well...

Danielle, Shea (my 7 month old son) and I went to an event recently at Trebor Nevets in Long Beach (Vintage furniture/interior design)  It was such a great event - drinks, appetizers, music, and fun people!  Before heading to the event, I was able to show Danielle a bit of my inspiration for the treehouse and I could see her mind begin to work - within minutes, she understood what look I was going for!  Looking forward and beyond confident that with Danielle on our team we'll have a kick a** interior.  (excuse the language... hard to hide my excitement for our interior decorator)

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!

Treehouse Inspiration Boards

Ideas, Ideas.....  Back to the boards for inspiration pieces for the different rooms as well as material (exterior, flooring, cabinets, etc)  I will begin to do research on the materials we want to use.  The plans are to start building after the snow is gone...  In the meantime I am finalizing details on the design, sending the design to the engineer and then will be submitting the proposal to the city and obtaining permits

Meeting with Contractor

Shea's pretty into the outdoors:)

After getting a better feel for the design, I needed to make sure we were still in budget for the contractor work.  Originally the structure was going to be a small structure in the tree, with a roof deck, but after talking with the city, they let us know that the structure needed to be a minimum of 725 sqft.  This shifted things around a bit.  A few posts ago, you saw the updated design which shows a structure connected by a staircase to the main structure.  This "extra" structure, adds an extra 280 sqft that we had not accounted for....

I met with the contractor to get a feel for what sort of price range we were looking at and unfortunately it was a bit more than we were hoping for...

Back to the budget to see where we can move things around...  after moving our expectations, we are paying more than we thought we would on construction, but still in the budget (I doubt we'll be "in" the budget much longer....hehe)

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!