Treehouse Orientation

We're coming along with the design of the treehouse and as we were looking at the design, we realized we didn't really have an orientation for the treehouse.  Which way will the treehouse face?  We want the main views from the living room area...  The movie below shows our trip to the site, Bren climbing the tree, and us figuring out the orientation…

More Prelim Designs from Architect

We receive some more Preliminary Sketches from our Architect!  The purpose of the these prelims are to get a general idea of the exterior structure as well as an interior layout. 

Looking at the Treehouse from the Road (Looking Up)  Steep lot; thinking of some sort of bridge from Parking to the Treehouse.

Looking at the Treehouse from the top of  the lot (Looking Down) Design shows 2 overlapping structures around the main tree.  By adding structures on both sides of the tree, we balance the load on the tree.  Design shows covered Deck and 2 roof decks.

Site Plan to give you a better idea/measurments of the lot

Views from the Sides.  The Stairs lead to the front door.  There is a covered deck and 2 roof decks.

Interior Layout:  Design is showing the stairs leading to the deck, which in turn leads to the front door.  Inside, the design shows a kitchen on one side, a living area/studio on the other.  It shows stairs leading to the 2nd Structure (Loft)  In this design you also see the architect incorporating the surrounding tree's.

After taking a look at the designs we set up a meeting with the architect to talk about some good stuff. 

Likes:

- The 2 Overlapping Structures on both sides of the tree. 

- The Stairs Leading to the Deck

- The big Windows in the Loft

- The Multiple Decks

- The incorporation of the surrounding Tree's

Changes:

- The round deck rails on the top roof deck

- Big Windows in the main Structure (Where the living room and kitchen would be)

- A separate bedroom from the living room

- Kitchen - Moving the stove on top of the island (to create an open feel and inclusiveness with the living room)

- Increasing the square footage of the Main Structure

Overall Feel We're Going For:

- Simple/Clean

- Modern/Industrial

- Open

We also talked about Interior Wants and showed Dave (Architect) some Inspiration Photos, but I'll save that for another blog post :)

Daily Communication

We've gotten to the point where we are communicating daily with our team.  Whether it be the architect, engineer, arborist, city, etc.

Architect - Sending info back and forth to get a good design

Engineer - Talking about what a load test entails, and what he can do for us.  A load test, test the load that the tree's can take.  This will help us design structurally.

Arborist - Collecting data to then have the arborist write up a report for the city plans.

City - Figuring out rules and regulations (roof, fireplace, etc)

Climbing the Tree

I'm quite pregnant and should't be climbing tree's, so Bren (my husband) heads to Sport Chalet, buys more climbing gear and heads to the site.  He has a few things he needs to take care of:

- Needs to take video of the site for Dave (architect)
- Needs to map out any neighboring tree's we might be able to use (for Dave, the architect)
- Needs to climb the main tree all the way to the top and take pics and measurements (for the arborist)

Photo's

Footage for Architect

Footage for Arborist

Meeting with Our Architect

Plans are moving along and we are had another meeting with our architect  (David Fall) to express more of our wants as well as measurements and slopes of the land.  Meeting went great, Bren and I are having a ton of fun playing with all the ideas and we should receive a set of architectural plans in the next couple of weeks!  Our current thought is to use the main tree and some of the surrounding tree's as support trees (to minimize the use of man made stilts.)  A couple more things the architect needs from us to finish the design:

- Measurements from main tree to supporting tree's

- Video's for more familiarity (Architect lives in WA, so this should help)

Interior Inspiration Below

Like the sliding bedroom door

Interesting use of space

Storage idea under the stairs

Liked the Compact kitchen on the wall (Without the door)

Liking the style of this Island

Like the cut out storage space, not so much the style of the island

Great Metal framing around the wood

Loving the cement walls in the bathroom

Fun Light Fixtures

The Arborist Meets us at the Site

...

Big day for us; the arborist meets us at the site. The arborist will let us know if the tree's are healthy or NOT…. If tree's are healthly, awesome and we continue on as planned. If tree's are unhealthy, not exactly sure what we're going to do. The city has let us know that as long as we get a specialist to look at the tree's and ok them as healthy, we should be good to tie into the tree. We meet with the arborist and after far too much talking, head up the hillside to the main tree. After a few hours, the verdict is in….Tree's are healthy! Phew, what a load off.  We find out the species of the trees: the main tree is an Incense Cedar and the secondary tree is an Oak. Things are looking good ;)

That same day, we also need to get measurements to produce a topographic map for the architect. This will help the architect get an idea for the steepness of the property. (as he's located in Washington, not CA) We bring the family crew along for the day (my dad, sis and her boyfriend)  The family was a HUGE help as always; really don't think we would have completed the days tasks without them.  My dad has a background as a carpenter as well as  construction and metal; having him there allowed Bren to be with the arborist, while my dad headed the measurements for the topographic map.

Architect Sends Preliminary Sketches

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.