We Fired Our Parking Engineer...

So, yep that happened....

Bottom line - It was like pulling teeth to get anything concrete to submit to the county... and 1 day she lost it.

So here I am... singing in the car, stopping at fruit stands, heading to Lover's Treehouse site - feeling pretty light and breezy.  I arrive to the site, and the owner of the company (We'll call her Lisa) meets me there with an employee (we'll call him Dan)  Now, the owner has been known to talk bad about people here and there, but never foresaw the following...

I am up on the top/back of the lot, and I can hear a neighbor asking Lisa to be careful climbing the retaining because it is deteriorating.  Lisa must have been having a bad day because she instantly went off on this neighbor... (which really doesn't help our case, seeing that not all the neighbors are stoked we're building a treehouse)  Lisa began yelling at her, told her to "get," started shooing her away, called her a hillbilly...  and the words kept coming out of her mouth!  She got in her car, left angrily and left Dan behind.... I was in complete shock and knew I didn't want to work with that type of energy, nor did I want to bring that energy to the surrounding neighbors.  And so she was let go...

The happy ending:  We are now working with Kadtec and our contact has been on top of it!  Talking with the county, making things happen and will have a plan to us soon ;)

Till next time ;)

Parking Troubleshooting

In my job I have really come to be friends with " Mr. Troubleshoot" as he visits me on a daily basis.  Most recently "Mr. Troubleshoot" said "Your land it so steep, how are we going to get parking to work?"  The design drawn up for the parking was given to the engineer, to which the engineer said "This can't be engineered, let's take another look and see how we're going to do this"  Thankfully there is more than 1 way to skin a cat....  but when will this parking issue be resolved and submitted to the county??  Till the next update....

Sooo... What happened with the Major Variance?

You may be asking yourself; what is a Major Variance?

Short answer: Every city/county has a building code with rules and setbacks for building, remodling, etc.  If your build is not up to code, you can propose your idea (which is the Major Variance)  

Recap of our Major Variance: The location of the tree's that we are using are 8 feet from the property line and the county requires a 15 foot building setback.  This rule, has us applying for a Major Variance...

Since the last time I brought this subject up, we had sent 3 revised site plan's, hoping that the 3rd time would be our last and they would approve our major variance.  Good News: It was in fact our last revision and the major variance was approved! 

Now, on to perfecting engineered plans so that we may submit to the county and get on our merry way...

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

Update on Major Variance

This major variance is just as expected (Very slow!)  Recap: The location of the tree's that we are using are 8 feet from the property line and the county requires a 15 foot setback.  This rule, has us applying for a Major Variance...

We have now sent 3 revised site plan's, hoping this will be the last.  (finger's crossed)  Below are pictures and comments from the county and Public Works.

pointing at tree that would need to be removed for parking....will it be removed?


Click here to see combined Comments from County and Public Works

Getting Nerdy for Tree's

While in WA, I also met up with Scott (the arborist) and convinced Dave (our architect) to meet up with us (wasn't too hard)  The crew meets Scott at his office in Fremont and later cruise the streets in search for good drinks and eats where we can sit and nerd out on tree's.  While at Scott's office, I got to check out the equipment used to determine if a tree is in good health for a tree house (didnt' take pictures, but check out his website if your into tree's/treehouses and want to know more)  If your looking to build a treehouse, my team is pretty legit ;)

Out for drinks & nerding out on Tree's (left to right: Dave(architect), me, Scott (arborist)

The troll under the Fremont Bridge

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!