Childhood Treehouses: Home Amongst the Branches
I’ve always been fascinated about tree houses and was a tomboy for a few years till I discovered lipstick. Now there are these expensive, unique, elaborate tree house building companies that will build you anything from a Tudor castle near the sky to a fort for the boys. Children’s fantasy worlds have often included tree houses like in The House At Pooh Corner.
In more recent times “Star Wars” created one for the Ewoks in one of the sequels. But it’s not only children who are blessed with the power of imagination. Having my own house for the first time at 39 I find myself wanting a tree house in the backyard as crazy as that sounds. Author Peter Nelson built a tree house office near Seattle.
It turns out that tree house accommodations are available around the world from Alaska to Hawaii. The Cedar Creek Tree House in Washington is 50 feet off the ground in a giant cedar tree with the trunk reaching up through the kitchen floor and continuing through the ceiling. One of my favorite deejays compares his studio atmosphere to a tree house club with only men allowed in.
When “The Practice” was on actor James Spader’s character listened in shock in a childhood tree house as his best friend confessed to killing his wife. The guy had buried the murder weapon in a secret compartment in their tree house along with the pot they used to smoke.
At the Green Magic Nature Resort in South India you are 86 feet off the ground thanks to a cane lift using a unique water counterweight. At the Tree house Village Eco Resort in New Guinea five levels can be explored in a tree with a suite, single accommodations, balcony, outer reef, The Pacific Ocean, and a lagoon. Kadir’s Treehouses in Turkey accommodates 40 tree houses with room for up to 145 people.
Cradle Beach Tree House in Angola is accessible to the disabled, too. The 650-square-foot wooden structure helped a twelve-year-old maneuver her 80 lb. wheelchair up ramps and curves, not getting discouraged even when she bumped the tree the first time.
She joyfully exclaimed, “It’s a long way up but I’ll get there!”
This tree house has windows, an open deck, and rustic faÃ?§ade and can accommodate 25 people. It was the newest addition to Cradle Beach, a residential facility for disadvantaged and disabled kids which hosted 850 children in 2001. Built by Forever Young Treehouses in Vermont, the structure made the staff at Cradle Beach thrilled to see the kids up so high since it’s something they never get to do. An Amish family from Sherman spent four months constructing the tree house.
According to Findaproperty.com, a trend started four years ago in the tree world. Across the South East a quiet revolution was in the making. What you are likely to encounter, should you venture into some of the country’s finest gardens and grounds, is a new enthusiasm for upmarket, bespoke tree houses. The appeal of a tree house hardly needs much elaboration, they say.
This is short was a market ripe for the plucking so it’s surprising that it took so long for someone to come up with the goods. PearTree set up shop back in 1997 under John Andrew Harris, a man whose fascination with tree houses began as a child and was revived many years later when he build one for his own children.
He still builds tree houses for kids, delightful hideaways secluded in the branches, but he also constructs amazing one-off retreats for romantic adults keen to escape the daily grind and chill out in an arboreal sanctuary far from the maddening crowd.
At the bottom end of the market Peartree will build you a drink’s deck for some money while a decent children’s tree house will set you back. It doesn’t stop there. As this makes clear, tree houses may be a lot of fun but the business is far from child’s play. “Every job is different,” Harris says. PearTree, based in the United Kingdom, will construct a tree house or deck using a combination of hard and soft timbers, in just about any tree which is fit and strong.
Planning permission is generally not needed but some of the larger and more extravagant efforts will certainly have to be cleared with the local authority like one in California that was in the middle of a legal battle to have it torn down back in 1994.
That said, if you have the tree, PearTree has the technology. The company operates all over the UK and has also branched out into Europe.
