With a husband, four daughters and assorted pets, the last thing Susie Wyckoff needed was the added responsibility of maintaining a big vacation home. But her family really wanted some kind of getaway on their 10-acre undeveloped property on Washington’s Bainbridge Island, about 40 minutes from their Seattle home.
The compromise: Last year, the Wyckoffs built a treehouse.
Nestled in the midst of four pine trees, the two-story, 14-foot by 14-foot structure is about 10 feet off the ground. It has two porches and can sleep seven people in sleeping bags and futons.
It doesn’t have electricity, so when the family spends the night up there–which happens about once a month–they use candles and bring up an ice chest full of food and drink.
“It’s very cute and rustic,” the 44-year-old Mrs. Wyckoff says. “It looks like it has always been there.”
Treehouses have long been havens for children, a place to escape from the watchful eyes of parents. But these days, adults are also escaping, building treehouses as weekend retreats, offices and guest cottages. Treehouses have been branching out into popular culture as well.
Last summer, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens displayed 10 treehouses designed by local architects; the show lured record crowds. Next month, the first meeting of the World Treehouse Association will convene in Cave Junction, Ore., with about 50 people expected to attend. On the agenda: construction standards, which generally aren’t government regulated.
“Everybody just loves treehouses,” says Peter Nelson, a co-founder of the group. “It reminds them of when they were kids.”
For Howard Kaminsky, the treehouse 20 feet up in a 200-year-old maple tree on his Sharon, Conn., farm is a childhood dream come true. It was designed and built by New York interior designer John Ryman for about $10,000.
“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted a treehouse,” says the 57-year-old Kaminsky, a movie producer and writer who formerly ran the publishing operations at Warner Books and the Hearst Trade Book Group. “But I couldn’t have one because I grew up in an apartment in Brooklyn.”
His one-room treehouse is eight feet by ten feet and has a 12-foot pitched ceiling. It has no electricity or telephone but is furnished with a desk, a bed and two well-worn leather chairs. He uses it to nap and work.
In contrast to Kaminsky’s low-tech treehouse, Jeff Powers, co-owner of Earthscaping, a landscaping firm in Laguna Beach, Calif., fulfilled the request of a client who wanted a full-scale office with electricity and telephone lines, perched high in a grove of sycamore trees in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. The treehouse also has a kitchenette, a wet bar and a toilet. Estimated cost? $130,000.
Even professional treehouse builders face challenges getting their projects off the ground. Nelson, a building contractor who has built 15 treehouses for grown-ups around the country in the past six years, recently published a book on the subject, titled “Home Tree Home: Principles of Tree Construction and Other Tall Tales.” It talks about how to choose the right tree, select proper lumber for the structure, frame windows and doors, and how to wire the place for electricity.
Nelson built the Wyckoffs’ treehouse on Bainbridge Island for about $15,000. However, several months after it was finished, a huge storm knocked part of it down.
Nelson says a salvaged log he used as a structural support wasn’t strong enough. He learned a lesson, he says: “Be really careful about where you use recycled materials.” He resurrected the treehouse early this year.
Local laws vary, but most simple treehouses without plumbing or electricity probably don’t need any special building permits or zoning variances, says Nelson.
“Cities generally don’t want to know about it,” he says, “because it creates a public-relations nightmare if they have to come down hard on a treehouse.”
As in the case of Robert Windschauer, 40, of Largo, Fla. He spent $5,000 and 18 months in his backyard building a 25-foot-high treehouse ensconced in an old oak tree. It quickly became a hang-out for neighborhood kids, but a neighbor complained to local officials about the non-permitted structure built too close to the property line.
In July, Windschauer appeared before the local building review board armed with 100 signatures on a petition in favor of the treehouse and with his four children, aged 1 to 9, sitting in the front row of the meeting room. The board granted a zoning variance.
