hi there welcome to my channel where I take you on tours of tiny homes and unique spaces today we're
traveling to Whidbey Island in Washington to tour one couple's dreamy tree house which they built as
a unique vacation rental besides being a magical cabin that feels like it's floating 30 feet up in
the air the other impressive thing about this tree house is that it's actually legal and if
you're a follower of this channel you probably already know that one of the hardest things to
do when you have an idea to build something wacky or alternative is to obtain a permit but before
we take a tour and meet the couple behind this tree house please make sure that you subscribe
and hit that notification Bell so that you know every single time we publish a new video [Music]
hi I'm Max I'm Tatiana and this is Treehouse Ruby laughs
[Music]
we've been living in the Northwest for a while and we love being in the outdoors
and so we wanted a place to escape that we were out in nature and when
we were trying to stay in a tree house they were all sold out and so we looked
at each other and we said why don't we build one and that's how it all started
foreign is the largest island on pujit sound it's about an hour from Seattle you can only
access the island by ferry from the south end and it's just one of those places when you get
here you're just secluded and surrounded by Nature anywhere you go [Music] finding the
property was a big Journey we knew we wanted to build a remote experience we found the property
in 2018 took about two years to really get the process going permitting finding a builder and
eventually we ended up building it ourselves with some help from Wild tree Woodworks out of Seattle
because of the location of the Treehouse we had to haul in everything so we had to
go from the parking area and walk every piece of lumber up here till we got the
scaffolding about halfway through the build we did a whole lot of muscle work
the trails was one of my first build projects ever it was really magical kind of seeing it all
go up and having some of my friends around too during the whole build process was really great
the design of the Treehouse was very important to us we wanted to make sure the Treehouse was
peaceful it was Modern and it really let the environment speak for itself our Trails is
unique because it has a permit and it's completely legal getting a permit for the tree house involved
a few steps we got an architecture design we got engineering we got building permits and so
that whole process taught us a lot it added to the timeline of the build but we thought that
process was well worth it because we wanted to make sure we had a building that was safe and we
wanted to add value and protection to the land we live right down the hill from The Treehouse
so we get to greet all the guests as they come in give them a quick tour of the property and get to
see their faces when they look up and see this tree house it's been a really cool experience
let's go through what's holding up this treehouse so we've got four dog fur trees and one pole in
the back on the slope these are all custom made the Steel part up top that's holding up
the beams is made by Ballard Forge and then we had our engineer Charles Greenwood create these
struts and a strut bracket here so there's four of them they do go through the tree and contrary
to a lot of people's beliefs it doesn't hurt the tree the tree does grow around it and this system
allows us to move it out as the tree grows as well there's a lot of weight on these trees that's why
we distributed amongst these two on one side and then we've got the three three more connections
here up on this tree the biggest one we've got a Nelson HL tab that's the only static Tree tab here
as the house moves it's sliding back and forth on top of the beam so except for that one connection
there The Treehouse is allowed to move as the tree sways it was engineered for 110 mile an hour winds
and about a 9.1 earthquake on this tree we've got our septic line so me and Tatiana hand dug
the septic line through the woods we didn't want to damage any of the tree structure so
we need to keep the Integrity of the tree and the roots are really important to that [Music]
now we're inside Treehouse would be so we chose to use birch plywood throughout the tree house
we wanted a modern look kind of beautiful wood finishes everywhere all the lighting is black
all the fixtures are black the windows are black as well we really like that contrast
with the birch plywood we wanted people to feel really comfortable and still feel like they're
getting an experience in the trees the base of the Treehouse is about 14 feet high at its highest
point the very top of the house is about 31 feet high where an all dug fur these are all about 30
to 50 years old which we were told is the perfect age for brackets in the treehouse you're welcomed
by the welcome table here we've got some notes for you a little knowledge about would be and
some instructions and then a bottle of wine for our guests made by my brother out in Woodinville
and then we have got games Bluetooth speaker everything you should need for a little relaxation
and then we've got our books mostly Treehouse books Pete Nelson was a big inspiration for us
so we've got a couple of those down there now we're going to move into the living room area
so we've got a fold out queen size bed couch here we can fit four people in the tree house
we prefer to only have two mix it a little more intimate and a little more room to move around
we do provide extra Linens just in case you know we get someone that's not a couple and doesn't
want to share a bed all the fixtures in here were picked out by my partner Tatiana this one
is a local piece we wanted to add a little more wood feeling here [Music] so we built
a custom chips ladder made from Pete Nelson's design to get us up to The Loft and the bedroom
so this is the bedroom or the Loft and we've got a queen size bed here and more black
fixtures black windows and we want to create a 360 view we've got the water view on this side
and then sometimes you get sunset in the winter once the leaves kind of fall off
and then we wanted some opening Windows as well to create good airflow in here
we got these cool little side tables too we really like these we think it adds a little
more color to the place because we do have a lot of black and wood and then we've got
this tree right outside our big window here it reminds you that you're in the tree and
when the wind is blowing too you're watching it move you can feel the movement of the tree
house and see the trees moving as well I thought it was a really cool addition to the loft area
and then obviously we've got the deck and normally water views it's October so
we're getting into Halloween season so we're going to get a little spook here
this tends to roll in in the morning and burn off once the Sun comes out [Music]
we want people to be able to have their coffee undercover or wine at
night and then we've also created a little seating area over here
friend create this art piece for US based off the design so he hadn't even seen the
tree house in person yet we really love it his name is cosafaya and he kind of captured
exactly what the Treehouse looks like to us we've got the fire pit we've got Charlie our
dog our French bulldog in there and then some hammocks and we kind of went through
the different color iterations but we like the the black and white we think it's a real cool
statement piece about the tree that really kind of brings you in the tree house and most people
don't notice it is the Treehouse so they really start looking at it but we really like it [Music]
so over here we have our kitchen it's pretty compact we don't have a ton of
space but we think we've got everything you could need to make a nice meal in here so
we've got our little mini fridge fridge freezer and then we've got drying rack
and cutting boards some towels and then we've got bowls and stuff up here and then over to
our little coffee station and we keep it simple pour over or French press [Music]
and then we've got our stainless sink olive oil salt and pepper and then you've got your trash
water heater internets down there water filters down there all the stuff we could kind of jam into
a small space and then over here we have a little cooktop your knives and then the toaster slash air
fryer here and then we have all the stuff you'd need to make breakfast lunch dinner so we use Rich
light it's from Tacoma Washington we thought it would be a really cool idea for a countertop and
backsplash and it's made from resin and paper and it does a great job and it's eco-friendly
and on the other side of the kitchen we've got our storage we find Space where we can so we've
got all the coffee creamer sugars tea you've got a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit in there
as well and then down here we've got all your dishes plates utensils everything you should need
so we wrapped these three walls around a tree that is also holding up the structure our goal
was to not really cut down any trees up here at all so we designed the whole tree house to wrap
around all the trees there is a lot of room for growth in a big storm since the top is around 30
feet you will get the trees hitting the top of the house we did kind of put in some iron to take the
brunt of that but the house is designed to move with the trees as well so we do get a little extra
leeway when it's really blowing so the last area of the Treehouse is our little bathroom back here
originally we didn't plan on having a bathroom in here we had water up here already so we figured
out a way to get septic as well and there's a tiny little sink and there is another bathroom
in the main house it's got a big shower as well so let me take you to the second bathroom [Music]
if you go to the right along the ridge you'll hit our gate which will take you down to the
water in about 10 minutes and then we've got our bathroom this way we wanted to add an
optional bathroom that has a shower in it for the guests there's a lot of hiking on would
be so we thought it would be super important to be able to clean yourself up so we added a
bathroom into our house for guests it's a huge bathroom it's bigger than our bathroom in the
house which may have been a design mistake but guests really love it we've got a double
vanity here Custom Cabinets and then a big walk-in shower with subway tile we created
this space specifically to be set apart from our house and the whole room is locked up from ours
so you won't be able to access our house this is all just for the guests and we allow people
to leave their stuff in here and give complete privacy when they're staying with us [Music]
it's great to get feedback from the guests is just around the intention behind the build
what we're hearing a lot is every piece of detail was so intentional from the stairs up
to the tree house to all the wood that we chose inside and outside staying in a treehouse for
the first time was an experience that I had never had before we were Amazed by just how
you could be so at peace and be so up high and feeling like you're just on top of the world oh
[Music] thanks for watching this week's video I hope you enjoyed it please make sure that you
like share and subscribe and I will see you soon with another unique space tour [Music]
thank you