hey guys jenny here welcome to my channel where i feature tours of creative spaces
in today's video we're traveling to one man's unbelievable property
where he built a two-story tree house with an elevator
a cozy yurt with a backyard full of alpacas and goats
a super cool man cave
and a miniature town inside of an airplane hangar
this video is a continuation of my channel's partnership with airbnb where i show you some
of the most unique rentals around the country and share the stories behind the hosts that own them
so let's meet dan and take a tour of his incredible property which he calls danville
of course
hi i'm dan shaw and i am the mayor of danville
our location is in geneva florida which is north of orlando it is east of sanford we're 18 miles
from the ocean i've had the wonderful opportunity to have a number of careers
started out in the air force in 1967 i became a plumbing contractor and was a plumbing
contractor for 48 years i was an inventor for five years which i have 23 u.s patents
the first airbnb rental i had was the man cave as it sat empty i had a friend come down and he
suggested why don't you put it on airbnb and i said what's airbnb and why would anyone want to
stay in my man cave well much to my surprise and glee i had lots of people that wanted to rent it
and it was it was great fun and what i learned was i was getting to meet some of the most interesting
people in the world i found this as rewarding as traveling so instead of me traveling i have
people travel here and i learn about different cultures and different countries and so it makes
an interaction that works very well for for me i'm very grateful for the opportunity to do it
the inn here where we have weddings was second
so we started renting it out sparingly based on when we had opportunities to rent it on airbnb
so my next project was the yurt
i then bought some alpacas i thought alpacas would look good with the yurt so
i put alpacas next to the earth and it adds to an experience the alpacas became an experience
i decided that i thought i would like to have a couple segways
i realized that the segway was an experience that they were having while they were staying here
guests love to drive golf carts they just do and it becomes an experience so i'm i guess my hosting
style now now that i realize it is offering as many experiences as i can during their stay
the next project that i built was a treehouse
we built this about three years ago it has an elevator as far as i know it's the only
treehouse in the united states within elevator and it has an interesting downstairs deck come on in
this is the hot tub level and i have a hot tub and it's built uniquely out of a cowling of a dc-10
you can see it in that picture over there that's what it was built from
it is a soaking tub it gets to about 101 degrees has a table in the center for your wine bottle
and you can talk to google if you like turn off the lights
and google will play music for you if you like
over here we have an outdoor shower it's hot and cold water this time of year it's a preference
so that you can have a little bit of space in your shower a little a little more room
you have some chairs to sit this is a great place if it's raining
it's dry you're underneath the yurt and it stays dry for if you're just sitting out on a rainy day
downstairs is a tiki hut with a grill and this is where you can prepare your meals
if you like a fire pit where you can have a wood burning fire if you like
upstairs there's a gas fireplace that's the trail that leads off to the rest of the property
we'll go upstairs take a look upstairs
the elevator was made to look like a tree stump i had a local artist help me paint it and it's so it
looks like the tree stump is going up in the air i'm gonna go upstairs and i'll see in a little bit
we're on the treehouse deck
we have a upper upper balcony that lets you look out over
the rest of the property watch the horses and the goats next door
i have a gas fire pit out here that you can sit out here on a nice evening you're amongst
the trees the yurt was an interesting design because it gave you lots of space
lots of overhead volume and it makes it a very comfortable stay come on in i'll show you inside
this is the inside of my tree house as i build it i wanted to make you feel like you were amongst
the trees and part of a tree house so i couldn't put it around a tree so i actually built a tree
inside the tree house and made it look like there was a tree in here it has a murphy bed
i find that that murphy beds make a very very very interesting way of having a yurt and still having
a bedroom too so it's either a big bedroom or a big living room whichever one you want
i had a friend make me the parrot picture to put in there sort of an interesting concept to put in
we tried to make it as comfortable as we could and still have the feel of being in a tree
we are air conditioned and heated so you have air conditioning and you have heat people ask
if they're staying in a tree house whether they have any electricity and yes we do it's
it's hot water and air conditioning your table you have so that you can eat and have a place
to sit inside the treehouse if you're not outside television interesting i have a map
and i ask guests to put a dot from where they come from so i'm able to kind of show that people
come from all over the world that stay here and it makes it sort of a fun thing and then i can
roll it up and they can watch television your kitchen small but useful has a bowl in the sink
and then the bathroom has a real toilet not a compost toilet real toilet and a
small shower that has a few light fixtures behind it that make it sort of interesting
it was made interesting the shower is made out of two sheep watering troughs
a lot of what you see here is all repurposing i my goal is to repurpose everything i can find
i find things i found found the chairs for the table and i thought they would
be interesting up here in a treehouse and so repurpose is sort of what i really enjoy doing
the skylight is wonderful especially if the moon's coming in if you can catch the
moon coming in the skylight while you're here at night it makes a very nice day
i had a guest it still is a little emotional for me when i when i tell the story the guest
emailed and said that he would like to stay in the man cave that his wife was suffering from a brain
tumor and had no short-term memory and very very sensitive about it and hadn't gone out in a year
but he thought that the man cave would be something private enough when i would see
her during the day i would introduce myself again say i'm dan we met earlier today
and she was she became comfortable and she was comfortable with her stay he took pictures all day
long he was photographing everything to find out that in the morning he would show her the pictures
of what they did yesterday they left and he wrote a wonderful review and saying that they
had a great time about four months later he called back and he said i have no money but
she would like to come and stay for a few days and she's been told she has only four weeks to live
every time i tell that story
so she spent um her last few days that she was having here with me
and that was very impactful to me
and without the platform none of this would happen none of this could be possible i would have never
met all these people i would have never it had a chance to impact her life and she impact mine
i started this project in my uh my late 60s i'm 74 now and i'm
i'm still building them it is getting a little slower i'm glad i have elevators
it was good but it has really added to my life experience as you get older you need
activities you need things to do you need a focus you need a purpose and this gives me that
now we're working on woodstock that will be a you get to sleep in a 64 volkswagen bus
and if you bring your instrument i'll give you a sound stage to perform on
we'll have happy hour there and i'll buy the beer
the opportunity for people and the opportunity for senior people to meet interesting people from all
over the world is possible now you get to know them they've already been vetted you can read
reviews about them and you can host these people in your house even if you just have a spare room
it can make a very rewarding opportunity for you a part of your life where you may
not get out may not travel as much have people travel to you thanks for watching this week's
video make sure to like share and subscribe and tune in next week for another incredible tour