hey guys jenna here welcome to my channel where i take you on tours of unique homes in this week's
episode we're going on a journey to take a tour of one family's castle in the sky husband and wife
steven nancy along with their extended family and friends teamed up to create this gorgeous
luxury container home tree house which serves as a unique getaway with a sweet backstory and although
we featured several amazing container homes on this channel i guarantee that in this design there
are a few surprises that you've never seen before and if you like these kind of videos make sure
that you subscribe and hit that notification bell so that you know every time i publish a new tour
oh
hi i'm steve and this is their castle
the air castle came from a story my dad told me growing up as a kid where he was on the farm
and he was daydreaming and his dad asked him hey son what are you doing building air castles so
we thought that was very fitting for a tree house of this stature everybody asked you know how did
i come up with the design i don't really have an answer to that but i'm an engineer and my father's
an engineer so together you know we wanted to kind of challenge ourselves to say what can
we build with boxes that's unique that you can't build with any other materials so one of the most
common you know questions you get on container structures is why use containers why not use
a regular stick build i would challenge anybody to come up with a design that you could use that
would be safe to build a structure like this any other way than with shipping containers so you got
two vertical containers they're grounded on a four foot deep foundation 150 000 pounds of concrete
continuously welded around the structure so that gives you the 40 foot height of
the containers and then the crow's nest is up at 50 feet 10 feet higher than that
and then the two horizontal containers is where the the common space the living space the kitchen
and it's cam levered out over the creek supported by the boat arch tree also referred to as iron
wood it's a very hard tree when it does die it doesn't rot the tree actually gets harder and
more durable so to drill in that tree to support the structure we put ten four inch bolts in the
tree it took pretty much one day for each bolt so very very hard to do that but at the same
time that gives you the very strong base to then do that steel structure that's holding up the
horizontal containers we did as much fabrication as we could on the ground so we got it up in there
as soon as we can put the windows in to get it dried in got it sprayed with closed cell foam
and during that time you know we kind of planned to head so we put the hot tub in on the ground
put all the building materials in there on the ground so we raised it up in the air
all materials were here ready to go so basically this was our shop for almost two
years of construction pretty much full time so we wanted to build a structure that was unique
that was a destination that was really focused on creating an immersive experience in nature
all right let's go inside
being a tree house we try to use as much repurposed materials as we can
so we pretty much built the tree house around the materials and just kind of came up with
ideas of how it can be incorporated by still maintaining the the farmhouse style that we
wanted on the inside with the industrial look on the outside in that juxtaposition
all the shiplap has been collected from houses in town so this is like 300 year old
wood from 150 year old houses being the air castle it's a castle door modern
not too many castles around here in texas so that's actually from habitat for humanity
one of the nice amenities we have that's very close proximity to the living space is
the outdoor screened in porch for the hot tub so you can actually relax in there while you watch
the birds and the animals from the same level in the trees as you are
all right over here we have our mud room for hanging everything this is all made from surplus
materials shiplap from houses in the area that we tore down black walnut table from a tree on site
and then we have a full kitchen with refrigerator extensive coffee bar
countertops are from a locker room in a local high school gym
so they were repurposing that and remodeling so we're putting everything to use
now here is one of six balconies overlooking the trees so this time
of year you have a little more distance you can see with all the leaves off the trees
from the kitchen this is our main living space where you'll spend most of your time not only
relaxing but being immersed in nature with the birds and the squirrels so this is probably
one of the favorite highlights for the guests to come and relax as the seasons change the wildlife
change the migrating birds change hummingbirds squirrels raccoons a lot of wildlife can be
seen from here being immersed in nature one of our favorite things again is to watch the animals and
we're so friendly with them that we've actually given them all names and we can recognize most
of them when they come visit the cardinal that comes and taps on the window every day to say hi
to the woodpecker here we named him steven tyler being a headbanger they provide a lot of
excitement not only just relaxation and watching them eat but to see their personalities as they
challenge each other for the favorite spot so one of the things we try to do is support our
fire department my brother-in-law died in the line of duty as a as a firefighter we have a
plaque here that we provide for our guests so they can make donations in his name that we then give
to our local volunteer fire department you know he was really a handyman he could do anything
any trades so this would have been something that him and i would enjoy doing together
it's on this level we have the kitchen the hot tub the living room and as you go through the first
vertical container which is the stairwell you then enter into the bathroom so the bathroom's on this
common level everything is custom everything's built to fit so again we're using the shiplap
materials black walnut countertops with vanity and the shower is custom made by my welders
that we use for over a thousand hours of welding time total within the treehouse incorporating
the logo for the treehouse rain head and then two heads on the wall for a very immersive experience
as you saw from the exterior there's two vertical containers one is the stairwell the red container
and the other one contains the bathroom and the two bedrooms it's within the stairwell
it's goes from the bottom bedroom and the laundry room to this level including the bathroom and
the common space and now up to the master bedroom and then ultimately up to the crow's nest another
30 feet up in the air so this stairwell was all custom made it took about two weeks to build so
one of the details you can see on the stairwells with safety in mind and guest experience in mind
we alternate the colors of the steps so when you're coming down the middle of night to go
to the bathroom it's easier to distinguish each step and now we're on the top floor
of the container and i will go into the bedroom which is chuckles bedroom our favorite squirrel
this bedroom is similar to the to the lower level it's just obviously higher at 30 feet the normal
container would have stopped here but this would have been a very tight space for the bed we have
queen size beds so we did a bump out we actually pushed the wall out and closed it put this glass
in here so when you're sitting in bed you actually look out through the window at the stars at night
so for this bedroom we're at the top of the containers now we'll go outside and go up
two more floors on the crow's nest from up here we're at 30 feet in the middle of the trees and
as you can see we're on top of the two horizontal containers with the lightning rods for for safety
now we have a two-story spiral staircase that goes up to the top of the crow's nest 50 feet
above the ground so this is all custom designed built off-site craned into place
this is a very comfortable area up here the guests love to hang out have coffee
enjoy the views and you're in the shade of the upper level crow's nest so even when it's 110
degrees here in texas you're still comfortable because you're in the shade and you're above
the trees so you've got nice breeze coming through let's go on up to the upper level the crow's nest
now we're at the top level at 50 feet above the ground
this is sculpted to mimic a turret on a castle and from this view you'll be able to see
much of the the lake that's under construction now and will be filled in the next four years or so so
that's a big part of why we chose this location shows this height so we can have enough view
to be in the trees and above most of the trees and take advantage of the very expansive view
all right let's take a look at the outside now from up here we're 24 steps to the ground
so we're up at two stories we have this first balcony deck area the grill outside sink this
is our old fridge we restored that has all the the grill equipment in there real utensils
and one of the fun things we have for the guests to do is we have them do a lock and engrave it
with their memory of their experience and special occasion that they were here for and it's been
really fun some guests have been here multiple times so they actually leave multiple either
different locations or stack them like one of our local guests comes here on a monthly basis
they've been here three times already in the last six months so they bring different
friends and family in terms of cost once you factor in you know all the different trades
welding plumbing electricians it was in the hundreds of thousands
of dollars in terms of construction we're still tallying that but that really wasn't
what was our motivation and our guide going into it we just wanted to create a unique experience
i hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode please make sure to like share
and subscribe and i will see you soon with another tiny or unique home tour