hey there welcome to my channel where i take you on tours of tiny homes and creative spaces today
we're going to be taking a tour of a space that encompasses two of my favorite home types a-frames
and tree houses that's right today we're going to be taking a tour of a tree frame we're gonna meet
the owner nick and learn what inspired him to design an a-frame in the sky and i think once
you see the interior you're gonna be absolutely wowed i know i was and if you like these kind
of videos please make sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell so that you know every
single time i publish a new tour but right now let's go take a tour of this a-frame tree house
hi i'm nick and this is the tree frame
i wanted to build an a-frame and a tree because i thought
it was unique i also love the architecture i think it's simple sexy beautiful classic and i just
thought that there was a space for it here between these trees on our property
the first drawing was september 5th in 2020 i've kept that drawing you know and it's just kind
of like an ewok village a-frame you know with the stairs coming up but in the end it was me
working with the framer to finalize the design so the tree frame is 13 feet off the ground
the apex is about 34 feet and each floor we have about nine feet of headspace so the build process
is kind of tricky just because of its remote location being on an index we're only an hour
from seattle but it's very difficult to get people to come out here and help you do stuff
and ended up really just general contracting the whole project i ordered the windows i
found the plumber i found the electrician and hired and kind of coordinated all that
i was on site at least two or three days a week during our five-month build
it was amazing i was exhausted but i was thrilled with how beautiful it turned out
my kids get a real kick out of the tree house now that it's done and they can enjoy
the warm spaces and the soft bed that has wi-fi so my son can play video games he's he's happy my
wife loves the tree house she loves the property i think she also was maybe sometimes annoyed
how much i talked about the tree house maybe still but you know we're getting through that
so the tree frame is the fifth of our five cabins here at index cabins we use them for
family adventures all the time through ski season and summer play and we also share them
on airbnb and it's become kind of a busy full-time job for me it was an expensive build for me to
tie it in to everything on the property and do the build we spent just about 200 grand
some of the feedback i get from guests they use this word magical and like this
such a flattering thing for me to read because this was exactly what i was trying to create
it's really become a nice sense of fulfillment and and satisfaction for me
i had walked by these trees for many many years and for years i thought about
those trees being a good strong foundation for a tree house and actually worked with the nelson
treehouse guys to help me plan the platform the size of the tree frame was definitely
limited by how much space we had between the trees and how much good platform we could get
and as you can see there's two substantial beams holding up the structure with these
four giant evergreen trees they're about 90 years old this is this is the strong cedar
the tree house is held up by these four pins they're called treehouse attachment bolts and
the nelson treehouse boys have perfected this technology over the years so this is the anchor
of the four so you can see that there's there's it doesn't move it's a static uplift arrestor
so that pin goes through that that metal piece so therefore it's not going to move and they've
tested this to see how much weight it will hold and it's upwards of is greater than 17 000 pounds
of vertical uplift on this um this incredible mechanism the dynamic uplift arrestor it's just
that it's dynamic it can move side to side so if it's windy or if there's a growth of the tree it
can push out or it can slide side to side and the idea is to let the trees envelop those pins and
then grow around those pins and then grow maybe with these little mechanisms so that the treehouse
stays intact and structurally sound for as long as possible we're certainly always concerned about
the health of the trees i had an arborist come and inspect the trees to make sure that they were good
it's always a chance you know that something could happen and worst case scenario you just put a post
to to replace the tree if it happened but i mean the arborist says that they'll be
here for years and years and years so i don't know i guess we'll see
we have a beautiful tiny little two-person jacuzzi your headrests are here so you can sit here with
your date and look out into the forest and enjoy some peaceful under the treehouse time
this is what we call the pump house it handles some of the systems for the treehouse we've got
propane that does all the heating the fireplace heats the entire place these are your water lines
the blue insulated portion is a heated element so that they don't freeze in the winter regarding
insulation i ended up hiring a crew a local crew to come in and insulate the entire place
we did batten uh fiberglass insulation all through the bays underneath
i didn't want to put too much more weight underneath the tree house so i ended up
just using a black weed cloth we'd we'd bear your cloth to cover the the insulation there
come on up
when you come up the stairs to your tree house cabin it should just be like you
have arrived and these lights are shining up and just welcoming you to this fun experience i
invested in a lot of exterior lighting i wanted it to feel contemporary and modern i always love an
a-frame that has this feature where it comes out a little bit at the top so i remember purchasing
the ridge beam at 26 feet and then everything else is about three feet shorter all right come on in
this is your cozy little wonderland whenever i come in here it's just
the lighting and the plywood finish i just love it
i really wanted it to feel like you're inside the tree so like this is the meat of the tree
of a fir tree or something and you're now just hanging out inside the tree color to me is just
so light to me it's just like a honey glow that just gives it a wonderful feel once we got the
building framed it was an afterthought or a second thought to put in these gigantic
custom skylights these two by eights like as i'm sitting here you can see almost the entire
cedar tree right there just dripping with moss and and the clouds in the sky and i just
i wanted to to just capture as much of that as possible the flooring is an lvp it's a you
know a synthetic product but it's like totally waterproof stain proof we have a pretty good size
fridge here medium-sized fridge high-gloss white cabinets with brushed brass handles which i love
these beautiful brushed brass finish fixtures i can't get over how pretty those are i waffle
i don't know when that's going to go out of style but i hope not soon
we did a little two burner induction cooktop which seems to be perfect for you know one and two night
stays we have a air fryer in here a convection microwave these shelves are big leaf maple that
i milled off the property and then finished for this cabin specifically you can see this beautiful
detail in that maple so the tile is a key thing right because it's so bold and risky and i as
i was building the cabin ended up listening to so much of my favorite rock star artist chris cornell
that i started making some design choices thinking like what would chris have liked in fact i've
instagram tagged chris's wife and she says that he would have loved it here so that was like
sweet for me and then also the guitar that's in is kind of a tribute for him
we have a propane fireplace so this actually gets it pretty toasty
you may have gathered i really love like brushed brass and gold finish stuff and i also really love
this color leather like this caramel leather look so i found this couch and it was perfect
it can fold down to sleep a third person if you have three folks in your group
the sliding doors it was always a key element from the beginning because we had to draw the
back of the wall here i will chill out here for as long as i can but i mean check out this view
so the railings very beautiful but man they were a lot of work i ended up having to cut
every single one of these posts i think there were like 28 posts so like with a
metal chop saw and then i had to do a lot of the drilling for the lag bolts the lag screws that
fasten it to the deck i had to drill all those holes so it was a lot of work but next time
i'll make sure it's a little more fabricated before all right now let's check out the loft
so we're in the king bed loft it was very important to me to get a king bed up here and
so that was a big part of planning with the framer and everything to make sure we had enough space
one component that also i argued with basically the framer about was that i needed these small
windows down here that could open and close so that we could have a cross breeze from the sliding
door downstairs to here because now we have a fan running up here that can take hot air out
of the loft and then these skylights again like you're just sleeping here and you just basically
have a full view of the sky and and the stars and this and the moon and stuff so it's really nice
so we're basically at about nine feet here at the apex but as you can see the sidewalls
you know kind of impede your standing but really when you climb up the ladder and you're coming
up to bed it's kind of a crawl in situation cozy we put as many pillows here as possible
like pillow fights are heavily encouraged and it's just a cozy spot for you and your partner
all right well come on over here we can go into the bathroom so we've got nice heated tile floors
heated toilet seat again brushed brass fixtures here an led lit mirror
came across danielle ezop she's an incredible photographer i purchased a few of her photos that
she took when she stayed here one time so this is from just outside just down on the river looking
at tom's thumb and then sword fern and then this is the central peak of mount index i had my tile
guy from seattle come in and do this really nice designer shower so black panties this heavily
textured floor tile just feels great on your toes and then just a classic subway tile for the walls
so to describe the tree frame and three adjectives i'd have to say whimsical
definitely crisp interior design and playful i just wanted to create
nice private spaces for maybe couples but then you could also come together as a group unplug and be
able to enjoy the river and the unique experience of just the things that i love here several of the
guests leave very nice messages saying that they enjoyed their stay and i just hope to
continue that and then make sure to block time every month for my family because it's so booked
thanks for watching this week's video please make sure to like share and
subscribe and i will see you soon with another tiny or creative home tour
you