- Ah, nature, hi, I'm Garrett.
- And I'm Niki! - We're fascinated
by how other people live.
- So we're gonna try and find some really interesting
living situations. - And live there,
experiencing a totally different lifestyle.
- To see which ones bring us closer together,
- Or push us further apart. - This week,
we're living in a tree house! - It's over there.
- That one. - Yeah.
(upbeat rock music)
- I'm Dave. - And I'm Hollis.
We live just outside of Sandy, Oregon
on the way to Mount Hood.
- We have 20 acres here, and this is our tree house,
which we started building in 2010 and finished in 2015.
- [Garrett] Look at it, there it is!
- [Niki] So you built this?
- [Dave] We did! - [Hollis] We did!
- [Garrett] That's amazing!
- I think one of the things about the tree house
is it gets us away from our own house and our own lives.
It just really puts you in a very peaceful state
to be up amongst the trees. - [Garrett] Niki and I
are about to go to live in a tree house.
Niki's kind of planned of this tree house.
She seems really excited. It's in the Pacific Northwest
where she's from. - [Niki] It's gonna be cloudy,
rainy, a little bit cold, I'm bringing all my sweaters.
- For the tree house we're gonna be
investigating two things.
One is it a good place to live just on its own.
- And two is it a space that brings us closer together
or will it push us further apart?
- The tree house is actually suspended, so when you're
in the tree house if it moves a little bit,
- It's supposed to do that. - That's all good.
- It's like a little cabin that you've elevated.
Like you've just sort of made it harder for yourself.
- It's definitely an alternative lifestyle.
This is not gonna be like my apartment in LA.
- Come on in. - Alright.
- Oh wow, Oh! - Oh my gosh.
(orchestral music)
- [Dave] Whenever we had an opportunity to use
products from the property, we did so
as you lay in the bed the timbers up above you
are actually milled from down trees on our property.
- The floor is made out of ground paper bags.
- [Garrett & Niki] What?! - And this is a tree?
- [Dave] That is a tree. - [Hollis] That's a tree.
- Around the loft there's two twin beds up there.
- Oh my gosh, look at that, it looks so nice up here.
If I were a kid this is where I would be all the time.
- I think the main challenge we're gonna experience
is plumbing because practically speaking,
I don't know how that works.
- So this is the light switch for the bathroom
but go ahead and go in, I think I turned one already.
- Oh my gosh!
- The toilet is a composting toilet so you don't
stand up to use it.
It's important that the liquids don't get into the rear
sections, so that's why everybody sits.
- I'm kind of amazed that you have a bathroom
in a tree to begin with.
- Yeah, (laughing) that alone is pretty remarkable.
- Yeah (laughing) - Actually, it's perfect size.
It's gonna be like the tiny house situation again.
Where Niki and I are basically forced to be staring
at each other the whole time, especially if it's raining.
- I think that's it up here. - I think that is.
- Can we show you - Yes
- The outdoor shower? - Yes, absolutely.
- Okay, so, come on in.
- Wow! - That's more
than just a front, it's like a sauna or steam room.
- We put some towels out here for you guys.
So what you do here is you press it in.
Just slide the switch down and you'll hear that come on.
- Whoa! - And
- There's a heater! - Oh my gosh, that's instant.
- Yeah, yeah. - That's amazing.
- It is, you know we'll run out of hot water.
- Well, I call it a magical tree house because you could
wake up in the morning and look straight out
at the branches - Into the trees.
- intro the trees.
- I envisioned, really building it for ourselves
and for our family and I think for me, the biggest surprise
has been how much I've enjoyed sharing it with other people.
- This place seems like a really ideal place
for me to live, like, I love the climate.
I love the Northwest, being surrounded by trees,
and woods, and land is so peaceful and quiet.
- I'm afraid the tree house is something pretty hip and cool
but actually is very inconvenient and not the best
situation for roommates. - Phew, it's so cold.
So, we're in the tree house, this is it.
- It's very cute, it's very cozy.
- It's so dark.
- Like you just look out all of the windows
and there's just nothingness.
- Really cool that there's nothing underneath us right now.
- Yeah, that's crazy. - We're actually like floating
between two trees and like we can....I'm literally
rocking the house, it's really funny.
- Yeah, don't do that, but it's very secure.
This is not like a rinky-dink kids tree house.
- No this is not like a project that was built
over a summer. The bathroom is probably the
biggest source of anxiety right now.
- Yeah, it's very small. - It's so small.
It's about the size of an airplane bathroom.
- And that's it, I fit in here and that's it.
- This is like a very long, far away sink
(Laughing)
- Cold huh? - Yeah, it's really stupid.
- But there is a bathroom in here, which I thought
we would have to go outside to use the bathroom.
- Yeah, its so much better than an outhouse.
- Alright that's like - Bye!
- Extremely disrespectful.
- (Laughing) That's kinda nice, okay so that's,
- So this is our privacy partition.
- So we can change. - Wanna put these on?
- Yeah. These are like space booties.
- I think that by the end of the this.
You'll love it and you'll love Oregon because of it.
(upbeat music)
- That's the sound of the rain, it's raining all night.
So tired last night so I slept in but I think
we're gonna make breakfast? I gotta put on a lot
of clothes to go outside right now.
Cause it's very cold and rainy.
- We're just gonna let that heat up a little bit
get the, dry it off, warm up my hands.
Niki's still asleep so, you're like
my only entertainment here is to talk to you.
I mean in theory this is nice right?
It's pleasant, we're outdoors, we're grilling.
If I had to do this for breakfast every morning,
I probably wouldn't eat breakfast ever.
But it's just like a lot of kind of inconvenience.
Nope, see, like, it's just not hot yet.
My nose is starting to run, it's just like not
(laughing) It looks sad!
Because this won't get hot, this is gonna take forever.
Is there such a thing as slow cooked bacon
cause that's what I'm making.
Oh, good morning. - Good morning.
- I can't get this pan hot enough.
- Isn't this a burner? - Uh, I think it's just
like a heater, I think it just like keeps things warm.
- I think that might be a burner.
- This is a burner! - Told you!
- Aw, shit, luckily it seems like the rain is dying.
- And then we gotta get stuff to grill for dinner.
- Ugh, you wanna grill somethin' for dinner?
- Yeah, how else we gonna eat dinner?
- I don't know I guess we have to.
You think I don't like this because I don't like
being outdoors, but it's the opposite.
I like being outdoors but this is not
where you should be outdoors. - Yes it is!
It's beautiful! - It's soaking wet and cold.
- Grumble, grumble, grumble (laughing)
- You showin' off? (growling dogs)
- Did you put another piece of bacon on there
in between the two? - Yum, Mmmmm!
- You get this one.
This is kinda nice, us with our dogs, sitting by the fire.
As long as we keep figuring out other stuff to do.
- Stop being so concerned about what we're gonna do.
Just live. Cheers!
- There's Garrett on his way to shower, right there.
It's been a minute since we had coffee and breakfast
and I have to poop. No one else is in here
right now, which I feel is the proper time to do it.
I was a little confused at how to use the toilet
but I think I figured it out (giggling).
- It's very romantic that I have this (laughing)
fireplace here. Turn on water
using black switch.
How do you, he made it look so easy yesterday.
Ah, there we go. Ooh!
And it's already pretty warm. Kinda nice, I mean,
they said it's infinite hot water so I can just kinda
take my time.
- I did it. They didn't come back yet.
It was easier than I thought, it's a composting toilet,
that's why it's complicated.
Also, there's a toilet in the shower so
worse comes to worse, I have to go poop outside next time.
- All showered.
(uptempo music)
I'm going to do the pendulum swing.
- Okay - You're gonna help me.
This is a two person affair - Oh my, okay.
- It's literally just some toy that Dave built in the woods.
It's so hard, okay ready. - Oh I wanna see this.
- (laughing) That's really fun, oh god!
Jesus, (laughing) okay, so it's dangerous.
- Oh! - Parcour
- Alright, ready, three, two, one
(yelling and laughing)
- No, don't push me! - I don't know maybe.
(laughing) See who it is
- Oh, hello
- Are you our tour guide Henry?
- This is stuff that like we could never do
in like LA you know.
The idea that you could own this much land, like,
that's incredible.
Stop! Go!
Yeah, those are fish eatin' dog food.
Stop it! So, this is gonna happen.
Go for it! (playful music)
- Ach, it's gonna be cold!!
(loud splash) (laughing)
- It's cold, holy shit!
It's cold, it's cold, but it was fun!
(laughing)
- Niki, we have to eat dinner? - (giggling) Okay.
I'm so cozy (laughing)
Alright, hot dogs. Man, it's chilly out here.
- I can't see anything. - Hot dogs are already cooked
so you just gotta heat 'em up really.
Did you burn them, are you burning things?
- I can't see, I don't know.
Doesn't this kinda suck that we have to be outside
in the freezing cold, just to make food all the time?
- A little bit. - But, it was fun
doing the zip line stuff. - Today was a fun day.
- It was fun. - Doing outdoor stuff.
- Well - Cheers
(playful music)
- You know any ghost stories? - No, I don't like
ghost stories.
So, today after our activities we went into town
and I wasn't feeling super well after
and when we got back to the tree house I ended up
throwing up a few times and poor Garrett
had to essentially like watch, and hear me
just barf into a bag. - Niki's not feeling very well
Niki and I have lived together in like one room before
but never with one person feeling sick.
Trying to make her feel better, trying to make sure
she's drinking liquids.
Actually, today became really fun eventually.
Niki kind of helped me get out of my comfort zone
a little bit.
Once I accepted that it's wet out and it's a
little colder out then it became a lot easier to have fun.
And like, I still went, like swimming today.
I started to actually see liking to live in a tree house
isn't really about the tree house itself.
It's about all the other things that come with it.
And I couldn't have understood that until I came here
and started living it.
So far, I think my relationship with Niki has improved
a little bit but we'll see if she thinks that tomorrow
when hopefully she's feeling better
cause she really was looking forward to this.
So hopefully that didn't drag her experience down too much.
Cause she improved my experience.
(dripping rain)
How are you feeling Niki?
- Better - That's good.
- Sorry for throwing up in front of you.
- I don't care. We slept so late today.
- I know. - We slept like 10 hours.
- It's so dark up there. - It's so dark.
- But I like waking up in the trees.
Alright, we did it, we lived in a tree house.
I had a lot of fun despite throwing up several times
last night.
- When you sign-up to live in a tree house
the number one thing on your list is not practicalities.
Is it fun for a couple of days?
Yes, it's a lot of fun. - This living situation,
by default did bring us closer together
because we like shared a tiny loft together.
He totally like released his inner child yesterday
of like running around the property, doing the zip line,
getting on the pendulum swing, so it was fun to see him
like kind of drop all sense of practicalities
and just kind of enjoy it.
- Good-bye tree house. - Bye tree house.
- [Announcer] Next week on Home Buddies
- RV - Recreational Vehicle
This is probably the most different living style we've done.
- I'm just really worried about a poop situation happening.
- Here I am at the Grand Caymans.
- There are too many obstacles.
- Yeah, it always is great for you.
- He wants to be in control. - I'm trying
not to become defensive. (Grunting)
- I think we're gonna be at each other's throats.
(upbeat music)