Fern Forest Treehouse

Sebastian'sTreehouse
Sebastian'sTreehouse

When our younger son Will dropped out of college with no alternative plans, my husband Harry came up with an idea to inspire him.

He enrolled Will and himself in a tree house building course at Yestermorrow, a design/build school here in Vermont.

Will designed the house, and Harry found the perfect site on our Vermont property to make the little building accessible.

"A tree house supported by the maples would put the tiny house level with the hilltop, but thirty feet above the lower land. "

Just north of the land where the main house sits is a steep hill below which a group of sturdy maples grows. A tree house supported by the maples would put the tiny house level with the hilltop, but thirty feet above the lower land.

But building on such a site presented challenges. The first summer, they used ladders to construct a platform attached to four mature maples, one of them in the center of the platform.

The second summer, they built a ramp to bridge the gap between the upper property and the platform so they could install walls and windows.

The third summer Will strapped on a harness to attach the metal roof, careful to cozy the roof around the central tree.

 

BuildingTreehouse3

“...Will furnished and decorated the space in the style of the 1970s with peace signs and VW Beetle artwork."

Final touches were insulating, siding, and adding a deck with a sturdy railing so we wouldn’t lose visitors to a nasty fall. Harry ran electricity to the house for lighting, space heaters, and, of course, music, and he and Will furnished and decorated the space in the style of the 1970s with peace signs and VW Beetle artwork.

We named the abode Fern Forest Treehouse because every open area of the property is covered in ferns. For a while, Will occupied the 100-square-feet house, which holds a built-in cot on the main floor and a ladder to a queen-size bed in the loft. When he went off to Colorado to find other adventures, Harry came up with a plan for the now vacant dwelling.

“What if we rent it out?” he said. “There’s a new company called Airbnb. We could list it there.”

AddisonTreehouse

“People fell in love high in the trees, proposed marriage, hiked, skied, swam in the nearby river, and even panned for gold."

TreehousePerlo

Immediately the Treehouse was in high demand, and guests came from all over the world, some barely speaking English. People fell in love high in the trees, proposed marriage, hiked, skied, swam in the nearby river, and even panned for gold. Our calendar filled up, and the waiting list for a vacancy grew to months ahead.

After nine years, we retired from renting Fern Forest Treehouse. The building was showing signs of wear and so were we. Now we keep the little place safe enough for our grandkids to use as a playhouse. And when Will comes back to Vermont for a visit, the Treehouse is all his.

Fern Forest Treehouse blog tells stories about visitors who gave me permission to write about them and approved the posts. There were many others who came into our lives, most of whom have become friends. All their stories live in our hearts.

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