I just saw this on Facebook, what an amazing story! Please visit the Hemloft site for more information and photos. http://thehemloft.com
An Aesthetically Modified Egg!
The HemLoft is a self-funded secret creation, that I built on crown land in Whistler, Canada. It hangs on a precipitous slope, in a towering stand of Hemlocks, about a five minute walk from the nearest road. When I started building it, I was just a fledgling carpenter, living out of my car. Building an experimental orb on a sheer slope, deep in the woods, with no electrical power, isn’t the recommended way to ease yourself into carpentry. However, I was armed with a couple of the most powerful tools a carpenter can have: blind naiveté and supreme determination.
Have a gander, there’s lots to see!
Chapter 1: A Retirement Gone Sideways
I’m just going to come out and say it. I tried to retire at the age of 26 and failed. What does this have to do with the treehouse? Well, my attempt at retirement seems to be the critical link between my former career as a software developer, and my new career as a carpenter. Let me explain, in objective terms, what happened. Read on…
Chapter 2: My Foray into Carpentry
In the Spring of 2008, my mission to retire was rudely interrupted by reality. I was left pennyless, at the crossroads of returning to software, or trying something new. At about that time, I had an auspicious encounter with an old man, now a dear friend, that gave me new and exciting vision of my future. Read on…
Chapter 3: The Idea: An Egg in a Tree
So there I was, a bourgeoning carpenter, living out of my car, and heading off in an exciting new direction. One day, a young fellow named Ryan, walked onto the job site to start as a laborer. He shook my hand with a big charismatic smile and said he’d heard some stories about me. From that brief introduction, I knew I had met someone special … but I never would have guessed the extent. Read on…
Chapter 4: Finding the Perfect Tree
By the time I started looking for a site, I had determined that it should be hidden somewhere in the backwoods. Buying a lot in that area was out of the question, as the cheapest parcels of land were hovering around the million dollar mark. Little did I know that the magic tree would sit right beneath some of the richest mountain homes in Western Canada. Read on…
Chapter 5: Raising the Structure
By the fall of 2008, my lengthy search for the perfect tree was over, and I was ready to start building. Looking back, I really believe that naivety was the mother of all invention. If I had stopped for a brief moment to consider the practicalities, costs, or logistics of building an experimental orb on crown land, none of this would have happened. Read on…
Chapter 6: Slovenia, Olympics, and Falling in Love
Sometimes life veers off in directions that you’re not expecting. That was the story of my next two years. Some momentous and profound things transpired, just not on the treehouse. However, it couldn’t have happened any other way. With a few fortuitous twists in the summer of 2010, I was back on track and more determined than ever to finish. Read on…
Chapter 7: $10,000 in Free Materials!
With a new teammate and life-partner in the wings, finishing the treehouse by next summer was all of a sudden looking possible. As for affording $10,000 in materials … that was still a big dangling question mark … until the winter of 2010. While Heidi was traveling in Brazil, I made a breakthrough that changed everything. Read on…
Chapter 8: The Final Push
It wasn’t until the end of May when the snow had finally melted, that we could start moving materials. Within a couple weeks, Heidi and I had hiked over two hundred loads of materials up to the treehouse. With the materials on site and ready to go, cost was no longer an issue. It was now just a race against time. Read on…
Chapter 9: Living in the HemLoft
In August 2011, the dream was almost complete… the only part left, was to live it. By the time we had finished building Sven’s house, relocated all our belongings, and visited with family, we only had a week before our scheduled departure for Nova Scotia. It wasn’t the long term living experience I had hoped for, however, that week turned out to be so delightful, that it couldn’t possible endure, except as a memory. Read on…
Chapter 10: The Fate of the HemLoft
New York seems to have a way of making big things happen. Little did I know, when Heidi and I set off for The Empire City, we’d meet the woman who would give me an essential insight into the story behind the treehouse, and spur me to submit the HemLoft to a major design magazine. Read on…
I’m really liking the look, we’re slowing putting the rustic back into the cabin, which has been built with mostly dimensional store bought and free materials so far. There’s even a notch in the belly band and a metal flashing piece that fits snugly and will keep the water from getting behind the siding.
