build a treehouse

Builders flew in today. Tomorrow it all begins. It is as if I wound up my life, set it on the ground, and now it is running around while I watch. Very strange.

The moon door is under construction!

Soon I will fly away to meet up with it all!

He sent a message late yesterday. He has gotten ahold of everything that will be needed to complete the project. We are recycling as much as possible, which turns out to be a lot. The only new stuff so far will be the bamboo, the hot tub, a couple of doors, and the heater & stove top. I so wish I was there to see it all! Soon!

This project is bringing together our New York builder who happened to be in a skate shop in Venice and began talking – or networking is the real word here – and the skate shop guy got on the phone and called his Big Island connection and this guy said “Bobby’s your man” ...

Bobby gets brought in and he brings his bamboo ideas and his biodynamic permaculture philosophy …

Next thing, we are going solar with this! solar in the rain forest. Off grid, baby.

We’ve got this gorgeous cedar hot tub that’s going to be perched up on the deck, sunk down and resting on top of the lava tube. The house will hover nearby. Hot tub open to stars and mists and falling rains, kept hot by propane heater.

Now I am thinking, what about a small greenhouse nestled in the forest, out in back? Grow some kitchen herbs, tomatoes, asparagus. hmmmmm. Why not?

If you find me on twitter as mahinui, there is a link to the blog. There will be pictures, and if I can manage it, a daily entry.

This is a fine adventure!

I built a tree house with my dad when I was a kid, and then turned into a professional Tree House Builder as an adult. Please check out my website for more pictures and info: www.treetopbuilders.net

Good luck to all of you out there looking to build your own, and let me know if I can be of any assistance!

Our treehouse builder has a genius for connecting with people. Part of it is his involvement in the treehouse collective out of Oregon that welcomes and embraces dedicated builders. Part of it is his unique personality.

For just a moment, let me tell you what he looks like. His curly hair has grown down past his butt, and he wears it in braids he sometimes ties back or pins up. He has lots of tattoo art on his arms and chest and maybe his back, although I haven’t studied him so much in that way. I will look closer and maybe get some of that story. He brought a skate board along to travel between our house and the building site. Last night when he went to visit his parents on Maui, he put on a pin stripe suit.

So now you can see him a little. He made a connection with someone who is an expert finish artist here, ordinary engaged in high end houses for the elite and super rich, and this guy is actually dedicated to sustainability. He brought over a book that was just published on bamboo houses and a piece of black bamboo about 2 inches in diameter to show us what the cross beams in our upper ceiling will look like. He explained the bamboo will be permeated with cedar oil and nano particles for strength and beauty and fragrance. Then he opened this book and showed us some furniture made out of bamboo root, looking like elephant feet, a little. Knobbly where the roots join up to the trunk, the roots taken off and the burly part all smoothed up. He says he will dig this stuff out of a ravine where he lives an make our railings out of it. He is so into this he was dancing, literally. He is a bit tired of carving dolphins into cabinetry, and having the designs all programmed for him.

Our stained glass artist came over and she is so happy to have a part in this project. There is a little buzz going here in this tiny village, among the artists and scientists and story tellers. This is one heady experience. It is like a work symphony, if that makes sense.

Here’s the site, in its somewhat raw state.

two days ago we walked the site with our artist/builder. He and R came upon a lava tube protruding nearly 20 feet vertically out of the ground, with sandalwood trees growing out of it.

It was buried in a tangle of vines and ginger. As we tore away this mass of stems and soggy forest debris, a mossy vertical wall emerged. A wall with holes and a cave but no opening we’ve found so far big by to crawl through. And that’s OK.

The design is happening on two levels in the trees growing over the lava tube, with the hot tub sunk in the deck and resting on the lava. We’ll put red lights inside the “basement” and light it up like lava is still aglow in there.

We’ve cleared a pretty little winding path back to it and brought in some exotic flora like the rose Ginger with flowers growing out of the ground and lobster claw heliconia. That can all get a nice start while we to back to the mainland and complete our move away.

We are so happy with this project. There is such inspiration here! Last night our scientist friends came over for dinner and told mystical stories of Pele encounters and this morning we got up at 3 to go out on the ocean with them and watch lava flow into the sea. We were looking at the newest land on earth being born. Pictures later.

Here is a window she has done. I am liking this for the tree house as it is fanciful and see through and very rain foresty.

It will be defined by its roof, soaring up and out like wings, like something at home in a tree.

The lanai cover will have translucent threeform between the wooden beams to let light in, and make a shelter from the rain of the forest.

The structure when viewed from below will have a lower part that may be slightly rounded, like a nest, or the abdomen of a bird or butterfly, although the floor inside will be level.

Light will enter through windows at different angles, many with stained glass birds of the rainforest in them, but with a lot of clear panes so the forest will show through. There will be a sky window in the living room for watching shooting stars, and a star window high over the bed in the bedroom. The star window will be elongated and the frame will be splayed into a four pointed star so the daylight coming through the stained glass will spread into the points of the star.

There will be a rainwater hot tub on the lanai, made of cedar or teak.

It’s beginning to take shape in my mind…