Inspiration

People have asked why we're doing this, where we got the idea and if we actually know anything about building stuff....a few years ago I picked up a copy of a Sunday supplement of a news paper whilst I was at my bosses house - we were just about to have a supervision meeting.  The front page of the supplement caught my eye as it said 'living wild in the woods' or words to that effect with a picture of a young guy and an epic looking treehouse.  I asked if I could borrow the supplement and copy it - my boss let me take it.  It was a featured article about Nick Weston and his new book 'The Tree House Diaries'.  He'd gone to live wild in the woods, build and live in his own tree house and hunt, forage and grow his own food for a time and write a book about his experiences.  I bought the book and read it within a week.  My wife read it and we laughed about how we'd love to live like that some day.  I showed the book to almost everyone I knew and saw over the next few weeks, pretty much everyone thought it was cool and some took a real interest.

Since then, thanks to Nick's inspiring ideas about the tree house, simplicity and wild food I've started to grow an interest; I've had dandelions and herb-bennet as salad, James and I made cheese (a friend of his bet him £5 that he couldn't make cheese from scratch - we got a jam thermometer, followed Nick's recipe and £10 of ingredients later we had our own version of Feta 'Chester Gamble'!) and got my own copy of Food for Free

Food for Free

I also dug out my Dad's old air rifle and sighted it and learned to shoot under the expert tuition of Heno, looking forward to my first confirmed kill!  On the second recce weekend to find the right tree we drove past a roadkill Pheasant, I asked him if we could eat it....it was still warm and not too badly dented so with Jame's folks permission to use their oven we had roast Pheasant (next time we'll hang it for a few days first!)

Anyway, I'm onto my 2nd copy of the Treehouse Diaries - with my first copy worn out my Mum posted a new copy out to me in Cambodia last year for a Christmas gift coz she knew how much I loved it!  I'm still just as enthusiastic about the book as when I first read it and show it to anyone who comes to the house. 

I must mention Ben Law and his proper eco woodsman's home/palace - amazing episode of Grand Designs...the guy is a genius! Watch this episode please!  Woodmans Palace - http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs-revisited/4od

After getting back from Cambodia in 2013 we settled in Yorkshire and our next big inspiration came on TV - George Clark's Amazing Spaces.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/george-clarkes-amazing-spaces/4od

So many amazing glamping projects, boltholes and budget retreats - truly the opposite of grand designs - there's more episodes coming on all the time, watch it!  George is really enthusiastic about some well random projects, does some himself and the series is really empowering - after watching you feel genuinely prepared to give it a bash - many of the folks have no clue about building (like me) or design or restoration but you watch them struggle, learn and achieve truly amazing spaces to chill, work or holiday in.....love it!

After watching them I contacted Heno and James and dangerous ideas began to emerge - we could do this, heno has some joinery experience, James works outdoors as a gardener and his folks - our future landlords - had some land and I....well I'd read the Treehouse Diaries a lot...we were all set up......in a way!

 Here's my dubious almost scale design model

A side view

It's a work in progress as we recently discovered our simple single slope roof needs adapting - some support in the middle to hold it up would clutter the inside of the house, so we'll have to go for an a-frame roof, I'll blog a picture once I've adapted the model. 

So that's how this little project began, big thanks to Nick Weston, Ben Law and George Clark! Thanks for reading.  Greg