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When I was younger, my uncle built a treehouse for my cousins and me. To us, it was beautiful. To our parents, it was almost certainly a death trap. During that first summer— filled with long nights, a 2×4’s worth of splinters, rivalries and adventures— the structure shifted off its seemingly safe 90 degree angle. Eventually, my dad made it disappear.
The treehouse my uncle built was, at best, experimental. Rest in peace, my uncle was a carpenter by trade, but he often stayed home from work. We loved our shack on high, but knew a treehouse could be better.
I wasn’t really sure how much better until I saw the TV show “Treehouse Masters,” on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. Led by host Pete Nelson, a team of carpenters and architects build elaborate, and safe, treehouses through the world.
On Wednesday, March 15, the commissions of the Metroparks of the Toledo Area were given approval to accept a proposal from Pete Nelson’s company, Nelson Treehouse and Supply, to create a treehouse village in Swanton.
Yes.
A treehouse village.
Oh my god.
Nelson Treehouse and Supply will be paid $56,650 to develop the specific plans for the treehouse village, made up of a network of structures and platforms suspended from maple and oak trees in the wooded area on Waterville-Swanton Rd. near Oak Openings Preserve.
The treehouses will be available for overnight rental.
No word yet if they will offer a monthly rate or yearly leases.
Though I have to say— if they do, don’t hold your breath on learning about it from me. You’re barking up the wrong tree, buddy. One of them’s trees is mine.
