Anthropologists believe our ancient human ancestors spent their time in trees, so it should be no surprise we love treehouses today.
Treehouses of all kinds are experiencing a renaissance.
When an acre-size slice of land in Gold Hill, Colorado, came on the market earlier this year, local resident Jessica Brookhart, 41, snapped it up for $80,000.
The draw for her: The house was a treehouse.
It was a place she could hang out with her husband and two young boys.
“I had never been inside it, but had admired it from a distance,” she said, admitting it was an emotional purchase.
The man who owned the land had built the treehouse with materials from a recycling center in neighboring Boulder. The structure can fit two adults and two children. There’s no bathroom or running water, and a squat potty is outside down on the ground. There’s a camping stove for cooking, and water has to be brought up. From the windows, you can see Longs Peak and the Continental Divide.
“Since I was a little girl, I was obsessed with little mini-houses, or sheds and treehouses,” Brookhart said.
She sometimes rents the treehouse out online, and to her surprise, lots of people want to use it.
“For me, it’s this magical place,” she said. “I have to block off a bunch of weekends just so we can spend time there too.”
Treehouses have proliferated during the pandemic. There are stylish backyard ones built by professionals, and makeshift ones thrown up just to escape the four walls of home. There are listings on sites like Airbnb for treehouses to camp in.
Unlike the rickety treehouses of yore, many of these new ones have been upgraded. Most are still accessed with a ladder, however, requiring you to climb.
As pandemic lockdowns droned on, Nanci and Ethan Butler of Newton, Massachusetts, decided to build a…
