Real Estate

These grown-ups spent thousands on tricked-out treehouses

Treehouses aren’t just for kids anymore.

Wood-n’t it be nice to have a souped-up perch where adults can also have fun? Well, ‘beleaf’ it or not, treehouses are becoming points of pride for grown-ups.

Tristate-area adults are increasingly adding them to their year-round and vacation properties, for purposes from standout amenity spaces to quirky guest rooms. Yes, ‘fir’ real!

Here, a look at some folks who’ve masterminded especially glorious retreats.

Cottage ‘industree’

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Ranell and Michael Shea have a stunner on the grounds of their 2-acre property in Summit, NJ. “Every time we’re coming up the driveway,” Ranell says, “I say, ‘This is where we should be camping!’ ” The 2-year-old treehouse, mainly clad in Douglas fir and built for extra hangout space, has a main level with a kitchenette, a bathroom and bunk beds. A second floor has a queen-size bed suspended from ropes.

It was designed and built by Nelson Treehouse, the Fall City, Wash.-based company that’s the centerpiece of Animal Planet’s “Treehouse Masters,” whose 11th season premiered in August. (The Sheas’ treehouse, which is 460 square feet and cost $350,000, appeared on screen last summer.)

“Since they built this treehouse, I’ve been more inspired to be outside,” adds Ranell. The Sheas also enjoy the deck, with a bar, that hangs from the treehouse’s underbelly.

Pete Nelson, the owner and founder of Nelson Treehouse, says creating that deck, which is protected from the elements, was an afterthought.

“It was a practical solution for what became a nice space,” he says.

The Sheas’ young grandchildren delight in the suspension bridge that leads to the main level. “We shoot all sorts of zombies from it,” Ranell says. “Or it’s a pirate ship, you name it. We have fun on it.”

Going rental

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When Avner Ronen and his wife Maskit, both 42, set out to build a treehouse on the grounds of their 34-acre retreat in Willow, NY — near Woodstock in the Catskills — the couple thought they would build a typical backyard structure where their four kids would hang out. “Eventually we became more ambitious,” says Avner, the founder and CEO of media startup FTW Studios. “[We realized] that we could build a livable treehouse … that we can use, and our kids can use.”

The result: a modern-yet-cozy 500-square-foot, pond-fronting structure on the grounds of the Ronens’ main house that is kitted out with a kitchenette, a lofted king-size bed, a woodburning stove and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out to bucolic leafy surrounds.

There’s no Wi-Fi or cell reception. “We tried to make it feel that you’re immersed in nature and the trees around it,” says Avner. “Spending a weekend disconnected is a special thing on its own.”

The structure was completed last summer after nearly a year of work. The price tag: $250,000. To help offset the expense, the couple lists the treehouse on Airbnb, with rates from $325/night, and it’s booked up until winter. Designer Antony Gibbon says his goal was to have the treehouse blend into its environment. The key? Using locally sourced cedar. The wood, he says, will “over the years camouflage back into the forest, which it’s slowly starting to do now.”

Windows of opportunity

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Even more striking than the reclaimed windows that serve as the walls of Christina Salway’s Catskills treehouse are the wide vistas they look out to. During a recent visit, Salway spent hours watching a rainstorm. “It was an unbelievable lightning display across the field,” says Salway, who works as the interior designer on “Treehouse Masters.” (The perch appeared in an episode that aired in January 2017.) “It’s an ever-changing space where each experience outdoes the previous one.”

Salway shares this treehouse — which stands on the grounds of her second home in Callicoon — with husband John Moskowitz and their 6-year-old son, Julian.

The family, who lives in Brooklyn, built the treehouse to add to their overall living and recreation space — and tapped Nelson Treehouse for the work. (Salway declined to comment on the cost; in general, Nelson says a 200- to 400-square-foot build averages $300,000.) Inside the roughly 150-square-foot space, there’s a hanging daybed, a propane fireplace and a farmer’s work bench that Salway uses as a desk.

A wraparound deck has space for bistro-style seating and a fireman’s pole that Julian loves to slide down. “He and his friends, they go racing [to the treehouse] and disappear for hours on end,” Salway says. Though small in size, the treehouse still has plenty of room for gatherings. Salway followed her own advice — a less-is-more decorating attiude. “You don’t want to inundate the space and make it feel dwarfed,” she says.

Building castles in the sky

Stefano Giovannini

Contractor Raymond Delmonte, of Torrington, Conn.-based RJD Building, wrapped up construction last month on his latest creation: a 100-square-foot egg-shaped perch in northwestern Connecticut. At its highest point, the all-cedar treehouse — for which work began in May — stands 19 feet off the ground.

Raymond DelmonteStefano Giovannini

“It’s not huge — just a place to chill and do yoga, a place to relax,” says Delmonte of the one-room structure, built for a family who declined to comment on their new addition. “The kids will go there to read a book or spend a night inside.”

Its shingled exterior leads to an interior that’s lit by orange-, blue- and green-colored plexiglass windows.

This is the first treehouse Delmonte has completed in 2018, but he’s built 12 over the last five years around Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills region that are primarily used by adults as entertaining areas.

His masterpieces include a two-story treehouse with a sloped roof that opens to a wide deck. With more work in the pipeline, he adds he’s noticed more demand to design and build treehouses for clients over the past several years. “I think it brings them back to their childhood — the days when they had a tree fort in their backyard,” he says.

Fo-rest and relaxation

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Victoria Cantwell’s upstate property in Argyle, NY, contains the yurt she calls home, organic gardens, two cabins, a tiny house and a 120-square-foot pine treehouse. The latter four are for rent on Airbnb. The whole spread looks out to firefly displays on summer nights.

“It’s like magic,” says Cantwell, 59, who manages the rentals full-time. Treehouses piqued Cantwell’s interest while surfing sites like Pinterest.

But she ultimately took the plunge to build her own when a cabin guest — Eric Teitelbaum, who worked for Nelson Treehouse — offered his services.

He completed it in May 2016 in the $7,000 to $10,000 range. Adds Cantwell, “My guests are always amazed he could build that in 11 days.” The treehouse ($195/night) is no-frills; visitors use a composting outhouse. But it does have a lofted full-size bed under a semi-transparent roof, a futon and beamed ceilings.

Salvaged sliding doors open to a deck framed by rough-hewn branches. Cantwell’s guests primarily come from the NYC area — some with family, one on a silent retreat. Others have visited to write poetry or novels. “You feel like you’re really here with the trees,” she says.

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