Treehouses are tree-mendouse getaways

STEVENSON — Douglas firs are the hallmark of Skamania Lodge’s sprawling 175-acre resort in the Columbia River Gorge. When the wind kicks up, the imposing trees bow and flex with the breeze.

So, it may be no surprise that the lodge’s new treehouses costing $300,000 each sit on metal stilts 15 to 20 feet off the ground — not on the trees themselves.

“We really tried to be true to our original vision of this project, which was built in the branches of trees. As we got into the project, we learned that a Douglas fir can grow up to 450 feet tall. It grows for 150 years,” said Todd Gillespie, the lodge’s sales and marketing director. “We started thinking if it grows, we have a $300,000 asset attached to it. That’s a challenge. What happens if the tree gets sick and we have a $300,000 asset attached to it?”

Does that mean these aren’t true treehouses? If you’ve got at least $349 to spend, you can stay the night and decide for yourself.

They are nestled among the trees next to the golf course.

“As far as West Coast destinations, Skamania Lodge’s treehouses differ in that we offer a full-service, upscale resort,” Gillespie said. “When you come here, you’ve got three restaurants to choose from, you’ve got a spa, you’ve got a golf course. You can get married here.”

It’s true that there are no treehouse resorts, or treesorts, nearby. TreeHouse Point is east of Seattle in Issaquah and doesn’t have all the extras that Skamania Lodge boasts. Out n’ About Treehouse Resort, close to the Oregon Caves National Monument, is about a five-hour drive.

That means between Skamania Lodge and nearby treehouses booked through Airbnb, Southwest Washington could become the default destination for Portland-area tourists seeking a treehouse experience.

‘Refined rustic’

When Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and Destination Hotels held its annual budget meeting, the group spitballed ways to grow Skamania Lodge and give people more reasons to stay there. After all, the lodge gets competition from The Resort at the Mountain in Welches, Ore., near Mount Hood, The Alison in Newberg, Ore.’s wine country, and all of those trendy downtown Portland hotels. About 80 percent of business comes from people within a 90-minute drive of the lodge, so it needed something that the others don’t have.

Glamping was floated during the meeting, but that seemed to be a fleeting trend, and treehouses were also suggested.

While watching the popular Animal Planet show “Treehouse Masters” the next morning, Gillespie’s son Hayden turned to him and said they should build treehouses at Skamania Lodge.

“That was the second time I’d heard ‘treehouses’ in the last 12 hours,” Gillespie said.

The idea was developed further, seen as another investment for the lodge, built in 1993. Over the last few years, about $6 million has been spent updating and improving the lodge. Last year, occupancy averaged a record 60 percent. Most people who stay at the lodge are there for business or some other group-related event. So, the lodge’s success reflects the health of the local economy. And those business folks have asked the lodge to create nontraditional meeting spaces.

“We’re not trying to take advantage of trends, we’re trying to be market leaders. We’re trying to be innovative,” Gillespie said.

The lodge worked with Stevenson builder Invision and Portland architectural firm Ankrom Moisan to construct the treehouses. Construction started last spring and ended in September, so about six months and $600,000 to put the houses together. They’re each about 750 square feet — one-third of that is taken up by an expansive bathroom — with 100 square feet of deck.

The aesthetic is “refined rustic.” Think Pendleton wool blankets, modern furniture in earthy colors, wood detailing and a gold mount on the wall.

The lodge’s owners wanted to see the treehouses occupied 30 percent of the time to prove they were worthwhile; instead, they’ve been occupied 70 to 75 percent of the time.

“What we envision is these are the first two of a cluster of houses,” Gillespie said. “The area is designed to accommodate five more. Eventually we’ll have seven down here. That’ll be our first treehouse village. Then, we’ll find another piece of property and we’ll build another treehouse village there.”

Treehouses are another way to experience the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. Skamania Lodge was wrapped into the bill that created the scenic area and intended to find a balance between enhancing and preserving the beauty of the Gorge.

WASHOUGAL

If you want to stay in a treehouse that’s close to Portland International Airport, your best bet may be one of three Airbnb rentals in Clark County. There are no treehouses listed on Airbnb in Portland. That’s zero. Zip. Nada. No treehouses in the city limits of Keep-Portland-Weird Portland.

To get the offbeat experience of sleeping up in the air, tourists must venture to the suburbs. Perhaps to Brian Little’s treehouse that’s steps from the Washougal River.

Years ago, he would nap in his hammock under the canopy of two locust trees, daydreaming about building a treehouse.

“I pretty much had every stick of wood put together in my head,” said Little, 59.

Renting the room on Airbnb wasn’t part of his original daydreams. He didn’t know the online home-sharing network even existed. Little — who likes to paint and build — spent the summer of 2010 constructing the treehouse. He completed the inside before Christmas that year.

“I originally built it for an art studio, and I put all my art supplies up here. And I had a futon up here,” Little said.

But, his family and friends wanted to sleep in the treehouse, and then his granddaughter stayed in it for a while. The one-room treehouse overlooks the popular Sandy Swimming Hole.

When a friend suggested he list the treehouse on Airbnb, he thought that being on the river he might host a couple of anglers each week.

“Next thing I know, it’s booked solid for a couple of weeks, and it just kept on going,” he said. Guests from around the world have stayed in his funky, nautical-themed treehouse.

Little spent about $5,000 on materials and says he’s more than earned back the investment.

After working 32 years at the Georgia-Pacific paper mill and retiring early, the treehouse is a low-maintenance way to get extra income, he said. The room typically goes for $95 to $125 per night in the summer, or $75 to $99 in the slower months.

“It helps out quite a bit,” he said.

There’s a television, microwave and fridge that Little stocks with bottled water, but there’s no bathroom or kitchen. People have to use his main house, which he repainted to match the treehouse.

The window trim is leftover from a Victorian-style house he built on Camas’ Prune Hill, and fishing lures he found while snorkeling the river are strung up outside. Little estimates he had about 200 or so lures until someone apparently pocketed some.

Tracy and Jon, who stayed in the treehouse with their dog, Kona, left a note in the guestbook: “We were lulled to sleep by the sound of the river and woke to the most beautiful sunrise we have seen in years.”

“Our favorite part was just sitting on the front porch taking in all the beautiful scenery,” said Atlanta residents Kena and Andrea.

“Thank you for sharing this beauty with us, truly invaluable! Can’t wait for the day we get to leave California and build a treehouse in the lungs of the world!” wrote Robert and Eva of Los Angeles.

Closer to Washougal’s growing downtown is Kenny Bavoso’s house. The large four-bedroom house, originally built in 1910, sleeps about eight people.

Visitors rent the house for about $200 a night and get to use the other structures Bavoso’s built on his property over the years, including a tiny house, a Finnish-style sauna and a treehouse. There’s a hot tub and fire pit, too. Built from a mixture of salvaged materials and pieces from Washougal Lumber, the treehouse is meant to make adults feel like a kid again.

The steep steps up to the house require climbing. There’s a basket hooked to a pulley system, so people can hoist up their belongings.

“Anything I’ve built I try to make it as playful and fun as possible,” he said.

Staying in the main house while getting to use the other buildings — which are technically temporary structures — makes the experience more like home.

Bavoso was drawn to the Columbia Gorge after he graduated high school and wanted to learn windsurfing. The 43-year-old also goes whitewater kayaking.

“I could put my gear on right here, I could walk down the street, hitchhike, go like seven miles and kayak all the way down to my house,” Bavoso said. “You can’t do that in very many places.”

Washougal is a hidden gem, he said, but the treehouses may be making the small city not such a far-flung destination. Both Little and Bavoso say their rentals bring tourists to Washougal who wouldn’t otherwise visit the city of 15,000-some people. Often, tourists are heading to Portland, but go to Washougal for the funky accommodations and end up patronizing local breweries and parks.

“You meet people from all over the world. It’s a huge value to a city like Washougal. People come here and spend money,” Bavoso said. “One week it’s a group of people from Mexico. Next week it might be someone from Portland wanting a little staycation.”

Many people are from British Columbia heading down Interstate 5, he said.

The third local treehouse is located in the backyard of an east Vancouver home and has its own kitchen and bathroom. The owners declined to be interviewed by The Columbian.

Officials: Rules for treehouses depend on how they’re used

Treehouses are generally less than 120 square feet and exempt from building permit requirements, said Mitch Kneipp, Washougal’s community development director.

When somebody wants to rent out a treehouse — or any house — on a site like Airbnb, then the property owners need to get land-use permits for operating a bed and breakfast. If the public is going into the structure, it has to meet public standards, Kneipp said. The benefit of permitting, he said, is preventing or mitigating issues such as the building catching on fire or collapsing.

There’s a difference between a treehouse that someone can use or play in, and a treehouse that somebody could live in.

In most cases, Clark County building official Jim Muir treats treehouses as playhouses, because that’s what they typically resemble and how they’re most often used.

If someone wanted to build a habitable treehouse, however, they’d have to design it to be structurally sound and up to code with information backed up by an arborist and a structural engineer.

“It could be done,” said Muir, who’s permitted other unconventional homes in his career, such as straw-bale houses and a home made from a Boeing 737.

‘Possible here’

While building a treehouse “certainly wouldn’t approach impossible,” he said it’s more work than a “cookbook house.”

Sree Thirunagari, a building official with the city of Vancouver, says the treehouses at Skamania Lodge use a type of construction that’s not unusual. Raised foundation systems, where part or all of the home is built on stilts, are seen among homes on slopes, wetlands and flood plains.

“Something like that is possible here,” Thirunagari said. While looking through photos of Skamania Lodge’s treesort, he said they seem “to have all the things that would be needed for a habitable structure.”

But were the treehouses actually attached to trees or supported by them, it would get tricky.

“How do you show that the tree meets the structural requirements?” Thirunagari said. “I’m not sure how you go about showing the root systems to be code compliant.”