The Space
Built by hand, one board at a time.
I framed every wall, window, and stair myself — I wanted it to feel like it grew out of the sycamores rather than was built into them. Panoramic windows put the river and the canopy on every side.
Inside: a queen bed loft with a couch below, a small kitchen, and fiber internet fast enough to work from — if you can bring yourself to open the laptop.
Outside: a wraparound porch and a private hot tub, curtained on three sides, open through every season.
RIVANNA RIVER · SYCAMORE & POPLAR GROVE
How It Came To Be
Built with our backs against the wall.
In 2020, I lost my job and my wife's business slowed to almost nothing. We'd talked for years about building something unique on our land — a dream that always felt like it was for someday. That year, someday stopped being optional.
We sold the land we'd meant to build a house on and I used it to start the treehouse instead — but I had to be resourceful. Reclaimed lumber. Leftover siding a neighbor gave us when she redid her home. Fallen trees from our own backyard, milled into the railings and the twisting wood along the top rail. Windows found on Facebook Marketplace and at discount liquidators. A spiral staircase I drove all the way to New Jersey to bring home.
My wife, our two sons, and I built, stained, and painted every piece of it ourselves. It's not a rental I bought — it's the thing I made when I had nothing left to lose.
— Tim, Palmyra, Virginia