Elevated Living Blog

Treehouse classroom

Thu, 12 May 2011 13:24:00 -0700

A brand new treehouse has been built for one school in Kearney, NE. It is used as an outdoor classroom to learn about science, the environment, and agriculture. Through fundraising and a grant, they were finally able to build this treehouse for the kids, but it is fun for adults too. Please check it out and I hope it inspires you in regards to outdoor education here in the Portland area.

http://www.1011now.com/nebraskacentralnews/headlines/School_Tree_House_to_Bridge_Gap_Between_Classroom_and_Outdoors_121677249.html

Internship

Tue, 03 May 2011 11:53:00 -0700

We are now accepting applications for an internship through PSU School of Business Administration. Please see the bottom of our About page for all the details.

Thanks,

Schuyler

EggSheds

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 09:54:00 -0700

I'm currently working on a side project of EggSheds which can be found at www.eggshedspdx.com. Becca and I are working on building chicken coops to the highest standard in regards to construction, materials, and design. These chicken coops will last for years to come providing your chickens a comfortable home to lay their eggs.

I'm still building treehouses, don't worry. Infact, I have some slots open this summer to build, so please contact us for a free consultation.

TREEmendous Extreme Tree Houses Exhibition at Missouri Botanical Garden

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:39:00 -0700

This is great. 7 treehouses will be featured at the Missouri Botanical Garden in April. It was part of a design contest and winners are anywhere from architecture firms to students. They utilize 7 different trees. Unfortunately, there are no pictures (yet) but when there are, I will post them. Super rad.

Check out their website for more information. http://www.mobot.org/treemendous/

Blog down, but not out

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:01:00 -0800

So the blog was down, but is now back up. The spambots brought it down with lots of comments about viagra and such. I can see the fit. Treehouses and viagra. Maybe I could get sponsored? You could do a lot with my logo...

Well, anyway, the blog is back up and now if you want to comment (and you should), you just have to use the recaptcha. Simple. No bots.

Enjoy!

Tree Top Builders

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:38:00 -0800

Today I spoke with Dan Wright from Tree Top Builders. They are located in Pennsylvania. Over the past 9 years, Dan has built many treehouses all over the east coast. These treehouses are primarily for children, but also great for adults. Dan has built many double deckers, rope bridges, and treehouses with slides. Each one is unique and built to suit.

Dan said that he travels all around the east coast to install these treehouses. That got me thinking about traveling myself. I could very well see myself traveling around Oregon, Washington, and Idaho installing treehouses. Because of the premanufactured nature of my treehouses, the additional cost wouldn't be limiting to the customer. But when it comes to east coast work, I'd love to recommend clients to look into other companies like Tree Top Builders.

Make sure to check out Tree Top Builders at TreeTopBuilders.net. There is lots of great information on their website and they have a lot of great ideas for treehouses.

Dave Knows PDX

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:43:00 -0800

Recently Dave from Dave Knows PDX wrote a little blurb about Elevated Living. Hopefully this finds some other treehouse enthusiasts to spread the word.

Dave Knows PDX is a great blog about all things Portland. He loves soccer, food, beer, and anything happening in Portland.

So if you're looking for information on anything happening in PDX, head on over to http://portland.daveknows.org/. You're sure to find what you're looking for.

GreenLately

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:58:00 -0800

My friend Andrew (@andrewruess) and I have started a Podcast named GreenLately. This is part of the larger Lately enterprise that Andy is building. It will soon be accompanied by a blog ran by the two of us.

The point of the project is to explore green technologies that affect everyday people. This is anything from solar panels to electric cars to home energy efficiency needs. Each week we will talk about the week of green and hopefully have special guests.

Check out the feed for our Podcast. http://feeds.feedburner.com/glwrt-a. There are currently two podcasts. They are both fun and informative.

I hope you enjoy.

Prezi

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:01:00 -0800

Here at Elevated Living, I like to keep what I'm doing out in the open. Currently I am working on a presentation for Portland Parks & Recreation. This in no way means that I am going to be building a tree house in your local park, but this will allow the fine people at PP&R know who we are and what we are about.

For this presentation, I am making a digital presentation, but with a new program called Prezi. It is a presentation software (compared to Power Point), but it is in the cloud. That means it is all online. Not only that, but unlike Power Point, it is one large canvas and you kinda zoom around looking at things. It's kind of hard to explain, but you can check it out at www.prezi.com.

Take a look at what I'm doing. http://prezi.com/vnpemzflv_qd/elevated-living/ Since it is on the cloud, it is available to anyone at any time.

Send some feedback if you want...

Manhattan treehouse triumphs!

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:59:00 -0700

This is the tree house New York artist Melinda Hackett built for her children. Her neighbors complained about it and after a long legal battle, Hackett won and got to keep the tree house. Not only that, but because her house was built in the 1860's, the treehouse now has a landmark status as part of the residence! Take that, jealous neighbors.

Read more and see a video about it at Gawker. [Gawker]

Out 'n' About

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:44:00 -0700

Yesterday, I stopped by Out 'n' About treesort in southern Oregon. I got there right as the sun was setting and didn't get to meet the owner (Michael Garnier), but did get to see his amazing place. There are many types of tree houses there; multi-tree, single tree, and even a yurt in a tree. It was simply amazing. His construction method is amazing and, with the single tree design, very similar to my tree house. They are also top-supported. I'm interested on learning more, but you should all check out his website at www.treehouses.com.

New team members

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:11:00 -0700

I'd like to introduce two new team members to Elevated Living. Eli Green and Becca Grace.

They both have a background in architecture and bring their love for buildings and nature to Elevated Living. We are currently discussing some standard models and some ways to communicate our vision to the customer. As things start come together, I will update you on our progress.

More information can be found on these two powerhouses at our About page. Please check them out and drop them a line if you'd like.

Thanks,

Schuyler

Community

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:03:00 -0700

Portland is a great place to be part of a community. There are neighborhood communities, beer communities, coffee communities, food cart communities, etc. Why is there no tree house community?

This week I met with two local tree house enthusiasts. Matthew Stewart (http://matthewstewartglass.blogspot.com/) and Lela Hull are both huge fans of tree houses. Matthew, in fact, even built one in his back yard. After speaking with them, it is apparent that there are people out in Portland with a passion for tree houses and the culture behind them.

Matthew's tree house

Building a tree house community in Portland sounds like a no brainer. Matthew and Lela had the idea of organizing a NE Portland tree house bike tour. In NE Portland, there are many tree houses that the three of us already know about and I'm sure there are many more. The idea behind this bike ride would be to get to see many different styles of tree houses, meet the community behind them, and maybe get to go up in a few of them. This could grow into making a group (I was thinking "Portland Tree House Community" or something like that). A mailing list and group events would go along with this community.

The next part of community I want to focus on is the fact that most tree houses are private and not open to the public. I know of one tree house near my house that is built on a tree in the parking strip. There is a sign that says adult supervision is required when playing in. This means that others are welcome to play in it. What a great concept! This led me to think about building a tree house that is open to the community.

I want to organize the First Annual Community Tree House (first annual because I would like to do one in every quadrant for 5 years). This would be a fundraiser for an Elevated Living tree house in a public space for the community. There are a few hurdles to jump, but I think it is something the community could come together and get something done that would benefit the community. The biggest hurdle is to get the City of Portland behind it because I would want to install it on their land, such as a park or community garden. From there, it would be a fundraiser through local schools and through the Portland Tree House Community. Initial numbers are $12-15K, which would be a challenge, but not impossible.

There it is. That is my big idea at the moment. What do you think? Would you do a tree house bike tour? Would you like to see a community tree house installed in Portland? If you have any ideas or want to join the movement, please contact me here. We'll talk it over.

-Schuyler

A new chapter for Elevated Living

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:37:00 -0700

Today I would like to announce that Elevated Living is entering a new chapter in it's life.

Chapter 3:

In the coming weeks, I am going to be spending a lot of time working on Elevated Living. I will be seeking out new resources, polishing up some designs, and working with clients to deliver exactly what they want. I will be working on targeting specific markets and sending out proposals for tree houses. I will be working with local companies to gain partnerships with. Elevated Living will become the business I've always wanted.

I have received many e-mails and calls regarding Elevated Living in the past few months. I want to thank you all who have reached out to me with either a request for a quote, tree house ideas, engineering ideas, or just a few words of encouragement. I am taking in all of these ideas and your passions and can hopefully funnel it into my passion for tree houses.

I will be blogging a lot more. Many things are happening that I want to share with you. I am getting in touch with a lot of local people also excited about tree houses and through that, I will have lots more to share. I will also be hitting up twitter more. I know that it has helped others out immensely, so why not me?

If you have any ideas or thoughts, please do not be shy. Feel free to contact me here.

Talk to you all soon.

Elevated Living needs your ideas

Sat, 22 May 2010 12:16:00 -0700

Greetings,

I am in the midst of getting the word out to a wider audiences regarding Elevated Living. I have already sent one proposal out to a local company with neumerous venues that might enjoy tree houses. I got denied, but that comes with the territory. Well, as I've been driving around looking at potential tree houses saying, "There's a tree house tree!", I've noticed there are lots of local companies and establishments that might benefit from having an Elevated Living tree house on their property. I was along the Sandy River the other day and saw some great lodges. I think they would totally dig that. Anyway, this is where I call for your help!

Do you know of a local company/establishment that might want a tree house. Think of places like:

Lodges
Hotels
Wineries
Private parks
Campgrounds
Day camps
Restaurants/Bars
Etc

Go ahead and send them to silva (at) elevatedlivingpdx (dot) com or at the Contact Us page. Any ideas would be great and I'll send them a packet.

Thanks,

-Schuyler

Tree House in Australia to be torn down

Wed, 05 May 2010 08:17:00 -0700

Look at these kids enjoying their tree house:

Their 4 story tree house is being threated by the Brisbane City Council due to liability issues. This is sad as the 18 kids that helped to build it all met through the tree house. It has tied the neighborhood together through various group events. Now, being a safety and privacy issue, it is due to be torn down by the end of the week.

I can understand this being a safety issue. There are no railings on that tree house. There are children as young as 4 in it. If that thing were up to code, there would be no issue. It is important to understand the implications of a tree house before you build it. You can be rest assured that all these factors are taken into account before we build and install a tree house.

Anyway, look at these kids. Don't take their tree house away from them.

Via Courier Mail

Working on a new tree house design

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:14:00 -0700

I have a request for proposal for a new tree house! This time, with a twist. The request is for a double decker tree house that is enclosed. This idea had been proposed by a friend of mine a while ago. At that time, I had thought about it and put it in the back of my mind not thinking I would build one anytime soon. Well, looks like I might.

One challenge about this design is access from one level to another. Sure, I could put stairs in it or a ships ladder, but that would be ordinary and take up valuable real estate. So I came up with a great idea. I would love to build half of a spiral staircase on the outside of the house! How awesome would that be?!

Also, in designing this double decker, I decided I needed a name. Based on inspiration from KFC releasing a ridiculous "sandwich," I would like to name my 2 story tree house The Double Up. I'm open to other names, but that's what I got for now.

I love this process. Start with a skeleton for a product and be able to modify it to be many things. I'm still going to use the same construction method, just a slightly different application.

Got any great ideas you'd like to see in a tree house? Leave a comment and they might show up in one some day.

Beautiful Tree

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:41:00 -0700

So today I thought I would share something that I found.

Rainbow Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta)

Now wouldn't this make a beautiful tree for a tree house? Read more about it at the following link.

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/forests/news-most-colourful-tree-earth

-Schuyler

Q&A w/Brian Libby: Portland Architecture

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:50:00 -0700

I recently had a Q&A with Brian Libby of the blog Portland Architecture. We talk about my background, interest in architecture, and about my design of tree houses. Make sure you check it out. And while you're there, check out the rest of his blog. It is a great way to keep up with Architecture in Portland.

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/2010/04/talking-tree-houses-with-schuyler-silva.html

Thanks to Brian Libby for talking to me about Elevated Living.

-Schuyler

Press Release Review

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:46:00 -0700

Hello all,

I am once again calling out to you, the fans, to help me out a bit. I have put together a press release that is going to go out to local magazines, newspapers, and blogs. I'm wondering if you could please take a quick look at it and let me know what you think. Spelling errors, odd sentences, etc, all need to be weeded out. Also, if you would like anything to be added.

Download a PDF here

Again, thank you,

-Schuyler