a different kind of tree house

We have dreams of someday designing and building our house on a little piece of land in the Black Hills that Ryan's dad always fondly called "Poverty Ridge."

Although it seems like a dream that's far off and not quite within reach yet, it also seems like it's never too soon to start thinking about some of the details that will inevitably turn into a huge pile of decisions if it does become a reality.

Despite a bit of design background, I'm no architect, so I haven't really gotten anywhere on a specific design. But I have been brainstorming a basic layout, materials to build the house, ways to make it work in the space that's available, features that will be sustainable, details to allow the house to be as self-sufficient as possible, all while using materials as local as possible.

We've talked about straw bale, timber frame, or a combination of the two, among other possibilities.

But, timber framing generally = $$$ (for all the labor involved, but also because it requires large diameter trees to supply sufficient material for milling into posts and beams)

The 'pad' where the house would be built is surrounded by a densely packed pine forest that hasn't really been cleared or properly maintained over the years = fire hazard. To improve the health of the surrounding forest, it really needs to be cleared of lots of the small trees for big ones to be healthy and to have a chance for survival if there were to be a fire.

I have just never quite been convinced that, when we do get to clearing out those trees, they couldn't somehow be usable material for a house, other than firewood for a lovely wood burning stove.

That's because they could be. Read this. And make sure to check out the photos accompanying the article.

There's also an old scrub oak right in the middle of the pad that was left when the rest of the trees were cleared from that area. That oak has a special place in the history of that humble piece of land, and we hate the idea of having to take it out to accommodate a house without somehow incorporating it. Now we have visions of the possibilities for that tree.

{Oh, it's fun to dream.}