If a tree house was easy to build then everyone would do it.

I have never been the most practical of humans, which is possibly why I never baulked at the pages of designs outlining just how we were to get Nest into the treetops.

The fact that we were to build on the side of a cliff, in rock hard ground, in a forest (without disturbing the trees) never really phased me…. Until the day I got it. 

I was up at Nest with our builders Dave McCrea and his team. It was a sweltering Summer day, and they were halfway down the hillside with jackhammers and crow bars madly trying to dig the foundations another meter through rock like clay. I looked at Dave, he looked at me as the sweat poured over his eyebrows, I felt the tension shuddering through the trees …and I couldn’t have been gladder that I never had the practical ability needed to construct such a ridiculous request. But Dave and the team pulled through, (as they did each day). They hand dug the foundations the 2 meters required to gain council consent and started building the treehouse and sauna platforms. 

The swing bridge was another unexpected challenge. A treehouse is quite simply in my opinion naked without a swing bridge, like jam and scones, chips and dip a treehouse must have its very own swing bridge ascent – (also surprisingly my practical side kicked in and I didn’t feel guests would get quite the same luxe vibe crawling through a hatch in the floor!). The extent of engineering and detail which had to go into each one left my head spinning. Long before the forest floor had been disturbed the concept, direction and durability of these bridges was dissected and discussed by architects, engineers, builders … and Andy. After a gruelling build, which once again meant digging deep down into the earth and a couple of expensive wire rope miscalculations (ouch), we got there. Just knowing what went into each one of these bridges brings an extra sense of satisfaction each time I bounce over them and the fact that they were excessively built to hold 10 tonnes…. gives me the confidence to really put my weight into it.