A Lifetime in the Trees: The Vision of Skye Peterson, Treehouse Aficionado
By Lara Hughes
Skye Peterson moved to Honolulu on O‘ahu in 1980. He was a young pilot flying small planes, and he didn’t really like the work or life in the city, so he moved to the countryside of Lanikai and started working construction jobs. While building homes on O‘ahu, he noticed a lot of material being discarded on construction sites and began collecting other people’s throwaway items. “I began collecting all of these windows, big eight-foot windows. These big windows, maybe they had a little ding on them or something, so people were throwing them out.”
Skye made a quick reputation for himself, and he would be called to haul away cast-off materials from construction sites. He knew he would end up living on Hawai‘i Island, as the cost of living in O‘ahu was already high, so he started saving materials that he would one day use to build his own home.
He moved to Hawai‘i Island in the late 1980s, and began a years-long process of bringing his salvaged resources over from O‘ahu. He recalls, “I had a lot of glass, doors, and material that I had scavenged.” In fact, Skye recalls bringing more than 100 discarded windows to Hawai‘i Island. It took him years to bring everything over from O‘ahu.
In 1988 and 1989, Skye purchased two properties in an ‘ōhi‘a tree forest near Kīlauea Volcano. The all-inspiring ah-ha moment when Skye made the choice to build his first treehouse came during a trip into Waipi‘o Valley in 1988. He remembers, “There was a lady down there named Linda Beech, who had built a treehouse. It was kind of famous—it had been in People magazine. It was in a monkeypod tree. You had to go up a stream and cross the river to get to it, and it was way in the back of Waipi‘o Valley.” The treehouse piqued Skye’s imagination and he liked the off-grid approach that Linda had adopted. The home in the monkeypod tree was powered by a water pump that converted energy from a waterfall located behind the property and charged their batteries. This resonated with Skye and inspiration struck.
Skye reflects, “I knew I wouldn’t build in one tree, I would build in a lot of trees.” At the time, treehouses were typically built in one tree, but Skye decided to use five trees to build his treehouse so it would be big enough to live in. With his contracting background he knew he could make it work, although it wouldn’t be easy. “I knew I could make it strong enough, but I wanted to make sure it was light enough too,” he says.
Currently, Skye has built two treehouses and has a third on the way. The first treehouse is completely off-grid, running on solar power. The second runs on electric and allows for creature comforts like a microwave oven.
Skye’s treehouses took him years to create and today they are his life’s work. He loves sharing his art with the world. He recently began work on his third treehouse and jokes, “I live in treehouses, and I’ll probably die building treehouses.”
The two completed treehouses are entirely supported by live trees, so the structures needed to ensure the trees would be able to move with the wind, grow, and still provide a sturdy base. The third treehouse is not being supported by live trees. Instead, it has approximately 11 cut ‘ōhi‘a trees incorporated into and around its decks, staircases, and windows.
The first two treehouses were constructed using a system of ladders. “I had a couple different ladders so I could run back and forth. I’d run up one side, put in a bolt, then run back, make sure it was level and put in another bolt. It was a lot of work.” All of the tools were battery powered, so it was important to remember to recharge them every night. He had help placing the flooring and putting on the roofing, and he paid people to paint. Aside from that, Skye built his first two treehouses mostly by himself.
The adventure didn’t come without its risks—Skye fell out of the trees a couple of times. Luckily, he lived to tell the tale: “I was trying to put some shingles up and I wrapped my foot around a board that was screwed to [a section of the treehouse], and I started screwing the shingles to the wall.” He estimates the drop from the trees there was 20 feet down. The board he had used for support came loose and Skye recalls waking up on the ground. “I had the wind knocked out of me and sprained my ankle, broke some ribs, broke some teeth, and got some cuts,” he says, “but I was able to recover quick enough.” However, that wasn’t the worst fall—it took him a couple of months to recover from falling out of the second treehouse. “It was always worth it, though,” he smiles.
The first treehouse took about five years to complete. It utilizes solar power to pump and heat water, and powering lights. There are also wood-burning fireplaces in both of his treetop creations, which supply warmth on cold nights up in the tree canopy. Special details abound in each of the lofty manors, like branches for bed frames, light switches set into trees, panoramic bathrooms filled with mirrors, ladders leading to hidden alcoves, cozy couches, relaxing verandas, and breathtaking views of the forest. Skye, being an artist in addition to his other talents, has also outfitted each treehouse with small libraries and a selection of artwork, including some of his own fantastical depictions of his treehouse daydreams, saying, “It was about it being fun and getting a chuckle.”
Skye lived in his first forest-top creation for about four years before letting a friend move in. “My friend stayed for a while and he really liked it, then some other people stayed, and I realized that maybe I could share it with people.” Since then he has had a lot of interest in his treehouse dwellings, and people have come from near and far to stay at his creations including Pete Nelson from Treehouse Masters on Animal Planet TV. In a way, Skye’s treehouse homes are functional works of art that have taken a lifetime to build. “I thought it was so cool that I could build something that was a piece of art and live in it. I mean, how amazing is that? I get to have people come and enjoy it, which is really important to me, and it gives me good reason to keep all of the maintenance up, and I still have it.”
If you are able to track down this treehouse aficionado, you may be one of the lucky enthusiasts who get to stay a night or two in one of his pieces of incredible functional art. ❖
For more information: treehouseskye.webs.com
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