hello
House atop trees..!
Mom you know ..nobody wants to buy the place…maybe it is because of the banyan tree..ajit said…It is not just one trunk but a whole lot of small ones to go with the big one..arvind followed.
I wanted to see the place right away .so all of us went in an auto..it was just a couple of kilometers from our place..a little out of town...i loved the place first sight..vijay said ..unless you have plans to cut the trees and uproot quite a few you cant have any buildings here…we will have nothing to do with uprooting or cutting trees.. so I suggest you forget the place…! Forget the place? My tree foot…!no chance..So all of us decided we buy it..
The papers and other formalities took some time..and it was a hard wait.. all the four of us thought of different plans …vijay said since we have tree saving in mind he will find out from the horticulture friend as to what plants or vines can be grown in between a banyan tree…or putting together their best foot(?) forward treeeeeeeeeeeeeeees..!
We can have a swing and come all weekends arvind said…ya and have monkeys as friends to swing too ajit laughed..
Or we can build a swell tree house I said…Wow yes agreed everyone…now to look for a good carpenter or builder…we didn’t want any concrete structures on the tree..say something like the ones they show on travel and living TV site..?..no no we will have something different..
Concrete pillars for sure as the house should have some support and the tree should not be made to bear all the weight..
Getting a carpenter and builder was difficult..the builder said all wooden structures can wither with time weather etc.. so why not concrete..say cut a few small root hangings but keep the central tree intact and put up a nice concrete structure… I can even give you a nice sit out ..he said.none of us seemed to agree on it..the carpenter atleast was better he came all the way with our imagination and more..!
we got together and discussed just wooden structures with the help of concrete pillars …put up a few hard teak wood and mix with bamboo structures …not all rooms were on the same floor you had to go up a couple of stair steps to reach the kitchen or bedroom.I was happy a cute little kitchen too was in the offing.. with tiny wash basins and bamboo windows..the staircase was made of wood …spiral that went between branches two small bedrooms with couple of bunk beds…a nice little room you can call reception hall in which we can have a TV and one or two stools or wooden sofas…we even had a swing fitted just outside this room….we decorated the hall with one or two sketches and paintings …a cute ganesha on the kitchen wall as puja shelf..!Whew it took some time finishing…we couldn’t thank the carpenter and builder enough..!
Squirrels ran about…birds twittered..(its our place ya…whatcha people doing here?)..monkeys visited..luckily we had the windows all meshed….People came visiting,.friends called …emails mailed in…relatives took a turn visiting..ajit and arvind came on more weekends and stayed on with TPs to work from home..!
Vijay kidded that I plant some vines to go up the trees…what about curry leaf..you have to run down a mile to get it not like the old house where you could pluck it from the window…we spent more time outdoors…(!!!!!) than indoors…I made more fruit salads to share with the prehensile visitors..the weather was pleasant with few showers and luckily didn’t lash out just yet… we have to get it rain proof soon….
Wanna visit…? take a dream step with me…!!
sathya