International Listings recently sent me a link to a post that might be of interest to Offbeat readers - 10 Astonishing Treehouses You’d Love to Live In.

I took a look and it’s a nice post. Some of these treehouses have been featured here at Offbeat before, but not all of them; for example, the San Juan del Sur Tree House:

Beautiful - and likely very relaxing; you gotta adore that pool. There are a few more gems that I’ve never posted here. You can visit the original post at International Listings to see all the cool treehouses.

[image via International Listings]

Barbara Butler is somewhat of a genius company. So far as offbeat, unique, and lovely pint-sized structures go, I’d be surprised if you could find better than these. This company creates beautiful treehouses, play forts, small play house, adventure spaces, and garden sheds in child-sized versions.

If you visit the company site, you’ll be there forever, because everything is worth seeing, and completly amazing. The thought given to the small details is outstanding, and any child would love to have one of these structure to call their own.

I like all the structures but my favorite is maybe the custom built Wizards Hideout:

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This treehouse wasn’t made exactly to be a treehouse; at least not how you might think.

The Tree House Clapham is covered in the book Diary of an Ecobuilder, and is really special. A huge tree occupied the lot of the Clapham house, making home building a bit of work. However, instead of taking the tree out the home was built around the tree in a way. It’s easier if you see.

There are plenty of tree features going on in this eco-home. Like the great staircase:

Other eco features of this home include reduced energy demands, reclaimed and recycled material use, rainwater capturing, and more. This is a great home site to browse if you’re looking for green home inspiration. You can see a huge photo gallery or read the partial building journal at the main Tree House website. You can also purchase a book about the house; the afore mentioned, Diary of an Ecobuilder.

[images via Tree House Clapham]

Well, I ran into a little family emergency, and been mia for three days - it’s all good though; getting taken care of, and treehouse week is still a good plan I’d say, so let’s just keep on with that for a few days. Although I do still have one non-treehouse guest to post (tomorrow).

I really love the TreeHouse Workshop company. They create the most beautiful treehomes - some not that high, more tree platforms, but still the beauty outweighs the lowness of the low structures. Not all the treehouses by this company are livable, some are meant for fun, adventure, or socializing. However, with a few adjustments, you could live in some of these great treehouses.

Their options are all custom; so if you can dream it, they most likely can build it. They do note that they don’t specifically build homes to live in - because of plumbing and other issues, but they’re working on a more livable structure.

TreeHouse Workshop is a licensed and bonded contractor and they’re actually located near me, in Washington state. That said, they offer different options for getting your personal treehouse built. One, you can live in Washington, two, they note that they’ll travel just about anywhere, or three you can learn more about DIY options by speaking with a building consultant or by attending their workshops.

You know you want to see some designs. They have many great galleries located at their website portfolio; here are a few I like.

Now this is a treehouse! Too cool. From their site: “This treehouse was featured in Pete Nelson’s book Treehouses of the World. It was built during one of our 6 day treehouse construction workshops with a group of people from England, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany.”

My favorite child sized treehouse from TreeHouse Workshop is this round and amazing structure.

Just lovely - and for a great cause as noted one the site, this treehouse was in collaboration with the “Make a Wish Foundation for our beloved friend Sam Stewart. Sam inspired this circular design, and required a view of his forest, a metal roof to hear the rain, and most importantly a ladder & bridge designed to allow his dog Dave to come up!” Seriously, how sweet is that?

My overall favorite treehouse is in Northern California (like I wouldn’t go there).

This structure is a getaway treehouse located, “In a Redwood grove on an 80 acre parcel that was once owned by Robert Louis Stevenson. It features doors and windows that were reclaimed from the original RLS house.” Have I sighed yet in this post? No, I will now; sigh. Can you imagine? How cool if this was your treehouse. You HAVE TO see the other side of this treehouse - go now and see it!

Visit the TreeHouse Workshop to learn more about this great company or just to see so many amazing treehouses that your eyes will pop.

[images via TreeHouse Workshop]

Being that it’s June, and time to be outside, I’ve had my mind on treehouses. It almost never hurts to see another treehouse, so for a week, that’s all we’re going to do. Minus one special guest (more on that later). I’ve got some traditional treehouses, some fancy treehouses, and some items that really just relate to treehouses but are so cool we’ll see them anyhow. Stay tuned for plenty of structures in the trees goodness this week. I know it’s mid-week; bear with me, I got off to a late start.

First up, Sybarite’s version of the treehouse. A unique take on an old classic. This treehouse is big on solar power. Sybarite a very cool architect and design company, notes that this home is a more organic approach to country living, although, I’m not sure I agree. I LOVE their idea, but frankly something so stark sticking out of the trees hardly seems more organic. Still… take a look.

This treehouse has a layout that maximizes solar capacity and is flexible in form - comprised of prefab sections. You can configure a home with anywhere from one to five bedrooms, and Sybarite notes that it can be installed in two weeks. Wow.

Other perks noted by Sybarite include:

• Extremely low-maintenance concept
• Features which reduce environmental impact and maximize self-sustainability
• Avoidance of tree root damage and ground surface impact
• Collected rainwater
• 70% energy self-sufficient

The not perk factor:

“Roll out cost (50+ houses): £0.5million each”

What do you think? Too white?

See much more of this treehouse at Sybarite. You really should visit their site for the other cool work they’ve created, or at least for their ping pong ball like letters - fun galore. Just try to stop messing with their name logo. (or maybe I’m just easily amused.)

[Image via Sybarite]

Continuing on with our celebration here’s my four favorite posts of Offbeat September…

Emergency Offbeat Post!!! - it was an emergency post for a reason, a good one, this structure rocked. It still does.

How to Use Spam to Build an Offbeat House - I think Alessandro Ludovico creates genius work. Due to the utter lack of comments and views this post got, no one apparently agrees with me. I don’t care. It’s still one of my fave Sept posts.

Current Obsession: The Camouflage House - my obsession is still strong; I love this house.

50 Soul Warming Ways to Inspire the Next Generation of Offbeat Architects - I really liked this post, and better yet, so did my son Cedar. He still asks to see it.

To celebrate my year anniversary week here at Offbeat, we’re looking back at my top four favorite posts from each of the last 12 months.

Here’s August 2007…

50 Fresh & Juicy Slices of Offbeat Home Decor - this post is maybe the most popular post I’ve ever posted, at any blog, ever. What makes this post unique, is that along with my readers, I like it too. Usually I think a post should be popular, and it’s not, or my readers here LOVE a post that totally surprises me. This post makes everyone happy. And it’s cool.

HGTV Design Star Contestant Josh Johnson (”Sparkle Josh”) Chats with Offbeat Homes! - Josh was so nice; it really surprised me; I guess I misjudge people on TV, or, at least some of them. Plus I was way obsessed with Design Star season two, so this was a fun post to write.

10 Reasons Why Building Your Own House Sucks - I finally got this rant out of my system.

Treehouse Bling - if you don’t like treehouse bling, I wonder about you. Really. Treehouses rock. Even the overly expensive ones.

Which of these August finds was your favorite?

It’s my year anniversary week here at Offbeat, so we’ll be looking back at my top four favorite posts from each of the last 12 months. Starting with June of course. I limited myself to only four posts, so we’ll see if I can pull it off. Also, keep in mind, these are my favorite posts, readers often like posts that totally perplex me, better than say the ones I think people will like. But we’ll discuss that later this week…

Best posts of June 2007:

The Teenage Dream Pad: Oh the spectacular teen built treehouse. My favorite comment ever was on this post, which is why it earns a spot here.

Q&A With Architect Bart Prince & (part two): Love how nice Bart is, love his houses, what’s left to say?

And We Have A Winner!: This was a totally random follow up post to another post, but it features the coolest ever Lego church. I think I like this post so much, because before I researched and wrote it, I had no clue that there was this whole subculture of pro Lego building folks out there. Crazy.

Do You Ever Just Feel Like…: Seriously what could be better than the Livio De Marchi - books and architecture smashed together. If you added some coffee and chocolate, I’d be happy forever.

What was your favorite? Actually I know your favorite - everyone’s favorite is the teenage dream pad. It scores big with traffic, big with reader, big on social networking sites. Everyone loves that darn post. If you say some other post, I may not believe you. But feel free to try.

Is Tin Man two words or one? Tinman? Hmmm, well, in any case I found his perfect kooky house. This is a totally bizarre treehouse. Just ignore that tractor in front.

I for one am totally intrigued. Although, it does look like a place where you might get instant rust poisoning or something. It’s one of the strangest treehouses I’ve ever seen - and I’ve seen plenty. It’s in Washington so maybe I should seek it out. If you’d like to see some close-ups and extra photos check out Waymarking.com - the treehouse section.

Peggy, over at Tree Hugging Family, did this killer post about IslandWood at Bainbridge Island. The whole article is worth a read - it’s an environmental learning center and Washington state’s first LEED Gold project. Very slick. Of course I was most smitten with the structures at IslandWood. Terribly unique, sustainable, and simply amazing.

Metropolis - one of the best magazines around, featured IslandWood in their January piece - Into the Woods. To give you a taste, here’s IslandWood’s version of a treehouse:

Stunning! To see more cool structures at IslandWood read the entire Into the Woods article, or visit IslandWood.