SANDPOINT, Idaho — A few years ago, KREM 2 brought you the story of a Sandpoint man who built a tree house that went viral and was even featured on several TV shows.
He has built another tree house and it does something that tree houses do not typically do.
"I've always loved trees and tree houses and stuff ever since I was a little kid," Ethan Schlussler said.
Whether you are a man or woman of the wood or not, it is safe to say the peace you will experience from the top of one of Schlussler's tree houses is like nothing you will experience in the city.
Do you know what the city and one of his tree houses have in common? They both have elevators.
With ideas from some of his friends, Schlussler built two tree houses in his backyard on his own, each with a unique trait.
First, he built a tree house with a bicycle elevator five years ago. He even lived in it for two years.
"I was ready to not be living in my mom’s house but I liked being up here, at least for the time being so I built the tree house as a little bedroom basically," he said.
Since there is no bathroom in the tree house, Schlussler often found himself ziplining back to the main house.
It’s hard to imagine a dull day in his two years of living in the trees.
"Every morning I would wake up and it would just be like, 'oh hey, I'm in a tree house!,'" he said.
He realized it was unusual and so did many others.
Schlussler’s original tree house was featured on a TV show called “Tree House Masters.”
He built the second one for a show on the history channel called “The Woodsman.”
The second tree house is different from any other tree house ever built.
"This is the only one that’s two stories tall and rotates," he said. "Everything is suspended from the roof, so compared to a normal house it’s structurally upside down. Inside out and backwards," he said laughing.
Now, a video featuring both tree houses is blowing up online.
"I really didn't think that five years later people would care again, I was like well everybody that was interested in it probably already saw it," he said.
"People that are interested in it are from literally everywhere around the world," Schlussler said. "People just message me and be like hey I love the tree house, or can you tell me how to build one?"
He is not in the business of building tree houses for others anymore but that does not mean he is finished forever.
To see more of the tree houses, you can check out Schussler's YouTube Channel that he and his friend Edwin created.