Family's treehouse build featured on DIY network
HEIDI DESCH | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 years, 4 months AGO
Darin Robison and Kati O’Toole along with their children, Rowan and Ry, stand in front of their treehouse at their property on Dillon Road. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
DEPUTY EDITOR, FEATURES Heidi Desch is the Deputy Editor at the Daily Inter Lake, overseeing coverage of arts, culture, lifestyle, community, and business. Desch leads reporters in developing stories that highlight the people, traditions, and events shaping Northwest Montana, guiding content across print and digital platforms. With more than 20 years of journalism experience, including serving as managing editor of the Whitefish Pilot, Desch is a graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism. She has received multiple Montana Newspaper Association awards, including part of the team leading the Daily Inter Lake to Best Daily Newspaper in Montana Award and the General Excellence Award in 2024 and 2025. IMPACT: Heidi’s work connects readers with stories that deepen the understanding of the community beyond daily news. | May 30, 2017 5:29 PM
Many a child has spent a night camped out inside a treehouse in the backyard. But not too many folks are likely to have spent a night in a luxury treehouse complete with a dishwasher.
Combining childhood fun with adult amenities is exactly the experience Darin Robison and Kati O’Toole are looking to create with their two-story treehouse constructed on their Dillon Road property. The couple for two years has been talking about, planning, designing and finally constructing the treehouse supported by Ponderossa pines.
The couple is still putting the finishing touches on the interior, but when completed it will have a full kitchen, a full bathroom with a shower and two bedrooms on the second-floor loft.
“We wanted to create a little utopia,” O’Toole said. “We wanted people to come and have a real, unique Montana experience.”
The couple had the idea for the treehouse when someone pointed out a listing for a casting call in the newspaper for the DIY network.
The couple applied and were selected to be part of the TV show, “The Treehouse Guys.” The episode featuring their treehouse debuted this month and will air again on June 2 and June 15.
For six weeks in April last year, a film crew documented the process of constructing the shell of the treehouse. Collaborating with the stars of “The Treehouse Guys” Robison and O’Toole wanted to make sure the treehouse was comfortable enough to live in including making the loft space with a ceiling high enough to stand in and allow for a sliding glass doors from the loft out to a deck.
“That upper deck was important,” Robison said. “I wanted a perch where you could sit on and look out while drinking a cup of coffee.”
West Glacier builder John Colliander of Treeworks Log and Timberframe Construction made the 18-foot wooden spiral staircase for the treehouse. The staircase is made of larch treads attached to an 80-plus-year-old Douglas fir Robison salvaged from his grandmother’s woods.
“We really wanted to create a grand entrance,” Robison said.
The couple, along with help from family and friends, have continued to complete the interior of the treehouse. They hope to be open for rent this fall.
View more about the treehouse at: http://www.montanatreehouseretreat.com
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