1 00:00:11,698 --> 00:00:15,525 [birds chirping] 2 00:00:15,629 --> 00:00:21,043 [music playing] 3 00:00:21,146 --> 00:00:23,077 JEFF SORENSEN: I built this tree house for my daughter. 4 00:00:25,801 --> 00:00:29,525 This was not something that I sent off to a design firm 5 00:00:29,629 --> 00:00:31,008 and they put it together for me. 6 00:00:31,111 --> 00:00:33,801 I built and designed every part of this, 7 00:00:33,905 --> 00:00:37,043 and I was intentional with every single detail 8 00:00:37,146 --> 00:00:38,560 in this tree house. 9 00:00:38,663 --> 00:00:41,491 I would come up here and sit and imagine 10 00:00:41,594 --> 00:00:43,629 things for literally hours. 11 00:00:43,732 --> 00:00:46,111 I knew exactly how I wanted the flow to be. 12 00:00:49,215 --> 00:00:52,318 I wanted people to walk in, be sheltered from the rain. 13 00:00:52,422 --> 00:00:53,974 I wanted it to be welcoming. 14 00:00:54,077 --> 00:00:55,491 I wanted it to be peaceful. 15 00:00:55,594 --> 00:00:57,180 I wanted it to feel like a cottage. 16 00:00:58,801 --> 00:01:04,386 I just wanted to build a fun, whimsical world 17 00:01:04,491 --> 00:01:05,249 for my daughter. 18 00:01:22,905 --> 00:01:25,629 So my daughter is my only child. 19 00:01:25,732 --> 00:01:27,525 She's seven years old. 20 00:01:27,629 --> 00:01:29,767 And we live in Kona, Hawaii. 21 00:01:29,870 --> 00:01:34,629 This is the best place in Hawaii, in my humble opinion. 22 00:01:34,732 --> 00:01:36,732 It seems like we go to the beach once a week 23 00:01:36,836 --> 00:01:38,698 and recharge our batteries and come 24 00:01:38,801 --> 00:01:40,801 back up the hill to the farm. 25 00:01:40,905 --> 00:01:42,491 We're up on the mountain. 26 00:01:42,594 --> 00:01:44,974 We're actually on Mount Hualalai, which is a volcano 27 00:01:45,076 --> 00:01:47,008 that's not erupting anymore. 28 00:01:47,111 --> 00:01:50,939 This whole farm is on a 3-acre rectangle, 29 00:01:51,043 --> 00:01:53,974 and the tree house is in the very top corner. 30 00:01:56,698 --> 00:01:59,456 You still have this beautiful beach life. 31 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:01,353 You're still right there. 32 00:02:01,456 --> 00:02:04,043 I mean, you look out and you see a 180-degree view of the ocean. 33 00:02:04,146 --> 00:02:08,318 But you can come up off of that atmosphere into a far 34 00:02:08,421 --> 00:02:10,456 more tranquil setting, and you're 35 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:14,180 up here in this beach cottage. 36 00:02:14,284 --> 00:02:15,767 I mean, it's kind of perfect. 37 00:02:15,870 --> 00:02:19,043 It's just like the most relaxing place, I think. 38 00:02:22,767 --> 00:02:26,491 I grew up in Utah, right outside of Salt Lake City. 39 00:02:26,594 --> 00:02:29,801 I moved to Hawaii 10 years ago to pursue 40 00:02:29,905 --> 00:02:31,249 a career doing solar-- 41 00:02:31,353 --> 00:02:33,008 like selling solar panels. 42 00:02:33,110 --> 00:02:36,215 And the funny thing is I had no intention of buying 43 00:02:36,318 --> 00:02:37,801 this land or anything. 44 00:02:37,905 --> 00:02:39,008 I thought I would just live in an apartment, 45 00:02:39,110 --> 00:02:40,698 and this kind of found me. 46 00:02:40,801 --> 00:02:42,353 I was living in Oahu. 47 00:02:42,456 --> 00:02:45,110 My ex-wife, she was nine months pregnant. 48 00:02:45,215 --> 00:02:48,008 I had this thought of try and raise my daughter 49 00:02:48,110 --> 00:02:51,732 on like some land and grow all these fruit trees 50 00:02:51,836 --> 00:02:53,767 and like have that kind of sovereignty. 51 00:02:53,870 --> 00:02:56,732 It just felt like I was-- like I need to go for it. 52 00:03:01,905 --> 00:03:04,249 Behind me we have this beautiful thing, 53 00:03:04,353 --> 00:03:05,353 which we call a tree house. 54 00:03:07,491 --> 00:03:10,043 It would be cool to show you-- 55 00:03:10,146 --> 00:03:12,905 we'll show you the early beginnings how the tree house 56 00:03:13,008 --> 00:03:16,387 started, before any of this was here, when this 57 00:03:16,491 --> 00:03:18,560 was all just weeds and rocks. 58 00:03:18,663 --> 00:03:23,077 So you can actually see, originally, years ago, 59 00:03:23,180 --> 00:03:26,594 there was a very small tree house built in here, 60 00:03:26,698 --> 00:03:32,318 and these were the rungs to go up into that tree house. 61 00:03:32,422 --> 00:03:35,456 I actually left them here intentionally 62 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:37,456 because it reminded me of how it all started. 63 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:39,629 So here we go. 64 00:03:39,732 --> 00:03:40,905 Look at this. 65 00:03:41,008 --> 00:03:42,284 Let's see if they still work. 66 00:03:42,387 --> 00:03:43,698 They still work. 67 00:03:43,801 --> 00:03:45,146 Look at this. 68 00:03:45,249 --> 00:03:46,110 I feel like I'm a little kid again. 69 00:03:46,215 --> 00:03:47,525 Here we go. 70 00:03:47,629 --> 00:03:49,110 Climbing up in here, I had a little-- 71 00:03:49,215 --> 00:03:50,973 I had a little trap door right here. 72 00:03:51,077 --> 00:03:52,456 It was great. 73 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:53,560 You can only open it from the inside. 74 00:03:53,663 --> 00:03:55,077 There was a lock on it. 75 00:03:55,180 --> 00:03:58,387 Every kid's-- [chuckles] every kid's dream. 76 00:03:58,491 --> 00:04:00,008 And I thought it was so cool. 77 00:04:00,111 --> 00:04:01,939 We would come up here sometimes, but 78 00:04:02,043 --> 00:04:03,456 then, of course, it would rain. 79 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:05,525 And I was kind of sad because I was 80 00:04:05,629 --> 00:04:08,284 like, I love to having this little like getaway tree house. 81 00:04:08,387 --> 00:04:11,180 But I'm like, man, I wonder I gotta keep these leaves 82 00:04:11,284 --> 00:04:12,905 and the water off it. 83 00:04:13,008 --> 00:04:14,422 So I'm like, I wonder if I could build a roof on it. 84 00:04:14,525 --> 00:04:16,077 And then the wheels kept turning and turning, 85 00:04:16,180 --> 00:04:18,317 and I thought, man, maybe I should 86 00:04:18,422 --> 00:04:20,180 build something even bigger. 87 00:04:28,491 --> 00:04:29,698 So here we are. 88 00:04:29,801 --> 00:04:31,870 We're at the top of the property. 89 00:04:31,974 --> 00:04:33,491 One of the cool things I love about this 90 00:04:33,594 --> 00:04:35,698 is that we're at ground level up here. 91 00:04:35,801 --> 00:04:38,905 So we got the street behind us, and we have a bridge 92 00:04:39,008 --> 00:04:40,767 coming into the tree house. 93 00:04:40,870 --> 00:04:44,594 So rather than climbing upstairs every time you want to come in, 94 00:04:44,698 --> 00:04:46,146 this is the grand entrance. 95 00:04:46,249 --> 00:04:49,491 You can walk through the gate, and you're already 96 00:04:49,594 --> 00:04:51,801 at the level of the tree. 97 00:04:53,525 --> 00:04:55,801 So the construction of the tree house is pretty cool. 98 00:04:55,905 --> 00:04:58,663 I actually did these cedar shakes, 99 00:04:58,767 --> 00:05:01,974 cut them all individually so that they all line up. 100 00:05:02,077 --> 00:05:07,180 Took me like weeks but I love it because it gives the tree house 101 00:05:07,284 --> 00:05:09,836 that really nice cottage feel. 102 00:05:11,387 --> 00:05:13,525 In terms of this tree house, I didn't 103 00:05:13,629 --> 00:05:15,698 really have an architect. 104 00:05:15,801 --> 00:05:18,249 But we built this without a set of plans. 105 00:05:18,353 --> 00:05:21,077 We built this with me and my builder friend. 106 00:05:21,180 --> 00:05:24,387 He would come over after his normal construction job. 107 00:05:24,491 --> 00:05:26,905 So he would show up at about 3 o'clock, 108 00:05:27,008 --> 00:05:29,836 and I would work with him on all the real technical stuff 109 00:05:29,939 --> 00:05:32,560 from like 3 o'clock until dark. 110 00:05:32,663 --> 00:05:36,284 The idea has changed so many different times along the way. 111 00:05:38,146 --> 00:05:40,560 The first thing I built was the main platform right here. 112 00:05:40,663 --> 00:05:44,043 I actually built the platform around these five 113 00:05:44,146 --> 00:05:46,732 massive tree branches in here. 114 00:05:46,836 --> 00:05:49,215 I didn't want to disturb the tree. 115 00:05:49,318 --> 00:05:50,905 I didn't want to harm the tree. 116 00:05:51,008 --> 00:05:55,387 I want the tree to be free to move in the wind. 117 00:05:55,491 --> 00:05:57,560 So nothing's too rigid. 118 00:06:02,767 --> 00:06:06,491 The bathroom is its own little walk-in bathroom right here. 119 00:06:07,905 --> 00:06:09,525 The tile has this grain. 120 00:06:09,629 --> 00:06:13,905 Obviously, we have trims from mango wood trees, 121 00:06:14,008 --> 00:06:16,387 and so everything is-- 122 00:06:16,491 --> 00:06:21,215 I'm trying to have as much of a natural feel as possible 123 00:06:21,318 --> 00:06:22,663 in here, you know. 124 00:06:22,767 --> 00:06:24,974 So we have all the comforts that you 125 00:06:25,077 --> 00:06:26,594 need and want of a bathroom. 126 00:06:31,387 --> 00:06:34,387 In the kitchen, we have what I love. 127 00:06:34,491 --> 00:06:36,491 These are mango wood cabinets. 128 00:06:38,180 --> 00:06:42,249 Every trim in this tree house is all done in mango. 129 00:06:42,353 --> 00:06:49,008 And I love mango because it has so much character to the wood. 130 00:06:53,732 --> 00:06:56,560 This is a tree branch that I almost 131 00:06:56,663 --> 00:06:58,353 put through the main bedroom. 132 00:06:58,456 --> 00:07:00,249 But in the end, I decided not to, 133 00:07:00,353 --> 00:07:01,767 and you can actually see why. 134 00:07:01,870 --> 00:07:03,629 It's been raining today, and you see 135 00:07:03,732 --> 00:07:06,456 how the rain obviously hits the tree branches 136 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:08,111 and comes all the way down. 137 00:07:08,215 --> 00:07:11,939 So if this was incorporated inside of the bedroom, 138 00:07:12,043 --> 00:07:14,905 there would be ants, there would be bugs, there would be water, 139 00:07:15,008 --> 00:07:18,767 and so you couldn't have that secure feeling 140 00:07:18,870 --> 00:07:20,974 and you couldn't be as clean-- 141 00:07:21,077 --> 00:07:21,870 I don't think. 142 00:07:23,422 --> 00:07:26,180 Now, the main room, here we have the bedroom. 143 00:07:26,284 --> 00:07:28,836 My goal here in the bedroom was I 144 00:07:28,939 --> 00:07:31,698 knew I wanted to fit a king size bed 145 00:07:31,801 --> 00:07:34,560 and I wanted everything to feel nice and big 146 00:07:34,663 --> 00:07:36,284 and open and spacious. 147 00:07:36,387 --> 00:07:39,456 So we have a little closet here so you can, you know, 148 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:41,905 have the essentials put away it doesn't interfere 149 00:07:42,008 --> 00:07:43,491 with your walking room. 150 00:07:43,594 --> 00:07:48,043 And my favorite part, we can open up these doors, 151 00:07:48,146 --> 00:07:52,284 and now we have the big 10-foot opening 152 00:07:52,387 --> 00:07:53,663 with the drop-down screen. 153 00:07:55,215 --> 00:07:57,629 When you want to go outside, you just open 154 00:07:57,732 --> 00:08:00,801 this thing up, ready to go. 155 00:08:00,905 --> 00:08:03,698 And then this, this is the vibe. 156 00:08:03,801 --> 00:08:06,249 Now you can just sit here, relax. 157 00:08:06,353 --> 00:08:11,560 [birds chirping] 158 00:08:11,663 --> 00:08:17,077 This property has about 300 fruit trees that I've planted 159 00:08:17,180 --> 00:08:21,180 since moving here 10 years ago and over 200 160 00:08:21,284 --> 00:08:23,456 varieties of individual fruits. 161 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:26,870 So we got a lot of diversity here. 162 00:08:26,974 --> 00:08:29,318 You look out, you can see the loquats. 163 00:08:29,422 --> 00:08:32,938 There's figs, limes, pomegranates-- 164 00:08:33,043 --> 00:08:36,145 essentially, every kind of fruit you could ever imagine. 165 00:08:38,352 --> 00:08:42,767 So I gave, honestly, a lot of love to this land. 166 00:08:42,870 --> 00:08:45,180 I've worked so hard on it. 167 00:08:45,284 --> 00:08:47,422 And I've planted all these things, 168 00:08:47,525 --> 00:08:49,525 and I have taken care of it. 169 00:08:49,629 --> 00:08:51,387 And I feel like it's-- 170 00:08:51,491 --> 00:08:54,008 I don't know, has cultivated this type of feeling here. 171 00:08:55,111 --> 00:08:56,077 Hey, look. 172 00:08:56,180 --> 00:08:57,146 There's one here. 173 00:08:57,249 --> 00:08:58,249 It fell off. 174 00:09:00,180 --> 00:09:01,043 Oh, I see one. 175 00:09:03,284 --> 00:09:04,629 Ooh, Dad, I see a bunch. 176 00:09:04,732 --> 00:09:06,180 JEFF SORENSEN: You do? - Uh-huh. 177 00:09:06,284 --> 00:09:07,698 JEFF SORENSEN: I want to have something to-- 178 00:09:07,801 --> 00:09:09,353 honestly, that my daughter can look at me 179 00:09:09,456 --> 00:09:11,594 and be proud of for building something like this-- 180 00:09:11,698 --> 00:09:13,698 something that's special for us to come 181 00:09:13,801 --> 00:09:17,629 sleep up here to have like a getaway. 182 00:09:17,732 --> 00:09:21,698 It's designed to feel like a place where it's fun to be 183 00:09:21,801 --> 00:09:23,318 and it feels good to be here. 184 00:09:23,422 --> 00:09:26,008 And that goes for myself and for my partner 185 00:09:26,111 --> 00:09:27,974 Justyn and our family too. 186 00:09:30,043 --> 00:09:33,698 I just want this place to be like the most magical, amazing 187 00:09:33,801 --> 00:09:35,905 place anyone's ever come to. 188 00:09:36,008 --> 00:09:37,146 This is special. 189 00:09:37,249 --> 00:09:38,422 There are not two of these. 190 00:09:40,560 --> 00:09:43,456 JUSTYN BONOMI: Jeff always talks about his creations 191 00:09:43,560 --> 00:09:46,284 as this matter-of-fact thing. 192 00:09:46,387 --> 00:09:49,146 He's like, I don't know, it just felt like a cool fun thing 193 00:09:49,249 --> 00:09:50,560 to do. 194 00:09:50,663 --> 00:09:52,801 But your soul really shines through 195 00:09:52,905 --> 00:09:54,318 in all of your creations. 196 00:09:56,215 --> 00:09:58,111 JEFF SORENSEN: I wanted it to be this awesome, amazing place, 197 00:09:58,215 --> 00:10:00,422 and then I wanted to share it with some other people. 198 00:10:00,525 --> 00:10:02,836 And so people feel that-- 199 00:10:02,939 --> 00:10:06,629 the intention that's put into it and the love that's 200 00:10:06,732 --> 00:10:08,146 put into it when you build it. 201 00:10:08,249 --> 00:10:09,939 I'm sure that this tree house would 202 00:10:10,043 --> 00:10:14,077 not feel the same if I just hired 203 00:10:14,180 --> 00:10:16,146 a company to come build it. 204 00:10:16,249 --> 00:10:18,387 If I had an architect draw something 205 00:10:18,491 --> 00:10:20,629 and I said, hey, draw whatever you want, 206 00:10:20,732 --> 00:10:23,491 it would probably be cool, but it wouldn't be this, right? 207 00:10:23,594 --> 00:10:26,905 I mean, this represents significant blood, sweat, 208 00:10:27,008 --> 00:10:29,905 and tears, like all of the above in spades. 209 00:10:30,008 --> 00:10:32,732 I've put so much of my heart into this project. 210 00:10:34,594 --> 00:10:38,629 This tree house literally has my heart and soul built into it, 211 00:10:38,732 --> 00:10:42,111 and I think people can feel that.