Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March 2013 | Page 68

PROPERTY MONITOR

BY ANGIE REDMOND

Live Like A Princess H
Fairytale homes around the world

ave you ever dreamed of living in a
fairytale home or castle? Well, we have
scoured the World Wide Web to bring
you real fairytale homes, castles and properties
right out of the fiction section.

Tiny Fern Forest Tree house,
Lincoln, USA
The tree house is indeed a cozy little place
perched on four maples 30 feet above a blanket
of ferns. Access is via a ramp 70 ft. from
the main house, where you’ll find a private
bathroom with shower. This quiet place in
the woods has heat, electricity, and a small
refrigerator. The main f loor has a single bed,
but if you climb the ladder to the loft there
is a queen-sized futon and down comforter.
Enjoy the comfy reading rocker or sit on the
deck and gaze at Mt. Abraham and the Green
Mountain National Forest. The hot tub is a
sweet new addition to the place. For those less
adventurous, there is a guestroom in the main
house with a double bed.

The Cob House, Somerset, England
This stunningly beautiful tiny home with
sculpted cob walls looks out over the banks of
a small stream in Somerset, England where the
local dialect still has remnants of the AngloSaxon language. The home is the work of Lisa
and Rich who built the house with clay from
the stream that runs just out of view in this
picture. They collected round wood of Pine and
Hawthorne thinned from the local woodlands
to build the frame of the home.
If you want to build with cob then you must
test the quality of your clay. Cob also depends
on the coarseness of the sand. This is how to
do a snowball test. Combine your clay soil and
sand in different proportions: 3:1, 2:1, 3:2, 1:1,
2:3, 1:2 and 1:3. For each, mix the sand and clay
thoroughly and add just enough water to make
the grains stick together when you squeeze a
double handful very tightly.

The HemLoft, Canada

TOP: Tiny Fern Forest Tree House, Lincoln USA
MIDDLE: The Cob House, Somerset England
BOTTOM: The HemLoft, Canada

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March 2013 SA Real Estate INVESTOR

Described by its creator as “a secret tree
house hiding in the woods of Whistler” in
the Canadian province of British Columbia,
the HemLoft is, unlike many buildings that
describe themselves such, a tree house in the
truest sense: the entire weight of the egg-shaped
structure is supported by the tree around which
it is built. Though open to visitors - the right
sort of visitors, at least - one first has to find it.
www.reimag.co.za