The Teepee House

I saw a lot of houses in this last year, a lot! And if I had to pick just one where I had to live for the rest of my life it would be my grandma’s new house, the Teepee House. How great would it be to write my book there. The house is full of inspiration. In a recent lecture I told a student that the greatest pleasure of this entire trip was taking a huge dream and finishing it, the road to execution through a creative process is amazing. That’s been the best part. Well my Grandma’s husband Lee has done the same thing.

A little over a year ago my grandma and Lee moved into a new home. During his mid 70s Lee took it upon himself to build his dream home, by hand. It’s quite amazing. I shall elaborate. The frame of the house consists of three octagon teepees, a 20-feet teepee in the middle, and a 30-foot teepee on each side of that connected by another bigger room. One large teepee is the living room, with a 30-foot ceiling, large windows overlooking the pond (which he also made), a 15-foot wide root system as a chandelier holding vintage lanterns at the end of the roots. The 20-foot teepee is the kitchen. The other 30-foot teepee is split in two levels for bedrooms and an office. The house has many, many other features such as a loft over looking the living room, a mural, stained glass windows, a trickling waterfall from the outside of the house to the pond, a rock wall shower, and large rocks he placed himself across the house. The highlight of all this is a hand-built wooden spiral staircase to the upstairs. He curves the wood himself, and even that wood comes from his own farm. Incredible!

I can’t wait to see his next house. It would be fantastic to live in a house inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. It has been by far the most unique house of this year and one has to remember that one guy in his mid-70s built it all. Of course Lee is very modest about his dream project.