A Treehouse Dream Grows Into Million-Dollar Creations: Meet the Builder to the Stars—From Amy Schumer to Shaquille O’Neal

When Amy Schumer wanted to build a lavish treehouse in the woods of her Catskills farm for her son, she turned to “the tree whisperer” to the stars.

Schumer is perhaps reclaiming a childhood dream after having it built at the farmhouse where she grew up as a child, about an hour west of Albany in upstate New York. The family went bankrupt when she was 9, and, with her earnings from her considerable success as a comedian and actress, she managed to buy it back for her father in late 2016.

“Life got less and less comfortable for us after my parents lost all their money,” she wrote in her autobiography.

Now, she’s created the ultimate childhood getaway for her 6-year-old son, Gene, with the palatial treehouse—built by Pete Nelson.

Nelson’s fascination with building “condos in the trees” started when he was a child and his father built a tiny tree fort in the garden of their Ridgewood, NJ, home.

“I remember that feeling of, ‘This is my place, with my rules. I wanted to play and be in the trees, but never in a million years did I imagine I’d be building these kinds of treehouses,” Nelson tells Realtor.com®.

Now, Nelson commands up to $2 million for his unique treehouses.

Treehouse builder to the stars

Schumer is one of many stars who’ve commissioned Nelson, 62, and his team to build a dream treehouse. He’s also built luxury tree forts for Drew Brees and Shaquille O’Neal, the latter of whom was “very involved” in the process and “a remarkable man.”

In Schumer’s case, “Amy recognized that this was a viable form of creating a neat space that she wanted for her son,” says Nelson.

But, he suspects that the star might have wanted it for herself as much as for her son.

“The window of kid time is short. If you’re going to invest this kind of money, you probably look ahead and think, ‘OK, one day, this is going to become my little studio,'” he says.

Schumer, who stars in the Hulu series “Life & Beth,” drove a hard bargain and managed to score a deal on this commission.

“I normally don’t give a price right away,” Nelson says, “but when I casually mentioned we could probably do what she wanted for $200,000, she stuck out her hand and said, ‘Deal!'”

And she was involved in the design of the house from the get-go.

“We sat down at her dining room table and began brainstorming. She had a bunch of books with pictures of treehouses we’d done that she liked,” he says.

Schumer was especially keen on a house with a sloping roof that she’d seen. It looked a bit like a hobbit house.

“I was sitting there drawing, and she was sitting there working—she’s a very hardworking lady as you can imagine—and at one point I asked her, ‘Are you writing jokes?’ And she said, ‘No,'” he says with a laugh. “She thought that was pretty funny.”

He’s also pitched her a movie about a man who—what else?—builds treehouses.

Nelson’s tree forts have gained attention before, with O’Neal’s filmed for the Discovery Channel show “Treehouse Masters,” which ran for several seasons.

Who wants a luxury treehouse?

Understandably, most of Nelson’s clients are wealthy. Last year, he finished his priciest piece: a structure in Whitefish, MT, that cost $2 million. The minimum is usually around $300,000, or $1,000 per square foot.

“Some people ask me, ‘Pete, is this really a treehouse? It looks like a regular house. Well, it’s a treehouse in spirit,” he says.

The high prices reflect not only the luxurious elements of the homes (most have plumbing and electrical), but also the high level of craftsmanship and sustainability. The homes are built from reclaimed, salvaged, and repurposed wood.

“We’re not going into old forests and chopping down trees,” he says.

Then there is the amount of work that Nelson has to do to get the treehouses approved by various municipalities.

“There are people in buildings departments who are in very bad moods, and they love to ruin your day,” he says.

Also, it’s easier to build in some states than in others.

“Texas is fabulous, California is the worst,” he notes.

The No. 1 thing he advises any future treehouse owner to do is make sure the neighbors know they will be invited to future gatherings.

“If you’re going to block your neighbors’ view or make too much noise, they’ll complain to the Department of Buildings. Once they do that, the system will take you down,” he warns.

When Nelson began building small, inexpensive treehouses 30 years ago, he could not foresee that eventually, they would become million-dollar structures. He says wealthy people are more enamored of treehouses than ever because of their desire to escape their high-pressure lives for a while.

“The treehouse is their refuge and place to decompress,” he says.

Treehouses for all

Nelson is adamant though that not every treehouse has to cost millions, and anyone with a few hundred dollars and legal access to trees can build a rudimentary refuge—and a place to reconnect with nature.

In fact, he sells DIY treehouse kits on his website, run by his daughter, Emily. (The company is a family affair. Wife Judy is co-owner, and sons Henry and Charlie are carpenters.)

The popular kits represent about $1 million in business this year, he notes.

“All you need are some drills, hardware, a platform, and find the trees,” Nelson says. “Everyone can re-create those special magical dreams of childhood.”

He also has fantasies of building inexpensive treehouses for affordable housing but says getting the permissions and permits would be a nightmare.

As for the trees themselves, Nelson insists that they appreciate having homes built in them.

“They know we’re not there to chop them down,” he says. “They see us coming and start wagging like puppies.”