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 Kate & Steve Rucklidge have a passion for creating comfortable, luxury self catering retreats in beautiful, tranquil settings and their most recent project, a two bedroom residence in Somerset, fulfils their strict criteria – only this time with a difference!
Instead of following in the footsteps of previous projects, and renovating a rundown barn located in a countryside setting, the couple have thrown caution to the wind and created something unusual – a tree house with panoramic country views.
The Rucklidge’s vision of constructing what is thought to be first-ever tree house self catering holiday home in the UK was soon realised as the project only took, from inception to creation, a mere twelve months.
Kate talks about their experience:
Building a tree house to use as a guest house is something both Steve and I have always wanted to do and after consulting with a specialist provider, we learnt our dream could be realised - and what’s more, that it could take place within the grounds of our own property.
Once planning permission had been granted it was quite literally ‘full steam ahead’ as we were hoping to welcome our first guests the following June. This meant a relentless schedule for all involved, including ourselves, as we were sharing the duties of Project Manager.
Thankfully, we have a trusted team of trades’ people we could rely upon, all of which helped make the process as enjoyable as possible.
Due to the octagonal layout, we needed to make the most of the floor space available and felt underfloor heating would provide the best solution. As well as the space consideration, we were also determined to create a comfortable environment for our guests and know that underfloor heating produces a gentler and more even form of heat – something we found very appealing.
We left the decision of which underfloor heating supplier to use up to our installer and he selected Nu-Heat. He had installed their systems in other projects and found both product and service to be really good, so we felt happy with his decision.
We were told that the tree houses construction lent itself perfectly for Nu-Heat’s ClippaPlate heating system– a plate which our installer had not dealt with before, but was really impressed with as it meant he could fit both floors on the same day. We witnessed part of the heating system going in and were pleased with how neat it looked and we can’t wait to hear what our guests have to say about it – we are sure they are going to love it!
For your chance to win a luxury weekend break at The Tree House, please fill in the entry form (competition now closed).
A winner will be selected at random and contacted about the prize. Good Luck!
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