Nondescript house for sale has huge oak tree growing right through it

Originally published at: Nondescript house for sale has huge oak tree growing right through it | Boing Boing

1 Like

I was talking to a couple that had a tree that went up through the eaves of their house. Cute, but they were paying significantly higher homeowner’s insurance rates because of it. I imagine this house would be very difficult and expensive to insure.

8 Likes

Maybe the Keebler Elves would be interested?

image

13 Likes

I see it in the kitchen, but where does it go? No upstairs photos shot with it, and I don’t see it on exterior shots. It’s clearly visible in the kitchen, which is on the 2nd/main floor. But then not on the roof, or over the roof. I am disappoint.

Easy-ish solution - build in around it (glass) and make it an outdoor column in the middle of your house. Lots of people would pay good money for that.

5 Likes

Yes…also (cough) pining for the shot showing it popping out of roof. Please help.

3 Likes

Pass. My wife hates the sound of leaf blowing outside, I can’t imagine how she’d react to it in the actual kitchen.

1 Like

My grandfather had a storage area next to his garage with a tree growing out of it. The top of the garage was a deck that incorporated the tree which attached to the second floor of the house. It was nothing but trouble. Leaves in the fall, and sticks and acorns all over the deck all the rest of the time. I’m sure it was a huge headache to insure. And the storage area was kind of unusable as there was a gap for the tree, which let rain, snow, squirrels, etc. into the area. Nothing important went into that space. It was full of old bicycles, a lot of big rusty tools, and generally just junk. Now that I have owned a home, I imagine it was a constant threat to the plumbing and caused worries about the foundation.

Bottom line; it’s not clever, it’s stupid.

The next owners got rid of it, and the garage, and changed the entire house.

1 Like

So what happens as the tree continues to grow?

5 Likes

I’d also prefir to see such pictures. I bet they’d be sublime and very poplar

5 Likes

For a kitchen that was designed around a tree there doesn’t seem to be much room between the counters and the tree. Doesn’t seem well thought out or implemented.

4 Likes

Hundertwasser:

4 Likes

It’s in photo #5 in the listing; the same photo used to illustrate this post.

3 Likes

It’s weird that they built the house around the tree, but it’s not showcased in any real way - it’s just more of an obstacle in the layout of the house. I’ve known people who had trees in the middle of their houses, but they had small courtyards, etc. around the tree.

Also, how the heck does that thing get watered? The roots would be covered by the house, and you wouldn’t want to just water the area directly around the trunk.

Yeah, it’s so weird. It’s like they had a pre-existing house design and built that, but there just happened to be a tree they decided not to cut down in the middle of it.

Or dies?

7 Likes

Right? Plus, you’d think an outfit called Gulfport “Reality” would be all about full disclosure.

2 Likes

General idea is good, execution is terrible. Can you even open the fridge?

2 Likes

Oak trees are usually very particular about soil compaction around their base, and it’s generally recommended not to build or plant anything under their canopy. In this case they completely covered the ground around it with impermeable tile, presumably on top of a concrete slab.

Given the lack of exterior shots of the tree and lack of oak leaves covering the roof, do we even know if it’s still alive? Is it possible that it died (do to obvious reasons) the top got removed, and all that’s left is the trunk in the kitchen as a sad reminder?

5 Likes

It would explain some things…

2 Likes

Looking on Google Earth, there’s a tree that might be the same one, but if it’s not and the tree is dead, saving a piece of it’s trunk is really strange and slightly creepy.

1 Like

That’s like disliking the sound of rain on a window, or birdsong. Is she a robot that was programmed wrong?

I suspect the word ‘current’ is operative. The implication being that the photos and details of the tree have been removed from the listing leading to offers.