MICHELE NORRIS, host:
Pete Nelson started getting in trouble with tree houses when he was 6 years old. Back then, the tree house was where he hid his stash of candy.
Mr. PETE NELSON (Tree House Builder, Fall City, Washington): My sister knew about this, so I sabotaged the ladder. And it worked like a charm, and she fell and she got this enormous, deep, gouge -bscrape on her back, and it was bad, and I was in deep trouble.
NORRIS: Well, Nelson's sister is fine now. But Nelson got in trouble again in 2006. This time, it was with building regulators in King County, Washington. And it involved an unusual tree house. From member station KUOW in Seattle, Phyllis Fletcher has the story.
PHYLLIS FLETCHER: Pete Nelson has made a living building solid little cabins that look big up in the trees. He builds them for other people, and he teaches how to do it at his compound, Treehouse Point near Fall City, Washington. Some people might call them luxurious. Nelson calls this one a love shack.
Mr. NELSON: There's just one, big, queen-sized bed and sits up high. It's got windows all around so you can look out and see the river almost below you. We're about 70 feet off of the high water here.
FLETCHER: The floor is black walnut. The touches of redwood are from wine casks. The whole thing is held up by six bolts in two trees. He wants to turn it into a bed and breakfast, and he wants to build more.
Mr. NELSON: Between these trees that you see right out in front of us, I've got this plan for kind of a California bungalow style. Imagine getting REI out here with their budget meetings and looking over the raging river. That's kind of the stuff I love to think about and get excited about.
FLETCHER: But here's the thing: He didn't get a permit.
Mr. NELSON: It probably wasn't the right thing to do, but I decided that I'll just build one of these and show them what it is, as opposed to drawing it and talking about it, you know, with hand gestures.
FLETCHER: The county found out after Nelson cut down a tree and was caught doing it by a neighbor. That neighbor reported Nelson to the county, and all the truth came out. That's when Joe Miles got involved
Mr. JOE MILES (Building Permit Inspector): This is an aerial photograph of Pete Nelson's property.
FLETCHER: Joe Miles oversees building permits. He has a file on Pete Nelson.
Mr. MILES: Oh, it's a couple inches' thick.
FLETCHER: It's Miles' job to make sure buildings are safe and don't harm the environment.
Mr. MILES: The tree house was located in what we call the channel migration zone, where the raging river, which is next to, is anticipated to move into this area.
FLETCHER: That's right, move. The river's changing course has already taken out several homes, so the county doesn't want people to build next to it. But Pete Nelson hired his own land-use consultant. He got positive press in Seattle, and the support of his representative on the King County Council. So Joe Miles and his department decided to go into mediation with Nelson, and it seems to have worked. So far, they have settled on a few modifications. The county says well, maybe the flood hazard is far enough away that the tree house can stay for the moment. But it does want Nelson to install a sink for his incinerating toilet, and sprinklers in case of a fire. And although Nelson has generated a thick file and hours of work for Joe Miles, it's not for nothing. Miles says the whole thing could help people across the country.
Mr. MILES: We think we are blazing new ground here and maybe creating an opportunity where we could create a standardized method to build tree houses in King County that maybe other jurisdictions could adopt.
FLETHCER: But for Nelson's tree house, eventually, Mother Nature will weigh in. He says the raging river did flood this month.
Mr. NELSON: There's a whole new channel that just - that river just cut right through.
FLETCHER: Some ferns between the tree house and the river washed away. But the trees holding up the house are fine, for now. For NPR News I'm Phyllis Fletcher.