Some homeowners have lofty dreams for a leafy escape in a deciduously designed treehouse.

Being up in a treehouse is timeless for Dan Wright, founder of Tree Top Builders Inc., located outside of Philadelphia. "Trees are a connection to nature, and I like to build treehouses that get people up into them," he says. "A treehouse isn't at the top of the list of practical outdoor structures -- like a deck attached to your home -- but having a treehouse encourages creativity and imagination in people of all ages."

An International Society of Arboriculture's Certified Arborist by trade, Wright first experienced a treetop escape as a young boy growing up in New Hampshire. A love of nature and construction helped Wright to organically grow a treehouse empire. He not only builds custom treehouses for clients across the United States, Wright sells do-it-yourself treehouse designs and supplies, and manages his 14-acre Treehouse World, an adventure park in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Demand for custom treehouses seems to be on the rise, especially for those desiring an atypical short-term rental through websites such as Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO. If homeowners desire their own backyard treetop retreat, Wright says there are many steps to take before beginning construction.

Making Plans

While the notion of a treehouse can sound heavenly, a child's getaway is much different than building a habitable structure with electricity. Make sure you share the intention for treehouse usage and get all approvals with neighbors and code officials in writing, if warranted.

"You don't want to find yourself out on a limb when dealing with local municipal or homeowners' association building codes," Wright says. "Before investing time and money into treehouse plans, make sure the structure is allowable in the area you want to build."

Before dreaming of a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, it's important to choose the exact site of the treehouse carefully, Wright says. "Use an arborist or forester to help assess a suitable site with healthy trees on which to build your treehouse," he says. "Ideally, you're looking for middle-aged trees, that are at least 1 foot in diameter for the treehouse, and often the design can be dictated by the landscape."

Also, Wright says, involve those who will be using the treehouse to make suggestions for their leafy retreat. Amenities can include a trap door, bridge kits, zip lines, a deck, railing, rope swings, ladders and slides.

Under Construction

The ageless appeal of an airy abode is the inherent adventure of climbing into a treehouse and walking among the leaves, Wright says. Whether you're building as a DIY project or employing a treehouse contractor, it's important to use quality lumber and lag bolts for safety and security.

"In a treehouse, you can feel the trees sway, so construction needs to be sturdy, but not rigid, using special brackets and bolts," Wright says. "If you build a treehouse with construction that doesn't respect the tree, either the structure will fall down or cause injury to the tree."

Avoid nailing into and tying ropes onto a tree. Nails repeatedly puncture without holding and ropes rub a tree, which can cause damage and internal rot. Use specialized lag bolts and attachments instead, which are safer and better for the tree.

Often plans distribute the weight of the treehouse on raised footings or secure, strong stilts. The house can then be attached to a tree using lag bolts or floating attachment brackets when there are multiple trees used in the design. The structure of the treehouse is usually built using pressure-treated wood, then can be sided with cedar, redwood, barn wood or pine planks. Windows can be made-to-size at a local lumberyard.

High House Maintenance

Once the treehouse is built as a refuge, inspect the structure every year, so its construction doesn't become refuse. Ongoing maintenance of the tree is also important for its continued health.

The treehouse should allow for the growth of the tree. Wright says if a design features a tree growing up through the floorboards, keep the wood trimmed about 2 inches away from the trunk. The roofline of the treehouse should be about 2 feet away from a tree's upper branches.

Every spring, before the treehouse starts to get used daily, it's important to do an inspection of the winter's effects on the structure and give it a good cleaning. Replace any cracked boards, check all hardware connections and restring any ropes that are worn on a swing, bridge feature or zip line.

A treehouse can be imaginative in design and spark imagination in those who trek to its treetops. "The design of a treehouse can range from the traditional to creative styles in the form of a pirate ship, a gingerbread home or Old Mother Hubbard's shoe," Wright says. "But, because you are building a structure that incorporates a living tree, no two treehouses are exactly alike."

Tree Tops

-- For services to build a custom treehouse or consult on your design, contact Dan Wright's team at TreeTopBuilders.net.

Wright's source for professional-grade treehouse building materials for do-it-yourself treehouse designers: TreehouseSupplies.com.

To experience a high time nestled among 14 acres of trees, visit Dan Wright's Treehouse World, (1442 Phoenixville Pike) in West Chester, Pennsylvania, (484) 329-7853 or TreehouseWorld.com.

Drive home a dreamhouse design by shifting gears and focusing on the attached garage.

Today's residential garages are occupying more square footage and often are the primary way of entering and leaving a home, says educated aerospace engineer and co-author of the Rogue Engineer blog, Jamison Rantz. Jamie Rantz is the other half of the husband-and-wife design and contractor team that chronicles building their Ann Arbor, Michigan, dream home together.

"The garage doors take up a lot of real estate on the front of our home," Jamison says. "With so many garage door options available, why wouldn't you find doors that complement your home's architecture and design?"

Homeowners don't have to settle for builder's grade, windowless garage doors. Manufacturers are rolling out new garage door options that are more insulated and energy-efficient with eye-catching styles. Viewed less as a commodity and more as an integrated architectural element by consumers, garage door manufacturers have revved up sales with new designs, such as the carriage-house style.

The Rantz home features a 900-square-foot drive-through garage with doors that enhance their modern farmhouse's curb appeal and functionality. They drove up the design factor by having two steel American Tradition Series carriage-house style garage doors made by Haas Door, based out of Wauseon, Ohio.

Painted in "cool black" with a wood texture, these steel doors shed light on the Rantz's design with specialty glazed glass windows installed along the top of the door. Insulated steel garage doors are energy-efficient, low-maintenance and won't crack, warp or split when installed properly. Hinge-straps and door pulls can be the finishing touches that elevate a garage door from a standard to stellar design.

The Rantzes also included a second garage door on the back wall, which opens to a large yard and enables them to drive through the garage, as needed. A high-end commercial grade garage door -- with all-glass panels -- acts like a large picture window that can be raised and lowered, Jamison says.

"The glass-paneled garage door allows tons of natural light into the space and truly showcases our outside view when we're inside the garage," he says. "This full-glass door is a showstopper to guests."

More and more, homeowners are using their garage as additional living space, whether it serves as extra storage, a man cave or an entertaining area, says Ben Weiss, a San Diego-based design consultant with California Closets.

"Because not everyone has the luxury of a large home with a basement, you have to be organized with the space you have," he says. "The garage is a natural ingress and egress point of the home, and for many, it's the drop-zone, when people are transitioning from outdoors to indoors."

Businesses -- like California Closets -- and manufacturers are rolling out garage organizing options that transform it from a catch-all to a well-designed car-park.

"When I design a garage space, I ask people how they live," Weiss says. "Things that go in and out of the trunk of a car need to have a space closest to the garage door. A refrigerator in the garage should be near a countertop. The more a design makes practical sense, the more likely you are to keep it organized."

No matter the level of garage upgrade, Weiss says the first step to any home organizational project is to first clear away the clutter. That means donating outgrown sporting gear, disposing of unused hazardous chemicals and discarding broken items that will never be fixed.

After everything is off the garage floor, making the space functional starts from the ground up. Badly broken concrete flooring may need to be re-poured, but creating a clean surface can be as easy as installing an epoxy floor coating or laying interlocking, reinforced polypropylene tiles, designed for heavy-duty garage usage.

A track wall system -- which features grooved channels like store display walls -- features modular shelving, hooks, bins and cabinetry that can slide into place without using nails. Get in the zone by creating different zones for a garage's use:

-- Tool Time -- Start with a tool bench to anchor the space and mount most-used tools onto the wall or into easily accessible, clearly labeled drawers or cabinets.

-- Car Parts -- Store motor oil, coolant and filters together in a cabinet that's out-of-reach by pets or children.

-- Sporting Goods -- Ball-handling skills are easily practiced when bins are affixed to the wall. Hang up everything from baseball bats to golf bags, with individual lockers for each child as an option for personalized storage.

-- Storage Bins -- You only have to look up to create even more storage opportunities. Vaulted garage ceilings can mean constructing a permanent platform to keep bins off the floor for good.

A garage can be an open door into the family that occupies the home, Weiss says. "How the garage looks and functions conveys a message about the rest of the home," he says. "Plan a garage purge once a year to get rid of things you no longer use and make room for the things you do."

For the Rantz family, their garage is also getaway to host their rambunctious children's parties, where it doesn't matter if things get dropped or spilled.

"Because we built the garage with radiant in-floor heating and the doors are well-insulated, I believe we could actually live in our new two-car garage," Jamison says. "Our garage is always comfortable, even in our cold Michigan weather."

Revving Up Garage Design

Go to HaasCreate.com to upload a photo of your home and virtually click through garage door designs before buying.

Go to CaliforniaClosets.com or call 888-336-9707, to request a free garage organization consultation.

Subscribe to RogueEngineer.com to follow the Rantz family's adventures as they build their dream home in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Today's gas fireplaces are hot with cool designs. Flames that leap from realistic-looking logs, tranquil stones or ceramic glass can warm up any home design.

Last year, nearly 800,000 gas fireplace units were shipped from manufacturers to retailers in the United States and Canada, according to the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association (HPBA), based in Arlington, Virginia.

"The gas fireplace has evolved beyond the traditional hearth in the family room," says John Crouch, HPBA spokesman. "You can have the convenience of an instant fire in the fireplace by using a simple remote."

Extinguish any notion that a gas-burning fireplace's options are limited to dismally fake logs placed into an existing masonry firebox. With flames that rival a wood-burning fire, today's contemporary and sleekly designed gas-burning fireplaces can be built directly into a wall.

To achieve the look of cool combustion, many homeowners are turning to a zero-clearance fireplace made of metal with a masonry lining. This fireplace is a self-contained unit that gives homeowners a viable option to add a gas-burning fireplace to their house without a conventional hearth, chimney and flue.

"Many homeowners have zero-clearance model fireplaces installed at eye level in the wall for a modern minimalistic look," Crouch says, "Technology is such that direct-vent fireplaces can actually be part of a wall, acting as a transition from indoors to outdoors, or from one room to another."

Gas direct-vent fireplaces eliminate the need for a chimney and flue and are vented through a horizontal pipe that exits through an outside wall. On front-sealed glass models, all of the air needed for combustion comes from outside the home.

If you find yourself getting fired up for the colder weather, Crouch says today's gas-burning fireplaces can heat up a new or existing home. "A fire in the fireplace just naturally becomes the focal point of a room," he says. "Some gas-burning fireplace units aren't just decorative, they can act as zone heaters."

A sealed-combustion gas-burning fireplace doesn't draw air from a home, and some models can output the heat they generate back into the house. "Not only do you have the beauty of a fire," Crouch says, "but these gas fireplaces have remotes equipped with a timer and thermostat."

Before becoming consumed with an inferno of ideas for fireplace features, Crouch says it's best to involve a professional installer certified by the National Fireplace Institute (NFICertified.org). "You want to consult a local professional to ensure the fireplace feature you want will work in the space," he says. "A certified fireplace professional will make sure it is installed according to the manufacturer's specifications, because you are still dealing with gas and fire."

With enough planning, a fireplace can be located nearly anywhere inside or outside the home. A bedroom's design can be metaphorically set ablaze with a see-through fireplace feature with flames that dance on colored crystals or glass. A see-through fireplace can be floor- or wall-mounted, to serve as a home's hot spot.

Outdoor fire features are a quickly growing segment of fireplace installations, according to Crouch. "Having a fireplace outside is just a natural way to create a warm space for gathering or entertaining," he says. "A fireplace doesn't have to throw heat to be inviting and is always welcoming, no matter the time of year."

Today's gas-burning fireplaces are made to look beautiful with or without the flames dancing, whether they're turned on or off. A dramatic log set arranged in a vertical bonfire fashion serves as a transition to outdoors when placed into a large see-through fireplace wall unit. Nonconventional media used in fireplaces can also have a tranquil effect. Flames emerging from fire-safe rocks or colored crystals/glass -- and not logs -- emulate an Eastern influence.

Still considered the heart of the home, the kitchen can house a hearth when a traditional fireplace can be reimagined into a "fire place." Emulating a kitchen island, a contemporary hearth can be horizontally set onto the floor, which becomes a cool place for families to chill out with flames dancing in a sealed combustion chamber set beneath a countertop.

No matter where a fireplace is located, expect it to bring an elemental experience to your home. "I think being drawn to a fire is in a human's DNA," Crouch says. "Even though the technology and style of fireplaces is changing, a person's reaction to gathering around a fire is still a visceral part of the human experience."

Go With Gas

Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, HPBA.org. Search the STORE LOCATOR under RESOURCES tab for qualified dealers.