Innkeeper's Story

presenting

30 Years of Romance

from Highland Haven Creekside Inn

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It was a not such a “far-fetched” dream of mine to add a “tree house” to our inn, the Highland Haven. As a kid growing up in Indiana in “Happy Hollow,” I was always climbing up in the oak trees, swinging from grape vines and being my happiest taking in nature. Now we are in the foothills of Colorado, just 20 miles west of Denver-but a world away from the city. With 400 feet of Bear Creek, along with over a dozen mature blue spruce trees on our property, our town is aptly called Evergreen. Our inn has already established itself as a romantic retreat so the Tree House made good business sense too.
Then the fantasy got real. We spent 15 months dealing with the county, architects, builders, and a litany of challenges. We insisted that it have a tree/log basic structure and that we build as smart/green as we possibly could. We finally agreed upon a construction of considerable difficulty. Find 4 -36” in diameter logs to boost the floors halfway between the ground and the sky. Trees don’t grow that large in Colorado so we would truck in massive cedar logs from California.
The lowest floor is a covered parking area, between the 4 massive stilts of trees.
Climb to the main floor of luxury. The elements would all have character, quality and the ‘Wow!” factor.We labored over the perfect found materials highlighted by the huge antique brilliant stained glass window that would be over the aspen canopied and divine bed. A “tricked out” chandelier I emblazed with stones, prisms, beads and glasswork would hang over the bed. My husband, Statz, is an “aesthete.” He can, after our 32 years of remodeling and construction, take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. For the Tree House, he has built the furniture; brilliant emerald green doors, a labor-intensive multi- stained stick treatment ceiling, twig accented dressers and cabinets.
The top floor spa room has a “to die for” view into the branches of the magnificent trees.
It is the 35 feet up jewel of our sculpture in the sky. Here is the Jacuzzi tub, that rather than noisy jets, will fill up with hot “champagne bubbles.” 63 yards of sheer fabric will hide you away but still see the trees, the views.

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