MONMOUTH — For several years, Lindy Snider has been kicking around the idea of having a treehouse on land in central Maine where her extended family has vacationed for four generations.

In October she got her wish, and on Friday, everyone who tuned into “Treehouse Masters” on Animal Planet could see her ecstatic reaction to the unveiling of her two-story treehouse on the show’s season premiere.

“That would be a moment I never will forget,” Snider said Sunday. “I got the chills. I almost couldn’t breathe.”

On Friday, she hosted a viewing party of the double episode, dubbed “Double Treehouse Extravaganza,” which showcased the construction of Snider’s Ethereal Portal Treehouse along with a Treetop Theater for a couple in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.

“Every time Monmouth, Maine, came up, everyone was screaming and clapping,” she said.

The concept and construction of the treehouse appears fairly straightforward, but the process of getting it built was more complicated and took years.

Advertisement

Snider is founder of Lindiskin, a company that produces skincare products for cancer patients, and daughter of the late Ed Snider, chairman of sports and entertainment company Comcast Spectacor that owns the Philadelphia Flyers.

Snider was watching “Treehouse Masters” with her daughters a couple of years ago, and they suggested she contact the cable show to get her treehouse built.

She went online and applied to be on the cable network reality show, but when she didn’t hear back for quite a while, she and her contractor, Dave Cadman, decided to move ahead anyhow.

They contacted Nelson Treehouse and Supply, the company headed by Pete Nelson, who is the star of “Treehouse Masters.”

“We didn’t even know the company was separate from the TV show,” she said.

They also didn’t know the waiting list was years long, so they were surprised to get a call a couple of months later from the production company that was interested in featuring her project.

Advertisement

Since September, construction of the treehouse at the southern end of Cobbosseecontee Lake has been a fairly well-kept secret. Contractors working on the project were banned from taking photos or posting about it on social media.

While that’s a fairly standard practice, Snider said she chose to be in the dark until the big reveal.

“It drove me crazy,” she said. “I was surrounded by people who knew. Dave kept saying, ‘I can’t say much, but you won’t believe it,'” she said.

Standing in the treehouse Sunday, Cadman, owner of Dave Cadman Construction of Greene, said his role was to find local contractors, including plumbers and electricians, to complete the job. He also was hired by Nelson Treehouse to work on the project.

For one frenetic month, dozens of workers, including the television production crew, swarmed the site working at full throttle to complete the project.

As Cadman watched it take shape, he said, he was impressed by the quality of the work and the materials used.

Advertisement

The 600-square-foot structure is estimated to weigh 20 tons. It is supported by eight trees around the perimeter of the building, and also supported from underneath by five steel posts set in huge concrete anchors deep in the ground.

“The treehouse itself won’t move, but all the trees can still move around in all directions,” Cadman said. “When you are in here on a windy day, it creaks. You feel little vibrations.”

Components of the treehouse were manufactured in Washington state, where Nelson Treehouse and Supply is located, and transported to Monmouth for assembly.

The treehouse has two bedrooms, a master bedroom on the main floor and one in the turret, a small kitchen, an eating nook and a living room with a gas fireplace that overlooks the lake through a three-panel sliding glass door that gives access to a large deck.

It has a bathroom on the main floor, with a tiled shower. The house still has to be hooked up to the well and septic system, and Cadman said he has to finish putting shelves and poles in the closet, whitewash the unfinished wood on the windows and build storage for the family’s outdoor gear. He estimates it will be done by early summer.

In the opening of the show, Snider, sitting with her husband, Larry Kaiser, on their property in Monmonth, says treehouses represent magic and childhood.

“Treehouses let you forever be a kid. Being able to create that feeling as an adult is exciting.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.