Dream retirement: How this couple built a treetop village in Costa Rica

"It certainly takes a certain type of person to be open to it, but we found most people that want to build a treehouse in the rainforest are pretty laid back." –Hogan

Erica and Matt Hogan never intended to walk away with 600 acres of wild rainforest when they went shopping for a little piece of Costa Rica to call their own in 2006. They happened upon a slice of land that was marketed as a potential harvesting site (i.e.: prime for deforestation) and decided to save it from the chopping block. "[The land] felt really sacred from the get-go and we felt like this would be a travesty to let this be deforested," Erica told Business Insider. "It was bigger than what we were intending to purchase initially. And one night I just thought, well there are some really cool trees on that property. What if we built treehouses?" The idea became Finca Bellavista, an epic undertaking that's become a thriving treehouse village, where the locals bounce door-to-door on ziplines and dinner is grown in everyone's backyard. "It's a labor of love and it's more than just our business," she says. "It's our life."

Welcome to Finca Bella Vista.

Since 2007, the couple has sold 51 parcels of land and built 25 structures, including a community center, base camp, and five true treehouses. It's a perpetual work in progress. "We have pretty limited seasonal ability to do construction just given the rainy season," Hogan says." Realistically, the amount of building time is between four and six months maximum."

Here's the Finca's base camp and community center at dusk. They form the centerpiece of the property and include a dining hall, an open-air lounge, a WIFI zone, a rancho, a bathhouse, a campfire ring and a wedding garden.

Once they started generating word-of-mouth press, interest quickly mounted. "We kind of blew through our three- to five-year plan in the first two years," she says. "We just got frenzied. It's the story of any start-up. It's a labor of love and it's more than just our business. It's our life."

Once homeowners buy their plots (typically between 1/2 and 4 acres), the real work begins. "It's a rain forest and it's a dynamic environment," Hogan says. "When you get up there and there's branch going through your living room, you can't just chop off a limb. You have to work around those situations and be willing to accept changes in the design."

Matt heads up the finca's construction management entity, which works step-by-step with prospective homeowners. "Most owners want to be involved in the creation and construction of their treehouse," Hogan says. "We haven't had an owner yet that's simply cut a check and said, 'Oh, build me a treehouse.' It's a very hands-on process."

Each house takes anywhere from a few months to a year to complete and the craftsmanship is pretty extraordinary. "Treehouses are like snowflakes," Hogan says. "No two are alike."

Matt sets to work designing they layout for a treehouse called "Tortuga" or turtle. It kind of looks like one.

The finished product belongs to U.S. residents Leo Burns and Laurie Barnhardt, a retired steelworker and nurse practitioner, respectively. "We are really excited about what we have done," Burns says. They officially named it the Fila Tortuga.

"Not all trees are obviously suitable to build on," Hogan says. A trained botanist inspects the trees on site then tags the so-called "buildable" ones. Homeowners come back to pick the tagged tree they want, then the botanist returns to inspect the roots and check for possible insect damage. "We've had anywhere from zero to 20 tagged trees on a parcel," she says.

That's why homeowners have two options––houses must either be supported by trees or on stilts. "A lot are a combination of both," Hogan says.

These aren't anything like what Mom and Dad might cobble together for their kids in the backyard. They function exactly like homes, with indoor plumbing, running water and fully operating kitchens.

Plumbing is made possible by collected spring water and gravity-fed water systems. "We're really lucky," says Hogan. "The highest producing mountain spring is geographically on the top part of the property and can feed down the mountainside and into homes."

The entire land is pretty remote. The closest town is 1.5 miles away, which "contains a school, a church, a pulperia, a bus stop, a handful of houses, and (of course) a soccer field. That’s it. No souvenir shops, no mini-malls, and no rowdy bars," according to the Hogans.

Each treehouse owner is free to rent their space to outsiders. The Hogans didn't anticipate running a village of renters, but they changed their minds when owners expressed interest.

They call this one "Casa Mariposa" or Butterfly House.

Despite appearances, not everyone's a twenty-something backpacker looking for a new adventure. "We have a large retiree contingency," Hogan says. "We have (a lot of couples) with kids who are looking at this as being their summer escape and something they can retire into later."

Finca Bellavista homeowner Corinne and her husband Graham completed their treehouse in 2010. Here, Corinne's father, 70, kicks back on their wrap-around porch. "I guess treehouses are for all ages," she says. "Dad even went ziplining around the property."

About the zip-lining. The finca boasts an intricate web of zip line cables (called SKYTrails), which homeowners use as a sort of private transportation network. They rent the equipment from the main office.

Finca residents zoom through the canopy. In the background is the Mis Ojos treehouse.

Old-school wooden bridges help keep people connected, too.

"Basically the only thing we get off-site is 3G cell signal," Hogan says, thanks to a cell tower that went up downstream about two years ago. Most of the community now has Internet access and cell reception.

To find themselves suddenly neighbors with foreigners living in trees, locals were dubious of the project at first. "A lot of people look at the make up of our village and they say oh, well it's just a community of expatriates, so whatever," Hogan says, which is why they treat the land with as much respect as possible and try to keep a low profile. "We're in a transition where we're getting a much more locally-based ownership. (Locals) have shown a lot of interest."

Sunset on the Finca.