ROOM WE LOVE: Anchors Away!

“I’m not a regular general contractor,” says Mark Aymer, owner of Aymer Luxury Building and Design. “I don’t just seek out kitchens and bathrooms. I’m a unique builder.” It’s why his clients hired him to build a 34-foot-long pirate ship for their two children around the oak tree on their Lansdowne property. It was unlike any project Aymer had ever taken on; a standard kitchen remodel typically takes him about 12 weeks, and this took him a year to complete. “I have ADHD, so it almost enticed me more,” he says. “I’d collect materials on my own time and go antiquing on weekends. I got to be as creative as I wanted to be.”

MAPPED OUT

Aymer first met with the family to understand their must-haves for the treehouse. “I sat there with a sketch pad, drawing based on the ideas they came up with,” he says. “They’d eyeball the sketches and tell me what they liked.” The kids wanted a zipline, a climbing wall, and a secret hatch that led to a clubhouse. The parents wanted a whimsical space that still looked cohesive with their two-story, 3,000-square-foot home. “It’s visible from the street, so I made sure they approached the neighbors first,” Aymer says with a laugh. “It wasn’t going to be an eyesore, but sometimes people can’t see that vision in their heads, so you’ve got to make sure everyone around you is cool with it.”

ON DECK

Once they landed on the name, “Hook’s Revenge,” Aymer finalized his design and structural plans. The main hull measured 34-by-10 feet, and the largest area in the back was 25 feet wide. Inside, it had 8-foot ceilings. He incorporated architectural elements from the house, like the green trim on the windows, and used brass accents wherever he could. He installed a hatch for the kids that opens to a cargo net; on the other side of the ship, he added a spiral staircase that was left over from when the clients renovated the house. “The cannons I made from PVC pipe and toilet plungers that I took apart,” he says. “You can stuff a squishy ball in there.”

TREASURE TROVE

Aymer built the lifeboat to scale and a navigation table with chalk paint on top where the kids could create maps. He made the chairs on the boat deck from old wine barrels and built the helm out of stair spindles. For the bow, he sculpted an alligator with white plaster and painted it green. The interior is adorned with tapestries, authentic rum barrels, a wood treasure chest, and other “pirate-y knick-knacks” Aymer found at antique stores. The homeowners found the copper hanging lanterns, which have chargeable, LED lights.

LOCK, STOCK, AND BARREL

To create ocean waves around the vessel, Aymer used blue playground mulch. “I got garden pavers from Home Depot and stacked them and used construction adhesive to stick on the mulch,” he says. “I sealed it all with mulch glue, then spray painted it to add the wave look.” The black Jolly Roger pirate flag off the stern completed Hook’s Revenge. “The homeowner’s response was unreal,” Aymer says. “It’s the reason I think I’ll do this until the day I die. I love the enthusiasm and pure joy of an adult with no abandon whatsoever. Every time I talk to him, he calls me ‘Treehouse Master Mark’.”