Unique SLO County tree house has airplane guesthouse, saxophone stove — and it’s for sale

San Luis Obispo County is home to plenty of unique properties, from eco-friendly mountaintop homes to the historic Hearst Castle.

However, few of those homes can boast that an airplane is part of their habitable space — or that they are built to resemble a tree house nestled deep in the wooded canyons of rural southern San Luis Obispo County.

Around a mile north of Lopez Lake, deep in the rural land between Verde and Pozo, exactly one property checks both of those boxes.

2708 Waters End Road was a stretch of untamed land until longtime San Luis Obispo County resident Reggie Whibley got his hands on the property in the 2000s.

By 2010, Whibley and his wife Judy Straw had transformed the 25-acre property into a haven secreted deep in the canyon, replete with custom design and construction work by Whibley.

“One afternoon, Reg and I decided to take a ride and go up to Big Falls,” Straw said in an email shared with The Tribune. “On our way on upper Lopez Canyon we saw a ‘for sale’ sign for the property. We loved the property and bought it.”

Better Home and Gardens Real Estate Realtor Steven Ferrario, who was friends with the Whibleys prior to Reggie’s death in 2020, now represents the property as its selling agent.

He said Reggie’s skill and willingness to roll up his sleeves and set himself to any task is evident in the property’s appearance.

“What I learned being around Reggie is that he was a man of many talents — not only a master woodworker, but he was just such an artistic individual and really could create and not only design, but actually do do the work, whatever trade was needed in it,” Ferrario said.

A tree house without a tree

Approaching the property from the north from Upper Lopez Canyon Road, Whibley’s tree house property fits neatly into the basin of a valley, surrounded on all sides by canyon walls that rise several hundred feet above the home.

The home — designed by local architect Jim Maul — stands three stories high, though realistically only the second and third floors are used as living space. That’s because the house’s signature look suspends the majority of the structure a full story from the ground — a hallmark of Whibley’s past as a pier builder up and down the West Coast, Ferrario said.

Much of the home’s foundation and structural support either draw inspiration from Whibley’s pier-building days or outright reuses the same building concept, using metal pier posts as the tree legs and similar wood slats for the outer deck, Ferrario said.

“The decking on the patio came from a project that (Associated Pacific Constructors ) did for the Santa Cruz pier,” Straw said in an email. “It was laid per the engineering design and it curled because the wood was so hard you had to nail it in a particular way.”

A pair of outdoor staircases connect the ground to the main deck, which wraps around the second floor’s expansive living room area, made from massive wood burls jigsawed together. On the eastern side of the property, a pair of massive window panes weighing more than 1,000 pounds apiece and suspended on ball bearings meet at a 90 degree angle, opening up the living room to the deck and views of the canyon wall.

The living room carries even more of Whibley’s signature handmade craft work, with a heater cobbled together from an existing frame and a pair of saxophones, a radiator built from Jaguar luxury car engine pieces and a pot and pan storage rack reused from a Jaguar fender.

Just off of the living room, the main bathroom features custom wood working along the sinks and the same right angle sliding doors on the west corner of the house, providing an “al fresco” shower experience for those unafraid of embracing the property’s secluded nature, Ferrario said.

Ferrario said he estimates Whibley put around $400,000 of his own money into the home over its half decade of construction in the 2000s, avoiding buying new and building almost everything he could with his own hands.

The one exception: The 1953 Beechcraft C-45 airplane moored right next to the tree house.

The plane in the meadow

Ferrario said the property’s most unique feature is highly reflective of Whibley’s unique sense of humor and “fluid build” philosophy.

From the outside, “Betty Jane” would hardly seem to be anything but a well-preserved 1953 Beechcraft C-45 airplane. Opening the hatch, however, reveals a fully reworked interior featuring more of Whibley’s custom wood paneling and a pair of handmade bunks, complete with its own interior lighting system.

“Reggie had wanted to do something out of the ordinary, and he had thoughts, from what I hear, of wanting to maybe do a trolley cart or something along those lines, or a bus — basically something to be a little bit different,” Ferrario said. “He’s always liked airplanes, and a buddy of his called him up and said, ‘I found it.’”

The plane sits next to a refurbished gas pump that can still light up from the inside and a combination outhouse and maintenance shed designed to look like a miniature airplane hangar.

While the property is longer than it is wide, it’s no landing strip, meaning the plane had to be disassembled, trucked in across unfinished roads and canyon passes, and then rebuilt and refurbished to become a habitable guesthouse, Ferrario said.

Ferrario said though the plane hasn’t been fit to fly in around three decades, it still carries its original engine and components.

“He found it down in Southern California and had it transported to the property in pieces, and put it together and customized the interior,” Ferrario said. “His old saying was his guests can enjoy the benefits of being in the Mile High Club without leaving the ground.”

What will happen to the property?

The property has been up for sale from Better Home & Garden Real Estate since the summer and costs around $1.75 million, Ferrario said.

Most of that cost comes down to the highly unique nature of the location and custom construction, which requires upkeep and a customer willing to “carry paper” from the jump, Ferrario said.

“It’s going to take somebody who can really appreciate what it is and justify the price, because it’s a pretty healthy price,” Ferrario said. “It’s really for somebody who has disposable money.”