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Published June 1, 2013 at 4:00 a.m.
As a kid, Brian Beaudoin used to build forts with his neighborhood friends, but he always wanted a treehouse. So when, as an adult, the civil engineer constructed a tree-mounted hideaway for his two kids in their Middlesex backyard, he admits that "I built it as much for me as I did for them."
The wooden structure sits atop a roughly six-foot-high white pine stump. Construction started with taking down the tree — it had been growing, Beaudoin says, "a little too close to our house for comfort." After removing the tree, he had a vision of the fort he could build there.
"I had it all in my head to begin with," he says. With a little help from his dad, Beaudoin built the treehouse from pressure-treated pine over half a dozen weekends in 2011.
The kids love it, says Beaudoin, but "they're asking for changes and improvements already." His next task? Attaching a door to the front of the house so his daughter can keep her dolls inside.
- A ladder leads up to a one-room house with a wraparound porch.
- Beaudoin got the twisty slide for free from an area school; it costs about $4000 brand new.
- A bar that extends from the porch supports a pair of swings.
- A bucket on a pulley system lets the kids hoist their treasures up and down.
This article was originally published in Seven Days' monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT.
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About The Author
Megan James
Bio:
Megan James began writing for Seven Days in 2010, first as Associate Arts Editor. She later became an editor for Seven Days' monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT, and is currently a freelance contributor.
Megan James began writing for Seven Days in 2010, first as Associate Arts Editor. She later became an editor for Seven Days' monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT, and is currently a freelance contributor.
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