In the Woodbridge community of Lake Highlands, a single steeply pitched rooftop juts above the rest — it hovers over a stained-glass window that, in the right light, glints from behind thick leaves and branches. The frame, though towering, appears miniature and dreamy — and when you eventually locate its roots, it’s like finding the pot of gold at the base of a rainbow.

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When they moved into the neighborhood about eight years ago, Steve and Jeri Wakefield decided to build the treehouse for their grandsons, Lincoln and Sullivan Scott.  

 

“There was an old platform in the tree, and that gave us the idea,” Jeri says.

 

They hired family friend James Curvan to do the job because he loves kids and he is a gifted architect, Jeri says.

 

“They had the tree for it, so I started by building a model,” Curvan says. “If you look at the model through a tube from the trajectory point, you can see exactly what it will look like in the tree.”

 

Curvan took about three months to build the initial phase of the treehouse, which he admits with a chuckle, “got a little out of control.”

 

A doghouse, sized for the Wakefield’s poodle, is situated at the bottom of a staircase that winds from ground to the main level — winding stairs, Curvan says, because ladders can be intimidating for kids.

 

Other details in the design also evidence Curvan’s knack for understanding children. He learned a lot about building for young minds when doing research in the 1980s for a Montessori school project, he says.   

 

An upstairs door fashioned from an antique organ door opens to a Pergo-floored — as well as air-conditioned and electrically lit — room with built-in kid-sized bunk beds, shelving and a window seat. A child’s table with little chairs, books and games invites kids, both young and old, to escape.

 

Much of the wood used on the main house is from a 19th century bed frame — Curvan was working on the treehouse one day when the Wakefield’s landscaper came by lugging behind his truck an old black-walnut bed, which he planned to take to the dump. Curvan spotted the bed and offered to take it off the guy’s hands. He cut up the wood for building material, situating the headboard over the door to the main gable, and interweaved the rest of the black walnut throughout the project.

 

A large stained glass window is the work of Jeri’s first husband. Other windows on the main level are made from Plexiglas, for safety, but Curvan carved patterns into the surface to “make them more interesting”. Jeri’s artistic touch and eye for intriguing antiques add character and charm to the structure — an antique steel airplane, a handcrafted train and a Franciscan bell from the California missions, to name a few, adorn the treehouse’s rails and ledges.  

 

The house doesn’t rely on any part of the tree for support, nor has Curvan chopped any of its branches. Instead, the framework rests atop steel columns.

 

“Unless you look closely, you can hardly notice the columns because I painted them the same color as the tree,” Curvan says. “It is also built so that if any branches fall from the tree, they will fall away from the house.”  

 

During the first phase, Curvan built multiple small “forts” around the base of the tree, which some of the neighborhood kids like more than the big tree house, he says.

 

“Jeri wanted seven gables — ‘The House of Seven Gables’, you know? I’ve given her six,” Curvan says.

 

The treehouse attracts kids from all around, and Jeri says she welcomes its popularity. But as her own grandchildren grew (they are now 7 and 9 years old), she says they “needed more of a challenge”. So each year the Wakefields added something new — a climbing wall, a back porch, a gazebo, a cargo climbing net and most recently a zip line that carries brave riders from the top of the treehouse to a pit across the yard.  

 

The treehouse, on its own, is fantastic, but the real magic happens during parties — Jeri has hosted many themed parties for her friends’ children and grandchildren, and the annual Easter egg hunt last month drew about 100 children and their families.

 

At the egg hunt, Steve Wakefield mingles with neighbors, Jeri good-naturedly shouts directions to the excited kids, and Curvan watches over the bigger kids near the treehouse.

 

As they zip past him, Curvan smiles and says, “Good turnout. This is the fun part.”