BOY SCOUT HILL

May 1 & 2

“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 Pergofloored — as well as air-conditioned and electrically lit — room with builtin 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 blackwalnut 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