Capture, Create, CREATE:

a short video (between 30 seconds and 3 minutes) that showcases the uniqueness of our neighborhood in the theme: “All local, all the time”.

Deadline: Videos must be submitted by YouTube/ web link or on DVD to our offices no later than 5 p.m. July 11, 2010; late entries will not be eligible to win a prize.

VIEW:

Prizes and Details at advocatemag.com/videocontest

Readers will have a chance to pick the winner. Online Voting will be available week of July 12-17 at advocatemag.com

Video winner will be chosen by online viewers. Grand prize for winning video: An air-conditioned luxury box for 16 people, three parking passes, and $300 worth of food credits for the sought after Texas Rangers vs. the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday, July 25 (or comparable game, at our option). (Package worth $3,450) Great prizes for the three runners up. (Seriously, we don’t joke about great prizes at the Advocate)

Jeri Wakefield has spent years collecting antiques and crafting art for the treehouse’s walls and shelves. PHOTO BY 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 students of any race, color, religion, gender, and national or ethnic origin. 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.” —CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB