Girl, 14, Builds Lavish Treehouse, Township Ordering Her To Take It Down After Neighbor Complaint
LEET TOWNSHIP (KDKA) - A front yard treehouse in a Leet Township neighborhood has everything a kid could want.
"It took like a lot of planning to do, and to figure out what should go where, and stuff," says the 14-year-old builder, Elise Truchan.
It was her eighth grade project at Quaker Valley Middle School.
A rope ladder is required to reach the first floor, and there's a built-in wooden ladder to a carpeted second story "penthouse."
Her getaway is filled with Harry Potter posters and nature is just outside the windows.
"There is a birdfeeder out here, and my grandparents got it for me," she says, rolling up the curtain that covers a sliding window.
She also has a battery-powered fan and light. Elise and three friends even had a slumber party in the second story room.
"I brought up a TV, and put the TV over there," she gestures toward a corner. "It's a flat screen, so we could watch movies and stuff."
But, when a neighbor complained, the Leet Township Council ordered the family to take the treehouse down by Oct. 1.
The township code prohibits such structures in front yards.
"At first, I thought it was a joke, but then I found out that it wasn't," Elise says. "So, then I got really sad."
Now, she's decided to enjoy it while she can. As for that class project?
"I got 'exemplary' on it, which I think is A-plus," she smiles.
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