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Architecture & Engineering


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October 26, 2016

Miami grandma fights to keep two-story treehouse

  • It looks like something out of Swiss Family Robinson, with a sink, a stove, refrigerator and a television, but county inspectors are not backing down.
    • By CURT ANDERSON
    AP Legal Affairs Writer

    MIAMI — For a quarter century, Shawnee Chasser has lived in a treehouse not far from downtown Miami. The 65-year-old grandmother who once protested the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons says she hates the oppressive feeling of walls and air conditioning, loves the open breeze and relishes the connection to nature in lush, tropical surroundings.

    Not long ago, Miami-Dade County code inspectors discovered the treehouse, declared it unfit for human habitation and ordered it torn down. Now Chasser is fighting to keep her arboreal home, which is two stories, with a sink with running water, a stove, a refrigerator, a computer and a television. It's also home to her dogs, cats and a pet raccoon named Mary J. Blige.


     
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