25 September 2023 , 08:17
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A grandmother has been forced to demolish the treehouse in which she lived for 17 years due to building regulations.
Shawnee Chasser’s Miami home, much of it built within a large tree, includes a Tiki hut, bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and even a small backyard including a pool with a homemade waterfall. But after the 72-year-old had her Florida property reported by her neighbours, she has had to pay a whopping $40,000 in fines over the past eight years due to ‘unsafe’ construction.
Miami-Dade County and the Building Code Enforcement Department ordered that she either dismantle her home or bring it up to speed - and Shawnee has finally decided to stop fighting the case. “It's been a big demolition, and I don't even like looking at it," she said.
The complex is complete with a swimming pool and a homemade waterfall (AFP via Getty Images)"It's sad,” she added. “I feel like a bird in a cage when I'm in a house. It just doesn't work for me, but I'm thinking that a lot of people have told me that there's going to be an outside structure. I'm just praying for that day.”
Chasser plans to continue living in the outdoors and will this time ensure her house is built to code - but she can’t bear to watch her former home being dismantled.
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Shawnee will miss the raised bedroom, where she listens to the wind and rain sounds as she falls asleep (AP)“I tried to not be here because, you know, it's my bedroom, and I loved it," she said. "It's a rope around your neck. I just want to be free of it."
She has always lived outdoors and says she needs to hear the rain and wing at night. “If I don’t, I go crazy, and I’m claustrophobic,” she explained to 7News. “It makes me come alive to hear the rain, to see the rain, to hear the frogs. I missed two rains since I've been indoors. I miss it all.”
The treehouse has a downstairs living room (AP)Shawnee at first bought the house for her son, but moved in after his death. She now lives there with her two grandchildren and her pet raccoon Coonie. She continued to upgrade the house over the years, moving the bedroom to a higher level, adding a pool with a water fountain and a new bedroom inside a Tiki hut.
She said on her GoFundMe page that she was fined $11,320 on top of an additional $11,481.50 in one day for “unauthorised use within a single-family residential district” and violating Chapter 33 of Florida zoning law.
A Tiki hut was converted into a bedroom (AFP via Getty Images)Tearing down the house is no cheaper, coming at $30,000 on top of what she has already had to pay, according to CBS News Miami. Shawnee rents out her normal house to five tenants to afford her mortgage and bills.
Her GoFundMe has so far raised $4,215 to help “comply with Code, save her home and still be able to feed and raise her two grandchildren”. She is aiming for $50,000 to pay off the masses of fines and fund her next home.