It is easy, at the age of 32, to consider oneself a grownup. There are many grownup things I do. I open letters that are addressed to me often. These days, they are demands for money, rather than when I was a kid, when they contained money. I go to work, to make money, to help with the letters. Everything can be a bit serious, quite a lot of the time.
What’s interesting, with all this grown-up behaviour, is how quickly I can be yanked back to more childish endeavours. A certain smell can incite a mild psychosis of youth; or an image of a treehouse. Nothing makes you want to be a kid again quite like a good treehouse. I am constantly wishing I was in a treehouse, hiding from my problems. If I lived at Springfield House, in Northumberland, I would spend a lot of time in the treehouse there. It is for sale with Finest Properties for £5.75 million.
The treehouse, designed and built by the same firm that designed and built the treehouse at Alnwick Garden, is made up of two turrets with two floors each. There is a bridge that joins them both.
You can hide from most of life's problems in a treehouse.
And that's it.
Well, almost. I should add that accompanying the treehouse is 2.8 acres of gardens and grounds, as well as a six-bedroom home, known as Springfield House.
Springfield House itself was built in 1874, and is set over two floors. It comes with, and there’s no better way to put this, all the trimmings. The interiors have recently been subject to a meticulous redesign under the watchful eye of Fiona Barratt-Campbell, with an emphasis on ‘texture and craftsmanship’. I could write many words about how nice they are, but we have pictures, so you can just see for yourself.
The aforementioned trimmings include, but are not limited to, a study, wine store, gym, cinema room, and bar. If you get bored of the treehouse, there is also an outdoor kitchen, all-weather tennis court and hot tub. Or you could just go for a nice walk around the manicured gardens.
The property itself is located near Corbridge, which sits on the River Tyne in the Tyne Valley. There are plenty of amenities to be found there, such as shops, restaurants, inns, doctor and dentist surgeries and a garage. The larger market town of Hexham is also nearby.
But that’s all very grown-up. Just think of the treehouse.
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