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Growing up, the three children of Brad and Diane Duesler became well-known for building treehouses — a bit too well-known.

At one point, the city of Middleton ordered them to tear down one of their creations. It had become too elaborate, and the tree was on city property.

“Emily threatened to handcuff herself to it,” said Brad Duesler, 56, referring to his middle child. “She was devastated.”

The intimate knowledge of treehouses has now paid off for the family, and in a big way. Friday, the Middleton family will be featured on “Treehouse Masters,” a reality show on the Animal Planet cable network in which host Pete “The Tree Whisperer” Nelson and a crew travel the country designing and building blinged-out treehouses for a few lucky people.

The show selected the Duesler family after daughter Kati, 25, applied online. Over the course of several weeks in April and May, the Animal Planet crew constructed an extravagant, one-of-a-kind treehouse on wooded property owned by the Duesler family in rural Barneveld.

The treehouse, designed as an art studio, is 340 square feet inside, with another 260 square feet of porch and decks. It takes seven oak trees to support it and needed a county zoning permit due to its size.