J.K. Rowling's story, of going from virtually penniless to billionaire best-selling author in less than five years time, is almost as fantastic as the multi-award winning, multi-billion dollar book series she wrote. The author of the immensely popular "Harry Potter" books, J.K. Rowling was broke, jobless, and attempting to earn a second degree in education while raising her daughter alone, when she began working on the series in her spare time. The first book in the series was published in 1996 in the UK, with very little fanfare or hope by its mildly enthusiastic publisher, Bloomsbury. A year later, Scholastic, Inc. snapped up US distribution rights for $105,000, and the global "Harry Potter" phenomenon began. Seven books, a slew of awards, a wildly successful film series, and the record for the fastest selling book of all time, later, J.K. Rowling is now the author behind a $15 billion franchise. Since the end of the "Harry Potter" series, she has published multiple supplements to the "Harry Potter" universe, and her first novel for adults, "The Casual Vacancy", will be released this month. She has used an appreciable portion of her hard-earned wealth supporting various charitable causes. However, she has also indulged in some interesting ways. Most recently, she paid for the construction of life-sized tree house for her three children.

J.K. Rowling's house, or tree house, is the brainchild of the UK-based company, Blue Forest. The house is two stories tall, and contains multiple rooms, spiral staircases, and trapdoors. J.K. Rowling's house in the trees also comes complete with turrets, balconies, boxes for attracting birds, and is actually two structures connected by a rope bridge. The entire tree house sits up on wooden stilts. J,K. Rowling's house cost $250,000, and it is not the first structure of this kind built by Blue Forest. They have developed a reputation as the "go to" firm for treetop architecture. For someone who once lived in a tenement building, having the funds to build a real life tree house must feel pretty great.