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A nautically themed Toronto tree house is under siege from the city.

John Alpeza’s two boys, Kristian, 10, and Matheas, 8, love climbing the ropes that hang from the pirate-ship-shaped tree house and scampering up its ladder into the shingled “cabin,” complete with windows and doors. Their father spent years building it for the two boys, pouring $30,000 into the project.

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But not everyone is as enamoured with the play house — last Friday, the family received a voicemail from the City of Toronto instructing them to remove it by the end of this week, or face a court order.

“You want your kids to spend time outside, not inside… instead of playing video games,” Diana Alpeza, the boys’ mother, said. She wonders what kind of message the city is sending by asking for the tree house’s removal.

“We love it so much. We hope no one ever tears it down,” Matheas said. His brother added, “My dad worked so hard to build this.”