Shade of the Tree by Piers Anthony
Thought it was going to be sci-fi or fantasy but it's not actually. More typical standard fiction for larger audiences. And really a stupid waste of time. A haunted tree/area. Father and children just moving in. He's too dense to realize he needs to get the hell out and so we slowly have strange things happen which he dismisses in between him trying to fix up the have finished house.

I imagine the writer sat down and randomly came up with just a bunch of stuff and just threw it in there. One thing after another, each disconnected from the previous. Maybe he needed the money I guess and held his nose why he wrote it. Trying to comprehend why he bothered writing is what I was mainly thinking about and stopped two thirds in.

I'm sure I must have read something decent by Piers Anthony somewhere in the past. I think.