What a Difference Two Missing Trees Make

As I mentioned in yesterday's Song of the Day post, I had two trees taken down in the front of my house and oh man, what a difference it made!  Ever since I bought this house in 1998, trees have always been a problem.  Sure, trees are beautiful and provide us with all sorts of things like shade and oxygen, a home for critters and so on, but when you own a home, they can be a hazard as well.

Sometime during the history of my home, someone had the bright idea of planting five maple trees in a pattern around the yard.  There were the two in front on either side of the narrow driveway, two right behind the house on either side of the property, and one more in line with the two trees on the left of the driveway a little further back, by the garage.  That was the first one to be a problem...

In this picture you can see four of the five 

trees I'm talking about.  Now I'm down to two!

When Joe and I had moved in in the summer of 98, the roots of this one tree in particular had already worked their way under the driveway, lifting it into a misshapen form.  It was huge!  Around ten years ago we were having a windstorm and that particular tree was swaying like a rubber pencil in the wind, coming precariously close to falling on the neighbor's garage.  It had to come down!

I took over sole ownership of the house in 2008, and the two trees I had cut down yesterday had long been on my to-do list.  Besides making the driveway hopelessly narrow, they both had been losing limbs and more during windstorms over the years, and electric wires were perilously entangled in the branches of one of them.  Though I've dreamed about taking them down for  long time, I couldn't imagine it ever really happening, but I came across a bargain and I went for it.

And so yesterday morning the trees came down.  It was kind of sad, but necessary, and now my entire house looks completely different. Even the landscape of my entire block is different without these two long-standing giants.  I posted the 'after' picture on Facebook, and to my surprise almost everyone of my friends who has been to my house either liked it or made a comment...

Looks great!

Wow!  Very nice!

Now I'm really gonna drive past your house and get lost.  I like it, though!

It doesn't have the same curb appeal.

Wow, it looks so different!

Now you can appreciate the house.

Wow, now you can put in sun-loving plants, not just shade.  Nice!

It's gonna be a pretty spring there!

Wow!  Just wow!

Now you can burn your rake!

All true!  And even 43 likes to this point.  Yes, this is big!  When you do big things like this to a house that you own, it gives you incentive to do more.  Ah, but houses are a money pit, aren't they? Still, I can't wait until spring!