Before - Overgrown brush and trees blocking sun
During the spring while we were finalizing plans and going
for the variance we decided to get a head start on a few property changes.
The first was doing something about the large number of
trees on the lot. While trees are always welcome in my book, the ones on this
lot had grown out of control. There were clumps of bushes that had grown woody
and there were a number of trees that had been allowed to grow in groves. These
groves, which were on the south side of the house, blocked the sun. This in
turn made the house dark, damp and a bit smelly (add that to the fact that it
had been closed up for over a year).
We both like sun so the trees needed to be thinned out. The
trees were a mix of cedar and maples. Some of the maples had grown so close
together, that they were stunting the growth of each other and causing some to
start to rot. Also, in front of the house we had a beautiful maple with a
large, round crown. It looked stately. However, upon a closer look, we realized
that it was so rotted you could easily put your hand inside of the hollow that
was once the center of the tree. It was dangerous and had to go.
In the backyard, we had a similar large maple. Unfortunately
though, it was heavily shading a beautiful Japanese maple that had nice flowing
limbs like a beech would. While we hated to take down the maple, we felt it
would open up the back yard and help the Japanese maple grow and flourish.
Also, around the yard and the along the foundation of the
house were a number of bushes that had probably been there for a number of
years. While I’m sure they were beautiful at one time, age had taken its toll
and they were now woody, clumpy and overgrown.
And truthfully, many of the trees were in the same location
where the addition was going to go.
So to get a jump start on construction and stay ahead of
that curve as well as to make the lot safer and increase the sunlight, we hired
a tree company to come and take care of them.
They removed somewhere around twenty trees and trimmed up numerous
others. They did a great job. We weren’t sure what the neighbor’s thought
though because at one point as they were working and piling up logs and
branches, Abby drove by and saw a group of folks from the neighborhood standing
pointing and talking to one another. I’m sure they were talking about how sad
it was to be taking down all of those beautiful trees. And we couldn’t have
agreed more. It was sad and we would have liked to have kept them. But it was
work that had to be done given the declining health of the trees.
The crew was great, there was hardly a leaf left behind at
the end of the next day. And it was remarkable how much added sunlight now
streamed into the house. You could actually feel the new warmth instead of the
cold dampness. We opened the windows and let the house air out aided by its new
friend, the sun. What a difference.
The house was beginning to have our touch on it. Yay!
Progress. Sort of.
