A Little Trimming

We have a dogwood tree out back that we never really liked.  It's not a bad tree but it doesn't get enough sun to get more than a few blooms, it had been neglected for several years before we bought the house, and now it has scale.  It could have just used a trim but we have started to work on some plans for the backyard and decided that it just needed to go.  Plus, Andy loves any excuse to use his chainsaw.

Andy had to cut a replacement piling top for the shore so he was excited to get working.

Then he got right to cutting down the largest branches.

The tree got smaller...

And smaller.

Until there was just the main trunk left.

TIM....

BER....

He had to dig out around the stump to cut as much as possible.

And in about an hour we had one less tree and lots of bundles of branches for the yard waste pick-up in a few weeks.

Now we just need some grass.  

A mechanical engineer and a happy rachet (or two)

We spent the ENTIRE day on Sunday working on bathroom projects and other projects around the house.  In the bathroom we were able to get the tub situated in its final home and Andy got all of the plumbing hooked up.  It was a little strange running water in a bathtub in an otherwise unfinished room, but it was a relief to get the tub in place and know that all of the plumbing is working as planned. 

 Attaching the ratchet and strap.  Andy likes to say that I'm stronger than I look, but this 480 lbs monster was no match for me.  We needed a little extra help to take some of the weight so that we could slowly maneuver the tub into the corner.  Since it's surrounded by three walls it was more of an "engineering marvel" than straight manpower.  Andy gets all of the credit for this idea (even though the ratchet straps live in my car and it was my idea to use both ratchets to make the strap longer).  Especially since I was convinced that he was going to cause the ceiling to collapse.  

 Strap and ratchet assembly.

 Hope this thing holds!

 Tub and drain in place.

 View of the new drain line from below. 

 New trap for the tub from below.

 New PEX supply lines for the sinks.  This is the view from the family room below.

 PEX is great, but it was a tight space to work the the proper PEX tools.

We also cut down a pine tree in the front yard in preparation for a new flower bed.  

 Before.

 Taking down as many limbs as possible.

 More limbs down.

 Separating usable wood from the brush.

Chainsaw Andy.  He rigged a great winch system to pull the tree back away from the street.  Unfortunately I didn't grab any good pictures.  I must have been too busy worrying about where the tree would land or else Andy was just too efficient with the saw.

 Post TIIIMMMMBER!

 Working on the stump.  The chainsaw decided it didn't want to finish the stump on Sunday.  We'll have to go back with a better blade.

All chopped up.  A sad, but necessary sacrifice for a new improvement. 

TIMBER!

We really love our semi-wooded lot, but there were several trees that needed to be taken down.  One in the back was dead and would have fallen on our not so friendly neighbor's fence and pool, one was not unhealthy but was located where we want to eventually put a shed, and the final one in the front yard was leaning severely toward the house.

These are photos from our first visit to the house last fall.  The tree to the left of the walkway had several branches that need to be removed and the another tree to the left of the walkway and in the second level back (leaning to the left) was dead and needed to be removed.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but it's the only one I have.  The tree on the left side of the picture leaned in over the house and also needed to be removed.

We got a few estimates and the uniform theme was that tree removal (especially for our trees - 50-60' tall and 18-24" diameter) is very expensive, and all guys that cut down trees are certifiably crazy.  The guy that we hired even wore a shirt with his company logo and a line of trees on the front that said "Who cut one?".  Now I admit that on most days I would find this entertaining but it was not so funny for a guy that had tree limbs swinging like a pendulum in front of my office window.  Andy took off the day they were here, but to hear from my office a loud "heee-hawwww" followed by a swinging limb it was a little unnerving. 

 Bucket truck parked in our front yard overnight.

 They look a lot bigger on the ground.

 Stump removal time.  You can see that the bottom of the tree was rotten and completely hollow, so I'm glad we had it taken down when we did.

 These machines are ridiculous. Once he got the truck backed in it only took about 5 minutes to get rid of the stump.

 The remains.  Andy wanted to keep some of the wood, but we just had too much so this tree was listed on Craigslist and it was picked up yesterday.

 Only the stump remains of the tree behind the driveway.  It's too heavy to lift.

 Our new wood pile.  Andy has a lot of chopping to do!