I Can See Clearly Now

Today was a very exciting day at the Westerhold house.  As you know, we bought this foreclosed house back in December 2008.  There are so many different things that need to be done to this house but one thing that was vital was to cut down some over-grown trees in our backyard.

I guess one of the previous owners had planted some trees and then they sprouted out until it became one big mess.  There were 7 trees in our little backyard with roots growing on top of the ground.  We never went back there and the kids never played because it was so full of holes and roots that it just wasn't a good area.

Well, finally, we got started on some renovating and the trees came down today.  All of our neighbors were just as excited as we were.  In fact, dad and our neighbor, Corey, sat outside all day and watched all of them come down.  I have to tell you that we were amazed at how precise the cuts were and how they had to hang the ropes just right so that the branches would fall exactly where they wanted.  All in all, it took about 10 hours.


First cut!

View from the deck at the house directly behind us.

This was the first tree that they took down and as soon as they started, it made a world of difference.  We can actually see the neighbor's house now.

This was actually 2 trees that had grown together and they were totally rotted in the middle.  They would have eventually fell over into the neighbor's yard.

Tackling the cottonwood . . .

This cottonwood tree has been such a pain for the entire neighborhood.  When it blooms, there are literally little pieces of cotton floating in the air (hello, allergies!!).  The cotton gets sucked up into each neighbor's air conditioner filter so everyone had to make sure to constantly spray them down.  Our garage has cotton pockets everywhere.  So happy to see it come down.

This was amazing to see and scary for the guy up in the tree.  He cut it and it was just hanging in the air parallel to the ground.  When he cut it the whole tree shook.

The last of the tree coming down.  I video taped this, too.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1LX2jhZO24

After taking down the trees, then they had to grind the stumps.  There were so many roots above ground and the roots were so big that they almost dug up the entire backyard.

Where the cottonwood tree used to be.  Notice the next door neighbor who came out to check it out.

It honestly looks like a whole new yard.  It doubled the size.  There is obviously still a lot of work to do but we are so happy with this start!