Day 22

I am happy to report that all the major tree work has been completed at the house! It took the guys about a week to rip out all of the current landscaping and take down several big trees, but we are so happy with the results. As I mentioned in the previous post, it really makes the house seem so much larger.

 

 

There was one giant locust tree that has been the biggest tree project to tackle. The tree was around 3 feet in diameter and was actually growing into the side of the shed next to the house. I hated to lose all the shade that the tree provided, but it was just too big and overgrown. When your gutter starts to bend because a tree is growing into it, you probably should remove the tree :)

 

This picture gives a good idea of just how large the tree was. That is a brick propped up next to it for size comparison. It was huge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other big project that has started is the porch and sidewalk renovations. The front porch was not initially packed well and is therefore sinking. The good news is that this problem is not causing any foundation or structural issues, but the bad news is that it needs to be completely ripped out and re poured correctly. They have been working hard to jackhammer up the brick layer on the porch. Once the brick layer is up, they will jackhammer up all of the remaining concrete and re pour. We are not sure yet if we will go back over it with a stamped concrete or maybe even put new brick back down.

 

 

 

 

The path from the driveway to the front door also needed a lot of work. The path was initially a poured concrete that they put brick on top of. Over time the brick has not been maintained and fallen apart. Ben spent Friday working to pull up the entire sidewalk. We will replace it with whatever material we decide to re do the porch with.

 

 

Today Ben was working at the house and continuing to clean out the addition on the back. The addition has to be completely cleaned out and ready for demolition before we can put a new roof on. He was cleaning out the bar area and discovered that at some point, the addition was the home to some sort of animal. Apparently whatever was living there enjoyed eating, because they left behind a corn cob, m&m boxes and a bag of pistachios!