We Really Do Like Trees…

…although you may not be able to tell it after this week. When we first bought the house we got a ton of trees removed – some were inches from the house, some were diseased, some were on the roof, and some were just ugly and shading the whole yard.


At that time we left a line of pine trees on the right side of the property and two big trees in the front and back yard (partly to shade the house since we don’t have air conditioning). We have been worried about these trees for awhile though. The two big ones in front and back are silver maples. They are known for their shallow root base (we’re worried about the foundation) and they are “self-pruning” (meaning that they drop large branches every few weeks). The pine trees on the right are just ugly and some were dead or diseased.

So we finally decided to get them all removed before the maples dropped their helicopters. We also had some of the other dead/diseased trees in the backyard removed. Our neighbors were good enough to help us with the cost of removing the pine trees even though they are on our property – thanks!

Our tree guys were here for 3 full days. After the first day we were a little concerned that we had made a mistake but the emptiness has grown on us quickly (and it gives us a blank slate for landscaping).

The tree removal process is pretty impressive. The big tree out back took them over a full day to remove and grind the stump. It was about 6 feet in diameter and only 10 feet from the house (and hanging over it). Samantha and I went to run some errands when they were taking that monster down.

Here are a few pictures from the tree removal followed by the before/after shots.








Over the weekend we started installing the tile in the master bathroom. We bought marble tile and decided to seal them first to prevent any staining.


We were able to install some of the tile in the bottom part of the shower and some of the accent tile in the shower shelf. The most difficult part of the tiling process is deciding which order to install the tiles and how we need to cut certain tiles (bullnose, back cut, etc.). Hopefully we have it all figured out now and the rest will go smoothly.


One random thing from the week was the wild turkey in our front yard – it just roamed around one morning.


Samantha had a pretty good week but she has started her “Purple” crying in the evening. She cries and there’s nothing we can do to comfort her. Unfortunately it seems like the crying session starts as soon as we’re ready to eat dinner.

She is still growing – I think her cheeks and thighs get chubbier by the day. This morning Chris described her as “an angel with male pattern baldness.” We’re hoping she grows some hair on top!

Here are some pictures from the week:







Hopefully next week we’ll have more tile to reveal!