If a tree falls in the woods....

Well, more like when trees fall in the city. Today was the day for the huge ugly locust trees to come down. These are NOT small trees. E, my Dad's handyman, was in a 50ft bucket skid, and was barely making it 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the tree. Yeah. BIG trees. We were able to down most of them without incident. Notice I said "most". Yeah, one fell in a different path than it should and landed on the trailer next door. Luckily, my Dad owns that property, so it's not that big of a deal. Ooops.

 The 50 foot boom skid.

 The first tree going down!

 This is why they have to come down. See the light part, that's healthy tree. The dark part that's MOST of the middle, that's all rotten.

 The second tree coming down! (Yes, I took pics of all the trees coming down. No, I won't bore you with it.)

 The aftermath of the second tree down.

 Dad hauling the logs from the trees with his tractor. Like I said, these a HUGE trees.

 Oops.

 Not exactly what we had planned.

 But, it is what it is. Good thing Dad owns the property though.

See, BIG trees. 50 foot boom full extended.

And here is a Before/After. It's not a very good one, but you can definitely see that we opened up the view.

Before and After: Mowing edition

Yard Clean up!

Today we worked hard at cleaning up the disgusting yard. Some trees were cut down, the yard was cleaned up and mowed. I know, really exciting stuff. But, it's progress. So, here we go!

 My Dad cutting down some of the trees

 Again, my Dad cutting down some of the trees

 Little Man helping carry the limbs away.

After the grass was mowed and the trees were removed.

The inside of the house (pic heavy)

All of this will be gone, as we're pretty much knocking down the house, but I thought you might want to see what it looks like as we bought it. Fair warning, it's REALLY rundown. Also, the silver spray paint marks you see are what needs removed, which is pretty much everything.

 The covered back entrance/mudroom

 The stairs to the basement

 The dining room. I told you it was a disaster.

 The kitchen

 Some sort of hallway thing. However, this is where the stove was.

 The living room

 Bedroom 1

 Bedroom 2

 The bathroom

The mess in the garage

The BEFORE photos

These are the photos we took yesterday. Showing the property from every angle we could think of. That way people can see exactly how much we've set for ourselves. This property is run down. Even the grass has went to seed. It's taller than our son!

 Looking at the garage/house, trees in the background, tall grass in the foreground.

 Comparing the height of the grass to our 4 year old. It's some really tall grass.

 The garage. It's a nice two car garage that needs minimal work. There is tons of trash in the driveway though.

 The sideview of the house from the alley. Those two trees will be removed.

Yep, the front view of the house. Again, tall grass, overgrown trees.... Tons of work. 

Speaking of work, the plan is to knock down the little part sticking out, and make this into a 4 bedroom ranch style home. It's currently a 2 bedroom ranch.  Once I get inside and can get a current floorplan, I'll upload that, along with the plans for renovation. Also, one of the first things being done is removing all the tall trees you see behind the house, as well as the one in front of it and the two beside it. They are locust trees and are dying. This means that they are a danger not only to our house, but the neighboring house. So, down they'll come. That is the project for the upcoming weekend.