This may be another one of those state-to-state differences we chuckle about in the comments, but I thought I would pass on this money-saving tip The Mister and I happened upon through no ingenuity or brain power of our own.
I’ve complained often enough about the poor natural light in our home that I am sure several of you are now rolling your eyes, waiting for me to mention, again, that two towering trees flank our property.� Not one to disappoint, here I go:
We have two towering trees flanking our property and they suck up all our natural light.
But wait, I have more to complain about!
They are now so big they are encroaching upon our neighbors’ property, and with winter just around the corner, one of our next door neighbors delicately suggested we consider having the beasts trimmed before the leaves dropped all over her pool and created one of those boobie traps you see in the movies where the sidekick walks across an innocuous pile of leaves and falls into a pit with a flesh eating mole the size of a Winnebago.� Or maybe she was just worried about her pool sweeper getting jammed.� Either way, we picked up what she was laying down and called some people.
Some people gave us some bids, which gave us something to wince over and reminded us why have we put this off for so long.� The tree in the front, alone, would cost us $350 to have it properly trimmed.� Or, 1/3 of an IKEA sectional, which is how I determine cost lately.� You don’t even want to know the quotes we received for the woolly mammoth in the back yard.� Any money we save on air conditioning by living in a constant state of nightfall is exceeded by the cost of keeping these trees manageable.
(Don’t worry, I’m getting there.)
One of the people we had out to bid the project thought the tree in our front yard might be a city tree.� Modern neighborhoods have a sidewalk (here in southern CA; we’ll see what you all have to say about this in the comments), and city code states anything preceding the sidewalk is city property and, therefore, the city’s responsibility to a certain degree.� Homeowners are still responsible for keeping the area neat and maintained.� We do not live in a modern neighborhood and do not have a sidewalk.� The tree is positioned in a gray area, so before embarking on a 1 1/2 IKEA sectionals project, we decided to have a representative from our city’s Urban Forestry department come out and settle the issue.
They came out quickly and three days later my doorbell rang with good news and bad news, according to the inspector.
The good news is the tree sits on city property, and is the city’s responsibility to keep trimmed.� The bad� news is the tree does not need to be trimmed at this time.� (Uh-huh.)� But, the inspector said I could employ city trimmers at the resident-city rate if I was so inclined.� The rate?� $39.� That is a savings of $311.� $39 to have a towering tree trimmed, a near 90% difference from the $350 we were quoted.� THIRTY NINE DOLLARS.
My math might be off, but I am pretty sure that’s the middle-left cushion of an IKEA sectional.
I live in a villiage with no sidewalks. Well, I take that back. There are sidewalks in front of the churches and post office. Something about zoning laws and easy entry for everyone. Whatever. In any case, I came home a few weeks ago to find our front trees had been trimmed around the power lines. Free of charge. They even left the branches (neatly stacked!) beside them. That being said, no one around here hires anyone to actually trim or take down trees. That’s what neighbors are for. It’s a rare weekend that someone, somewhere isn’t running a chainsaw (complete with 3-4 strapping men in bib overalls) running in town.
I actually forget what my point was. But there ya have it.
Oh man, this is a great post. You could also save money by having a husband with a chainsaw and a ladder. I’m just saying. ;)
We have sidewalks here and everything on the other side of the sidewalk is the city’s but I’ve not ever considered asking them to deal with the trees there. I should ask the husband about it!
Um, hello? Have you seen the height of that tree? And next to it, our tallest ladder? It’s close to 60 feet, if not more. He did the trees at our old house, which were around 20 feet and didn’t require Jacob’s ladder.
The only way I was able to get the entire tree in the shot was to lay flat on the ground and point the camera up. Plus, I prefer to leave it up to the professionals, or at least the people with the proper equipment and restraint. The Mister and I actually got into a squabble this weekend regarding how the tree should be trimmed. He wanted to remove ALL the branches on the left side because, “they have no function.” (He claims they don’t provide shade due to how the sun hits the tree.) He is all function, no form. Left to his devices, the tree would have, I repeat, NO BRANCHES on the entire left side and would resemble a toothbrush more than it does a tree. I’ll pay 1/4 of an IKEA sectional any day if it spares me from looking at a 60 foot Oral B in my backyard.
You are so funny, I believe that trees that are that big need to be left for the professionals to trim, not only the equipment factor but the falling factor. I highly recomend you have it done period. And thank you for being courteous to your neighbor with the pool, yes, it can mess things up in the pool, ask me how I know, I own a pool ;) My neighbor is very good at triming his tree next to the property line its the wind that blows them into my pool but, not too bad. Nice trees you got there by the way.
My husband refused to do the whole “tree + chainsaw + ladder” thing too (I can’t blame him; it’s a huge oak in our front yard – I mean HUGE). So we decided we HAD to have it trimmed this year – at least get rid of the dead branches still hanging on (apparently oaks are quite stingy about giving up their limbs). We had multiple companies stop by the house and give us an estimate – most ranging from $300-$500. Um, nope. We told each one: “We have $200 to spend on the tree and the guy that came just before you is getting back to us about whether he can do it for that.” Same line to each company – until someone jumped on the project – for $200. :-)