May 31, 2010

Finally, The Truth About the Totum Pole...

I know I am a bit behind on this so I apologize if it seems irrelevant now, but I wanted to make sure you all got the truth about how the Totum Pole came to be. We found out the real story from the guy who cut down the tree and not the neighbor.

As I stated in the original post, our neighbor told us that the tree was left as is (Totum Pole) because of "inclement weather." To our amazement (insert sarcasm) that was very far from the truth. We were told to follow up with the landscaper to discuss stumping. And when the landscaper came, this was his version of the story.

The landscaper could not find the quote for the tree that he had given the neighbor so he asked the neighbor if he had his copy. The neighbor did and he went in the house to go get it. He went in and came out empty handed. Not only did he come out empty handed, he told the guy some outrageous price. Obviously the landscaper knew it was wrong- he does this for a living and knows what a tree of that size costs to remove. Knowing that he (landscaper) was getting screwed, the landscaper went to his truck to try to find the original quote. He was not successful. He was pissed, let the neighbor pay him $400 dollars less than he remembered quoting the neighbor and packed up the truck and left. This is why we returned to a 15 foot limbless tree.

While the landscaper told Aaron all of this, Aaron was annoyed. Both at the neighbor because he was being shady, and also at the landscaper because there was no note or anything left to explain what really happened. Aaron then told the landscaper the whole story as to why the tree was coming down. He explained that after months of nagging and letters about damage to their property, we surrendered the tree. Now, this is the part that we are both pissed about.... The response form the landscaper was: "All the tree needed was a good trim." Son of a B!$%&!!! We lost a good tree when we didn't need to....

While this is all happening, Aaron is still curious about the stump. No one ever told us how much that would cost. Aaron and the landscaper walked to the Totum Pole and the guy told us he would come back and finish the job and he would remove the stump for $100. We were of course thrilled with this price as we were prepared for up to $400.

Five days later the landscaper returned and this is what our backyard now looks like. No more Totum Pole. No more beautiful tree. Just a pile of top soil and wood chips....


The Totum Pole has been put to rest, but we are still annoyed and angered by the whole situation.

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