Neighborly Love (No so much)

So, as many of you may have read last week we lost a long battle with our neighbors about the tree in our backyard. The tree was mature and very old. It still produced leaves but it was more dead than living. In 2006, Buffalo had a huge Ice storm which is known around here as "The October Storm," and as a result many of the beautiful tree lined streets look slightly naked. The city has been removing them and replanting trees ever since. Our tree definitely was very damaged in this storm.

Last summer we were approached by our neighbor and asked to take the tree down. His complaint was about the leaves in his gutters, moss on his roof, and apparently our tree caused damage to their pipes and he needed to replace $2000 worth of piping. When he asked us this last year we were dumbfounded that anyone would want to take a tree down. We pulled the, "we're getting married and we can't afford it." He offered to pay half and then eventually offered to pay for it all. The summer became fall, and then fall turned in to winter which means you don't see your neighbors for 6 months. We were off the hook.



Sure enough, once the sun returned to the Arctic and melted the snow, we were approached again. We kindly turned down his offer to remove the tree. Two weeks later we received a letter in our mailbox from the neighbor listing all the damage the tree has done and a copy of the insurance coverage from the tree removal service. You have got to be kidding me!!!



We talked to our family and they agreed if he was willing to pay we should let him remove the tree. So we approached his wife while she was in the yard, and (her words) was mortified that her husband had done all this. Needless to say she had no idea about any of this. It was a very awkward situation...

Last Friday, the tree removal people came and our neighbor supervised (while in absolute glory) as the tree came down. We were packing and getting ready to head to Ohio and left before the job was complete. Pissed about the whole situation, we were curious to see what the yard would look like without the tree. When we returned this is what we returned to...

What the F$#& is that???? We have a totum pole in our backyard. Seriously??? Aaron and I were livid. We were thinking all the nasty things we could say to our neighbor. The agreement was a stump, not a 15 foot limbless tree. I was all ready to train Willis to pee and poop only in their yard, add chemicals to their hot tub. You name it, we thought of it.

Aaron talked to the neighbor and all was resolved. The weather became inclement while cutting the tree and they had to stop. They are waiting for us to call and arrange for a time for them to come back since they will be grinding the stump (a cost we have acquired) and only want to come back once.

Just one more reason that homeownership is a complete joy...