There's a tree in my garage.

Yes, that's right. After we had the lot cleared of the trees we wanted to take down and that the city approved, it turns out that there is a tree left that is in the garage. This tree thing could actually be a very long story, which I will try to sum up. Ben and I wanted to keep as many trees as possible because the natural setting was one of the reasons why we fell in love with the location (not to mention that it is 2 miles from the hospital, 2 miles!). Builders on the other hand, lovingly refer to fir trees as "weeds" and prefer to clear the lot entirely, with the argument being that you can always replant what you want later. 100 yr old fir trees? Did we mention we will only be here for 5 years?

As cool as the removal process is, it was distressing even seeing the ones come down that were deemed diseased or a danger by the arborist (required by the city), and the ones that were in the footprint of the house. I felt a little like an environmental terrorist (I don't feel pain for the trees themselves, but remorse for changing the look of the community), even though if we hadn't bought the lot someone else would have and done the same or worse.

So back to the tree left in the garage. First we tried to preserve a group of four trees in one corner of the property, even though they were kinda scraggly looking. The builder wanted them down and the utilities were coming from that direction and could require them to come down anyhow. Finally we relented and left the decision up to him. He took three of the four down, leaving one unprotected tree to brave the elements without the protection of its friends. Did I mention this tree was also on a berm, which to my untrained eye, made it's chances of surviving a storm fair at best. And if it came down in a storm after our house was built it would land right on the kids bedroom. Why take down three only to leave one lonely tree?

Well it turns out it doesn't matter because when the foundation guys came to plot it out the tree is not just close to the garage but inside. Don't you think that this should have been discovered long ago, like when determining setbacks and where our house lay on the property according to the plans? Why am I upset about this? Because now we have to pay for the tree guy to come back when he would have chopped that sucker down for free the first time he was there. He told me so. He took down 23 trees, stumps and all and had them hauled away for $5000. One tree alone, stump out and hauled away - $1600.

Instead we had him chop it down and leave the stump and the tree laying on the property for the bargain price of $450. Firewood anyone?