Even though I was expecting it, I was still startled by the tree coming down in front of our house. It is a good thing I’m not driving anywhere because I’m not sure how I’m going to recognize our house without the massive tree in our yard. Eventually there will be a new one, but the next month is going to be weird.
Silver lining - it did not come down ON your house?!
Always look on the bright side of life 
No, it did not come down on the house, which was the point of having someone cut it down yesterday (although reading back I can see how that inference wouldn’t get made). We had a heavy windstorm semi-recently and I was worried about the tree coming down on its own, hence hiring someone to do it (after getting arborists out to see if we couldn’t save it).
Had a pair of transitions a while back. Thought they would be good for driving as that was when I was mostly i need of them. Later was told that most car windows are slightly polarized which eliminates what the transition lenses need in order to darken. So they don’t work very well in cars. Went to prescription sunglasses and am much happier.
My FIL is totally a tree scientist.
We have to have a huge, inaccessible tree removed at some point soon. Will require a crane. Bracing myself for that cost.
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We were in a similar situation. Our cost was around $4k.
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Full removal? Ground stump? We are just cutting it down to a point where it won’t cause any damage (10-15 feet?), maybe turn it into a treehouse, not grind it. I’m hoping to pay not more than $3k.
Full removal with it being cut “level with the ground”.
No grinding.
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Good to know. $4k would not be a dealbreaker, but I think we’re going to ask them what they can do for $3k and if it’s close to what we want, just going with that. If we ever sell the house, we’d need to fully remove it, but we are planning to live here until we retire at least.
It is warm and sunny today, so I think I will go actuarialize on the deck!!! 
you can rent stump grinders. Couple hundred bucks and a saturday and you’re done.
I had to bite that bullet last year. A monster tulip poplar right next to the house was struck by lightning, and it was only a matter of time before it would die.
It was less than 2 feet from my deck on one side and the neighbors fence. It was less than 10 feet from either house. I went out with the contractor and a tape measure to see if we could even fit the crane in there. The landing spot for logs was extremely tight.
For reference, cost was $3750
Dang that’s a lot.
I lost two ash trees to the f’ing emerald ash borers union. I paid about 800 total for the two to be removed. No real access issues, although the one in the back had to be precisely laid down at the correct angle to avoid the house, another non-ash tree, and two fence lines. The arborists were pros and the laid it down perfectly where they wanted it to fall.
Arborists in the midwest have made lots of dough taking down ash trees over the last several years.
See, here’s the problem with ours. There is literally no way to get into our backyard to cut out the tree. We have neighbors on both sides and a house and garage on the other two sides. They’d have to get to it with a crane from the alley. So we don’t even know yet if it’s possible without tearing out our garage. Supposed to be getting an estimate from the biggest tree removal company in the area, the only ones with a crane.
There was no way to get the crane in our yard either. Had to park it in the neighbor’s driveway. I was paying since it was my tree, but that tree could just as easily crashed on their house as mine.
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How long did it take to cut it down?
Took them most of the day, then they finished the last few big pieces the next morning.
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In my situation, it wasn’t an easy thing to just cut the tree to fall; a lot of upper branch work was needed first to ensure that when the main trunk fell, it wasn’t going to damage anyone’s house (and our neighbor’s house is very close).
And to get it down, they had to go through one neighbor’s yard and stage in our next door neighbor’s back yard. Fortunately, there wasn’t any fencing issues to deal with.