When I bought the brick house at 921 Thieme Drive 35 years ago, the Norway Maple beside the front porch was smaller, and a nicer-looking tree. Over the years it has suffered badly in some storms, and has shed a lot of debris on the roof and in the gutters, demanding constant attention to those items. Its roots invaded my sewer and that cost several hundred dollars to fix a couple of years ago. I've spent money on it having it trimmed every few years, and tried to keep it as healthy as possible. I've considered its shade a fare trade-off for the aggravation and expense.

 

When I was looking it over recently, I noticed that it appeared to be developing new cracks and scars in the trunk, and there was some indication where limbs had been removed that it was hollowing out. I had my nephew, who runs a tree service look it over, and we came to the shared conclusion that it would be safest to take it down, rather than spend more money on it.

 

It took about two hours to take down the tree, remove the stump and clean up the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all these years, the change in the view will take some getting used to. Looking at the bright side, though, the labor to maintain the property will be less, and I'll finally be able to grow grass and put in some attractive landscaping. The shade and tree roots have stymied every attempt to have a respectable lawn there.

To respond off subject, that is a neat little home, I like the bump out in the back, I'm guessing that is the kitchen? I remember when I was a kid, I had a friend who lived in a house with one of those drain things on the front porch, I was always fascinated by it for some reason, I really don't know why.

I sympathize on the loss of your tree, but I've gotta admit, I believe trees are the enemy.  Not trees in theory - I'm a big fan of forests and such - just trees near my house or things I care about.  I came outside one morning two and a half years ago to see this:

 

 

...the neighbor's tree behind us had fallen, out of nowhere - just a very wet summer, it was August, and one night during a peaceful rain, it just came down.  My wife thought she heard something in the house, but after investigating, I didn't see anything (at 1am, probably still drunk, dark out, in the rain, not surprising I didn't see dark leaves in the pitch black).  So the neighbor's beech fell into my locust tree and snapped it off 20 feet off the ground (this shot after a day of clearing brush and starting to work up the tree):

 

 

Then when the two tumbled down, totalled my car, then sheared all the branches off one side of a box elder I had, which was already leaning towards the house, and was now even more overbalanced.  I couldn't sleep at night until I had it dropped and added to the pile...I still haven't completely finished working up all that wood.

 

Were you able to keep the wood from the tree for winter heat?  I took great pleasure in burning that damn birch this past year...

Oh, and regarding radical transformations that take some getting used to, here's my house a couple weeks ago:

 

 

 

 

...and here it is a couple days later:

 

 

 

 

...it was just brush, honeysuckle, a garbage tree here and there, so nothing like losing a member of the family like a 50 year old tree would be, but still will take some getting used to!

To respond off subject, that is a neat little home, I like the bump out in the back, I'm guessing that is the kitchen? I remember when I was a kid, I had a friend who lived in a house with one of those drain things on the front porch, I was always fascinated by it for some reason, I really don't know why.

 

That's the built-in china cabinet in the dining room. The kitchen is on the opposite side at the rear, and the living room is across the front with the stairway on the left and a fireplace on the right, as you face house from the front.

 

It was built in 1919 and has one large bedroom across the front of the house on the second story, and one medium-sized one on the right rear. It's about 1200 square feet with a reasonably tall, open, dry basement. I bought it in 1972 ($13,250!) and over the years I updated the bathroom and kitchen and put in a heat pump, central air, blown-in insulation and storm windows. I use it as a rental property now, and live next door in a house just out of sight on the right.

 

It and the other brick house next to it were built as a pair. Their floor plans are mirror images of each other, except that the one on the left doesn't have a front porch. Instead, it has a two-story enclosed porch on the left side. They are the only two houses facing the street in that block, and on the opposite side of the street the ground drops precipitously about twenty feet to the St. Marys River. The hundred-year flood plain boundary runs between the two houses; the one on the left is in and the one on the right is out.

Aw man I like the jungle house. Nothing says i got 40 cats in my house and get off my lawn like a bunch overgrown stuff in the yard.

I sympathize on the loss of your tree, but I've gotta admit, I believe trees are the enemy.  Not trees in theory - I'm a big fan of forests and such - just trees near my house or things I care about... 

 

I'm sure the owner of this nearly brand new Chevelle felt the same way in 1972. This happened just a few blocks from my house during a storm; a downburst, or high-velocity straight-line wind uprooted a tree that reached clear across the street and did some damage to the house on the opposite side. The car was totaled.

 

 

 

I didn't keep any of the wood from my tree; I have gas heat and no fireplace where I live. I thought about calling my brother to see if he wanted it for his steam engine but it takes him quite a while to get around to some things, and I already have trouble enough with the Neighborhood Neatness Nazis, without having a wood pile or a stack of tree limbs in my yard for a couple of weeks.

 

BTW, your house looks like stucco. If it is, it would probably thank you if you were to remove those vines that are trying to climb it. Their tendrils penetrate stucco and masonry and let moisture enter, and then the freeze-thaw cycle causes it to break down.

^I never get tired of that first photo Rob, what a great image.

 

Riverviewer, do you ever think of restoring your front porch? (not suggesting anything, just wondering)

BTW, your house looks like stucco. If it is, it would probably thank you if you were to remove those vines that are trying to climb it. Their tendrils penetrate stucco and masonry and let moisture enter, and then the freeze-thaw cycle causes it to break down.

 

Indeed, I keep meaning to get to that...I'm a bad homeowner, at least on outdoors stuff...actually, we've already pulled some of it down, but there's vines a-plenty!

 

Oh, and your Car-Hit-By-Tree picture kicks the everlasting ass of mine...that's WAY too cool!  I hope the owner's first reaction was similar to mine - after that "thought I heard something, honey" thing the night before, first thing I did on seeing that was to laugh out loud...and there's just something so profoundly massive in your shot, it's gotta make you smile, assuming nobody got hurt.

 

Riverviewer, do you ever think of restoring your front porch? (not suggesting anything, just wondering)

 

No, we've added a half-bath to the right of the front door, and while we could probably try to open up the space to the far right, we'd have to change the back wall of the bathroom to something exterior quality, and we'd have to figure out an exterior grade door where we currently have somewhat flimsy but very cool old french doors...I do wish we had a porch somewhere, but no, probably not unless we add on someday...

 

 

 

Oh, Rob, one question on your house - that chimney looks like it sticks up an awfully long ways.  Is that just because it comes up on a low point of the roof, and all chimneys typically stick up a few feet above the peak, or is there something else going on with that one?

Oh, and your Car-Hit-By-Tree picture ...

 

... that chimney looks like it sticks up an awfully long ways...

 

So long as the tree stood there, I never noticed how disproportionately tall the chimney appears. I first noticed it last night as I was preparing the photo for posting.

 

Thieme Drive, the street along the river, didn't exist before about 1911; before that, the area was the campus of Fort Wayne College, a predecessor of Taylor University, and the original alignment of the Fort Wayne & Southwestern Interurban to Lafayette followed the present street alignment. After a flood subsided, at the edge of the river I found a tie plate and rail spike like the ones used on the early interurbans' lightweight rail.

 

After the street was put in, the house and its near-twin were built on the back of a subdivided lot that faced a cross street, and what would normally be an alley behind them is actually a half-block street with houses facing it. It's sort of hemmed in from the back by bigger, older houses that sit on higher ground, so I suppose the chimney was made tall to protect against downdrafts. It's a double chimney that serves a fireplace and once served a coal furnace. The water heater and present gas furnace that backs up the heat pump are connected to what used to be the kitchen chimney, at the back of the house.

 

The rumor on the scene of the fallen tree was that the young man who owned the Chevelle had just taken delivery at the dealer, and had stopped back at his apartment to freshen up before driving it to his parents' house to show it to them, when the storm hit.

Falling trees are a nightmare. I remember when I was really little, waking up one morning and going into the kitchen and seeing branches that had broken through the glass windows. The tree fell onto the roof of the house. It took a lot longer than 2 hours to remove it though. It was a huge tree.