So, I have asked "Who does that?!" about 1,000 times since moving into our new (old) house.
Who puts up decorative shiplap without sheetrock? Who paints everything a different shade/tone of brown or covers an entire bathroom in unsealed cedar shiplap so it can absorb humidity and smells? Who wires things this way, or who paints AROUND a shelf on the wall instead of removing it first?
So, this post is just another one of those.
Who honestly plants gigantic bushes in front of basement windows?! In case of a fire, the person in the basement could be trapped. There are no other exits on this end of the house. So, when we heard neighborhood cleanup week was happening right after we moved in, we stopped what we were doing inside the house, and jumped on the chance to chop them down and enjoy the last warm weekend we might have this year.
Since they spread underground, we'll eventually kill the ground there, and cover it with mulch or rocks so nothing else grows. I don't really love gigantic bushes hugging my house walls, anyway. Roots can do damage to the water main which happens to be underground right there, and certain types of vines will actually dig into your house walls and mess them up. And, since our water main for the sprinkler system is on that side of the house as well, it seemed like a good idea to tear it all out and clean it up.
We tapped into our yard tools budget, and got a decent little chainsaw, nothing crazy powerful, or expensive, but powerful enough for our yard projects. It was so rewarding seeing the side of the house uncovered, and opening up the basement windows to light, and providing safe fire exits. I mean, look at the photo above. That whole clump of trunks was blocking the window.
We dumped all the branches on to the street, and the city came and picked them up a week later. After all the moving and setting up of rooms, and not being able to be outside, I really enjoyed the yard work. Look at me below being all hard working and stuff.
Not too bad for a weekend of work, right?
Special note: Only half of the stuff above is ours, we didn't have time to do THAT much.
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