Move. That. Tree!

We have lived in this house for 3 1/2 years now and in that time I've done a lot of projects. I've taken the deck off the back of the house (read about it here), I've updated the kitchen and the bathroom (read about it here and here), renovated the whole basement (read about it here) plus dozens of other projects. I've never tried anything when I was 9 months pregnant though. Last night I had a sudden burst of energy and since my husband was home and cleaning stuff up around outside, I decided to do something that has been on my "wish list" for a while. Cut down a tree and bush at the front of our house.

The front of our house has looked like this for years:

There was a random Manitoba Maple (I don't know what you call it in the U.S.) that was growing up out of a scraggly bush. It blocked part of the driveway and the walkway into the house and just looked terrible.

Here it is from another angle:

The tree was growing nice and straight and tall. Just in the worst place possible.

I set up my sawzall and got to work. There was no way I could've cut it down with an axe. There were too many parts of the bush. I basically cut it down piece by piece. My husband dragged away pieces of the brush as I cut them off and in about 45 minutes I was done. I don't know what I put it off so long.

Here are the afters:

Now you can actually see the front of the house! There is still a bit of work to be done with pulling up the root system so I can plant grass there, but that can wait for another day when I have some more energy. In the meantime, every time I look out the front windows, it looks so much more bare! And clean!

And because we all like the dramatic side-by-sides:

What have you been up to lately? Any big projects that you've finally tackled?