Don't Sweat the Small Things

As I promised,  we made one small change this weekend that made the most dramatic difference of any project so far.  For some reference, here is the outside of our house:

Except you can't really see the house.  Most of what you see is the tree.  We knew the tree needed to go, but we felt bad cutting down a perfectly good tree.

Still, Saturday afternoon I was attempting to test out some paint colors on the front of the house next to the stone, and the tree was in the way.  So, the boys cut it down.

And boy did it make a huge difference.  It's amazing what just removing the tree did for the front of the house.  It really is amazing.

You can actually see the house now.  And so much more light gets into the front rooms with the windows exposed.  It just goes to show that a small thing can make a huge difference.  We aren't sure what we are going to fill in the hole in our landscaping with, but it won't be another tree.  Maybe some small bushes.  We like the open look.