Trees get diseases, lose limbs, need trimming, even die. Views last, unless they become obstructed. I'd chose the view and plant some trees to frame it -- and possibly to shade the house.

I agree with Chisue...I vote for the view. I love old oaks, too...Maybe put a gazebo or other useful area there to enjoy that area?

Will the view last, or could it change due to other construction? If the view is unchanging (it's your property only), I'd go with the view.

We chose the view! We had to clear just a few trees to do so and we have a plenty left on our 5 acres. We have been here a little while now and I still get breathless about the views! Here are some pics!
christine

Great options...be nice to incorporate "all that can be" with a truly though out site design and house plan. I would also pay attention to seasonal sun changes (shadows) and exsposure to the elements.

with 20 acres, i would build right smack in teh middle so that no matter what is built around you 10 years from now you don't have to see it/them see you. if i had built this house ont eh 4 acres we have i would have put it more centered, but we are on the corner of the lot on a street corner. setback is 125-150 ft, but still i would not mind if we were a little further back.

I agree with chisue but davidandkasie have a very good point.

Anne

I vote for the view. So often you see people build on really pretty wooded lots only to lose some of the trees because the root structure was disturbed in the building process.
We currently live on a wooded lot with two old oaks and many shag bark hickory trees. I will miss them somewhat as the new house doesn't have a tree on the lot. Luckily we are next to a woods and another is just across the road so we do have trees in sight and we will plant some (deer like to eat them, though). This is the time of the year I dislike the mess from the leaves, however. A couple weeks ago when hurricane Ivan brought us so much wind in Ohio the neighbors had an old, old oak. It came down and luckily the way it fell it just brushed their house. Had it gone the other way it would have been in the house.
Another had one that was very tall and it came up at the roots and was lodged in a couple other trees. For that reason those beautiful, big old trees scare me now.

I'd go with the view, of course, provided that the access is ok and there is no risk of floods.

aggie9597, we are in the hill country too. Where is your land? And I also have an Aggie. I am the odd one here--we chose trees over a view. We wanted the shade for the house. We would have had to go with a 2 story if we wanted the view and we really wanted a 1 story.

Trudy:

Our land is in the China Spring area...a little bit outside of Waco. That's not typically known as "hill country" but actually our land resembles it quite a bit....rocky soil, cedar trees, elevation changes, etc.

Our view will be best viewed with a second story balcony (which is why I love Southern Living's Kousa Creek plan, which many people here did not.)

What plan are you using and where are you located?

Hey, Trudy.
I searched the site to get a glimpse of your home and ran across a portion of your house plans (the kitchen area). Do you mind sharing what idea homeplan you're using or what architect? I am looking for plans that do NOT have a formal dining room, but rather one large living/dining/kitchen area. Yours seemed to have this.

Any ideas you have would be great!

You bought the wrong lot. If you see trees as weeds, you should have bought part of someone's wheat field, not a tree covered lot.

You can always cut the trees later, but unles you have massively big bucks to waste, you can't put mature trees back, at least not 20 acres worth.

Your first stop should be a landscape architect (NOT landscape designer). They will have many more considerations for you to think about than just the two choices you present. Plus, there's the factor of where a septic system will be able to be located and where power exists and how far it will have to be brought to the property and the length of any driveway to the property. Those "perhpherals" are pretty darn costly and will factor greatly into any potential home site on a property. It's why all of the old farm homes in the country are located about 15 feet from the highway. A good landscape architect can provide a whole site plan that will lead to you potentially having both a good view and nice trees well within an attractive home site that also doesn't cost 100K just to get a driveway to it. And, even better would be an architect to design the home that has a landscape architect integrated into their staff.

If you see trees as weeds, you should have bought part of someone's wheat field, not a tree covered lot.

the OP said the CEDAR trees may as well be weeds, not all trees. you have no clue what the OP's situation is, so why not drop the snarky comments. unless i missed it, i see nothing where she says she is going to cut them all down so no need to get your panties in a wad.

Oruboris, In OP's defense, I don't believe he said he was planning to cut down trees in order to have a view. I believe what he meant was that he had two potential home-spots on his acreage: one with a view over a bluff and the other where he could have a couple of majestic oaks near his home. He asked whether he should choose to build where he would have the view or where he could have the tall trees nearby for shade. I saw nothing about cutting down 'mature trees.'

OP did mention having lots of 'cedar' and that he considered them to be weeds. You have to understand tho that, in Texas, the things we call 'Cedars' aren't really cedars. They are a kind of juniper bush that grows in thickets and typically gets only about 12 to 15 feet tall so it doesn't even provide much shade. Plus, cedar is the cause of our infamous 'Cedar fever' - a scourge so bad that sufferers will tell you it rightly earns Austin the title of allergy capitol of the world.

While cedars are native to the area, they should NOT be found in the overwhelming numbers they are today. Over the past 200 years or so, overgrazing of grasslands allowed cedar to proliferate to the point where it choked out other trees and native grasses resulting in 'cedar monocultures' covering vast swaths of central Texas. To the extent cedar has overgrown the land, OP is correct that it is indeed a 'weed.'

That said, simply eradicating the cedar is NOT a wise option because it does provide erosion control. And SOME cedar is natural and needed by various wildlife for food and shelter.

I think China Springs is in the Post Oak Savannah eco-region. (We too are building in the Post Oak Savannah region, albeit our land is to the east of Austin rather than west of Waco.) In the natural state, the Post Oak Savannah was mostly covered with a variety of tall native grasses and wildflowers with scattered trees (mostly post oak but also an occasional cedar or mesquite) giving it a park-like look. Along stream beds and other lower wetter areas of the savannah, post oaks and other trees (including winged elms, black hickory, pecan, hackberry and persimmon would have been more abundant with smaller shade tolerant trees such as flowering dogwood and bumelia forming the understory of small 'forests'. Cedar would still have been found but only very occasionally.

I too love trees and am always saddened when someone buys a tree-covered lot and then goes in with a bulldozer and scrapes away everything with a trunk less than 4 inches in diameter. In fact, I got into a major fight with my next door neighbor when he did this on his 2.5 acre lot and the dozer driver managed to trespass and bulldoze about a 10 foot wide swath of our land...even though from our house, which sits in the middle of 4 acres, it was impossible to see the damage! DH and I had the dozers clear only the trees that absolutely HAD to be taken out in order to build our home and are slowly, with hand tools, removing brush and planting grasses and under-story trees to recreate as natural a post-oak savannah landscape as we can. (Fortunately we don't have cedar but instead have too much mesquite so we're dealing with mesquite thorns rather than cedar fever!)

I've often said exactly the same thing as you about people who buy a tree-covered lot and then clear cut it. However, it didn't sound to me like OP intended anything of the sort. And, if OP will do some research and then make an effort to replace cedar with native grasses, forbs, and other Post Oak Savannah trees, I absolutely applaud him.

Now - as a loyal Longhorn - I can't believe I've just jumped to the defense of an Aggie. LOL!

Ouch! Wish I had hit post a few minutes earlier before davidandkasie jumped in. That response HAD to have come from someone who suffers from cedar fever!

Now, before anybody else jumps on davidandkasie for responding to Oruboris way too harshly (and this thread degenerates into totally unnecessary name calling and backbiting) try to understand just how nasty cedar fever is.

If davidandkasie suffers from it, I suggest we forgive the somewhat over-the-top response. Cedar fever sufferers understandably loathe cedar and they're passionate about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cedar fever

bevangel -- Thanks for the link about cedar fever. We have something in our yard in Illinois that's slightly similar. It's a 'rust' that gets traded back and forth year to year between juniper bushes and our hawthorn trees. (One year the trees turn orange; next year the juniper has it.) Last year we had beautiful hawthorns all summer: flowers in spring; green in mid-summer; berries in the fall. This year we have these ugly, dusty-orange *things*. Spraying in spring sometimes helps, but if the weather holds damp it's no use! At least -- far as I know -- this isn't causing us physical discomfort. (I did react badly to 'pecky cypress' paneling in a former home.)

I think your concern would be placing the house to take full advantage of the travel of the sun. If that interrupts the view, consider an outdoor deck or gazebo. There is something to be said, however, about a nice winter view enjoyed in the comfort of a home! Tough call!

aggie9597, my architect, John Fitzpatrick, in Austin designed my entire home. If you need his phone number, let me know. We have many cedars--many of them very old, and oaks on our property. They all provide shade and a wonderful habitat for various creatures.

And, we have a Longhorn and an Aggie...

no, i don't suffer from it. i just don't like when someone posts JUST to put down teh OP when they REALLY don't deserve it.

Nothing in my post deserved anything like either of your responses: If you don't like trees, don't buy a lot covered with them.

You may not suffer from cedar fever, but you definetly have some problems.

I have a five acre lot and we cleared the majority of the trees. But usually the heavy machinery used to clear the lot will kill them anyway... I think the direction the house sits in the sun should be a factor to consider.. My husband cut the ones I wanted to remain for sun control when I was at work by mistake, and I wish we still had the beautiful trees back...

orubis - what is called cedar in central texas really is weeds and has nothing to do with liking trees or not. Do you like weeds? It is very hard to find a lot without them. They also are very high water use and tend to steal water in the ground from other trees/plants and in an area that doesn't get that much rain it does matter.

It made a huge difference when I cut several down and planted other trees instead at my old house west of Austin. A flower bed of native low water use plants that I constantly had to water in the summer was suddenly exposed to full sun vs. part sun and I didn't need to water nearly as much after the cedar was gone.

You might do what we did then you can have it all!!!

The area we live in is a virtual oak forest (dotted with apple groves). Still the acreage we bought had a wonderful 360 degree view but not a tree on it. So we built for the view then decorated with trees so as not to diminish the view. Your area with the two old growth oak sounds like it would be perfect for what we did. We created a park with wondering grass paths (instead of gravel or chipped wood). The grass makes it cool, clean and for us inviting (I envision reading out there). We imported 2 oak trees for the middle of the park (lucky you to already have those!!!) then we planted norfolk pine, asian pear, cherry, smaller oaks and sequoias along the grass paths. We highlighted a few trunks with night lighting to add warmth. When completely finished the park will meander through the outer edges of our lot and lead to our apple grove.
So creating a park atmosphere using your two old growth oaks could make a real gathering place for your family and friends.

This thread took a bit of a snarky turn, but it is obvious that it started when someone who doesn't understand the botany of the Texas hill country started defending "cedars." Whether you detest or defend "cedar" (really a variety of ashe juniper) in this part of the country is a touchy subject, LOL...they can be decent trees when they get large and do provide some wildlife habitat...and current thinking is they probably don't take as much water as was previously thought. However, they are also opportunistic scrubby little bushy things that will choke the land given the opportunity...this land was not originally covered with this stuff and clearing some of it gives the oaks, elms, redbuds and many other interesting and valuable native trees and shrubs a chance...also lets the native grasses recover in areas that were originally grassland. Now on to the original question. ;~)))

aggie, I would choose the view if you think it will stay nice. I hope nothing happens to your majestic oaks, but here on the edge of the hill country we have been through some freak windstorms that twisted some of our gorgeous oaks and elms off and the occasional ice storm that coats everything can do a lot of damage to our beautiful oaks (which are also brittle trees.) As other posters mentioned..things happen to trees. If your view will not be endangered by development, etc. you really can plant trees where you want them (and where they benefit your house siting.) There are quite a few trees that are either native or very well adapted here which will grow pretty fast with a little supplemental well water...I am talking good trees like bur oaks, Monterey and other white oaks, some elm varieties, etc. You may also get a good breeze on the edge of a bluff which can be a big advantage in this climate!

I love the old big cedars in East Texas of which we have some, but my acreage in East Texas is also Post Oak Savannah...and is mostly post oak. Scrub cedar and mesquite trees are considered weeds here and are over populating due to overgrazing, etc. Guess I'm up in the air..if the view is from the ground floor and won't be interrupted by construction - view. If the view is only from a 2nd story I'd opt for the big oak trees, especially if you have hill country type land. Keep in mind though that either way your 2nd guessing yourself. There's a home on this beautiful piece of land overlooking the east side of Dallas Cty gorgeous view...then they put a power plant in...its still great but do what you really want and forget the 2nd quessing yourself. Now if its about spouse wants one you want the other.....lol