Wow...now that's a nice twist of fate! ;c)

I would say that's a great, positive attitude, pinktoes!! Can the construction of the shed wait until a later date? Or is it imperative that you have it? I know "down south" many people have carports, and perhaps you will have one and want to "hide" things like lawnmowers and other paraphenalia in the shed, in which case I understand you wanting to construct the shed. If not, why not wait until a later time? Good luck with the cleanup!

Amy

From the other viewpoint; my tree fell on my neighbor's hot tub, with minimal damage, but the tree is still in his yard. I automatically assumed it was my responsibility to remove it, but the arborist says the local laws have changed so technically the neighbor now is responsible.

I'm old-school, and still feel it's my obligation so I'm paying for the removal. The neighbor is trying to get me to give him the wood, nicely chopped up so it fits in his stove, but I'm keeping it myself (he didn't offer to pay for the removal).

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Can you put a lean-to on the side of DH's shop to serve as a temporary shed?

Claire

Well, I just decided to move my garden tools ( I have a lot) into the garage, where I didn't want them. But it will do. But we need the garden shed for the riding lawnmower, weed trimmer, small lawnmower, etc.

DH just walked in. He said someone had come into the shed and put a tarp over the riding mower--a friendly neighbor, I'm guessing. The owner of the tree wasn't at home this a.m. He'll go back tomorrow. Also take photos to send our GC, so he can advise us about repair vs. replace, all things considered--site planning, etc.

DH just got home, as I was typing this. His description of the damage sounds to me like it's repairable for far less $ than the replacement cost. Sometimes things look worse than they are. He says: reframe the roof (and new shingles); replace the plywood floor (water damage from rain); replace one door; new siding on the long back wall and maybe one short side.

It's just T-111 siding, so not a major expense. Shed is 8' x 16'. Maybe the worst thing is that it is yet another obstacle; we've been at this project for over 2 years now. We met with our GC on Oct. 27 at the site to review our site plan after having the topo survey done. The draftsman has had it ever since to finalize the siting. Now we may need to redo that.

Will this house ever get built? Or will we, with our now-four cats, just live in a garden shed with a caved-in roof? Stay tuned!

Anybody know how to fasten a tarp to a roof?

We're expecting rain Sunday pm. We're in a 100-year drought here, so any rain is welcomed, whether my shed innards get wet or not.

Are you sure this is your expense? Was the tree old and damaged? I'd call your insurer just to make sure this is entirely your problem and not your neighbor's.

Chisue: good point. DH says the tree was near-dead. I never call my insurer "just to ask" because a lot of insurers now are making a record of those calls and have been found treating them as if they were claims. Go figure. Not another legal battle I want to fight.

Since it was damaged, we could fight it out with the neighbor. My research shows he is the original purchaser, in 1972. DH said the front porch area of the man's house looked pretty rundown. Some of those original owners there moved in before the area got built up and trendy. So, we might have an older fellow on a fixed income, contending already with higher taxes than he expected. Might not be a good prospect for paying our damage.

But maybe DH can talk with him or another neighbor tomorrow.

In my area, if someone else's tree falls in my yard, they're responsible. I don't understand how you can be responsible because you have no legal rights to go on someone's property to remove or trim a tree that might come down. People are generally responsible when their properties cause damage to others' properties. What would you do if, for example, you had an uphill neighbor and they has a mud slide that inundated your yard? Would that be your problem? Contact your neighbor; presuming he has homeowner's insurance, his company should be taking care of this.

The law here is that he is responsible for damage to his property done by his tree and we are responsible for damage to ours. But, if he is negligent (how the law loves that concept) and fails to take down a "dangerous" or dead tree, which then damages our property, then he is responsible for our damages.

We'll see what his situation is when DH talks to him. You know, if our shed can be repaired for, say, $500.--and we'll find out about that--we might earn some good will by not asking him to repair it. We would gladly trade relatively minor shed repairs for his having the tree guys remove the horrible pawpaw tree that drops its pungent fruit all over our lawn and makes mowing difficult. That might be better for him, too, rather than file an insurance claim (something to be avoided, if possible).

It's never just a question, to me, of legality. These will be new neighbors. We're going into an entire neighborhood of mostly original owners, who bought in 1968-1972, so they're not young people. We'll be tearing down what they consider to be a perfectly fine house, much like theirs', in order to build ours. A slap in the face--or ego. I'm sure someone will try to halt construction. They'll hate the disruption of our building.

There's a lot to consider.

Have you spoken to these neighbors, or are you assuming they will consider your build a slap in the face and they will hate the disruption? Just wondering.

Amy

Amy: On the advice of our attorney, architect, and 2 builders in addition to our own, we will not tell any neighbors about the demolition. We've told them we are planning to do an extensive remodeling, and that the photos we were taking of the neighborhood was to help the architect stick with appropriate design.

They will know about the demo (which is expected to take only one day) when the bulldozers arrive. Unless they go inspect the city's permits in advance and see that we have one for demo.

One next door neighbor is chronically disabled from migraines. I can't imagine she'll be thrilled. They do have a vacation home she can escape to.

Another neighbor reported the former owners of our house to the city when they cut down a large magnolia tree. Tree ordinance forbids removing specimen trees like it was. It was healthy, just a nuisance with its leaf drop. The neighbor said that they love trees and their children grew up playing in that tree. I think the fine the city charged was $6K.

This is an old neighborhood, mostly retirees or close to retirement. Original owners. An old-fashioned community where they all know each other. Two streets over a spec builder came in and build 2 huge houses, totally out of context stylewise with the area. I talked with someone a few doors up and she said, "Oh, you mean the 'urban infill'? Well, they're downhill from us, so we don't really notice them so much." Not exactly excited about the McMansion invasion. (Which ours will NOT be. At least they won't have that complaint.)

I know I hated it when building was finishing up in my current neighborhood. It was noisy and disruptive and I just wished they wouldn't do it. And this was a new neighborhood where you were prepared for it!

We're prepared for attempts to stop our work, hostile neighbors, whatever. If we get anything better, then we'll consider ourselves lucky and be thrilled.

DH just got home with photos of the garden shed. It was a large, 15" diameter pine tree. It's very scary to see how huge the thing is. It is amazing that wood framing of a building resisted the force of that size tree. The rafters didn't, but the side walls did. Only because it was close by and hadn't developed a lot of force. When it hit our shed roof it broke. Probably some rot in the tree.

We're feeling very fortunate that we were not there at the time. And that we had not yet had the new Woodworking building erected, nor DH's power equipment moved into it. It would have been hit too. And possibly our standby electric generator. All that will be sited where the tree fell.

So, we have been graced. The tree fell 3 weeks ago. The tree owner's neighbors said they haven't seen the old fellow for awhile; he lives alone now, with his dog. DH left him a note asking for a call to discuss us coming onto his property to get the tree off our fence. It may well be that he plans to leave the tree there. He may be senile. He may be dead in the house. Who knows? DH or I could one day be in his shoes.

Just more of what happens while you're making other plans!

pinktoes  Your (great) attitude will pay off in the long run. Good neighbors (and their children, in the case of older neighbors) are sooooo valuable  from hassle free building to future lookouts for your property, or even in the cynical vein, to not having local kids thinking of your place as somewhere they would ever toss whatever at. IÂm not sure that thereÂs a higher payback on investment than good neighbors. If the neighbor or offspring are able-bodied then perhaps ask for some help with dealing with the tree/ shed and an offer to return the Âfavor in the future. Regardless, your Âgut feeling seems to be guiding you the right way on this  money isnÂt everything  by any means.

troglodyte: Yes, DH got a return call from him. He had already called his insurance co. who had asked him for photos and if the tree was dead. DH told him feel free to take photos on our property and that we'd appreciate any $ his insurance co. will give us. Otherwise, we'll handle it ourselves if he'll get the tree off our fence. Nice man. He didn't know the tree was down. But everyone else in the n'hood did. It's that kind of place and we want to keep the peace as best we can. Neighbors are the last people to get antagonistic with. They used to do barn raisings together and all that.

A quick thought- if tearing the shed down gives you more flexibility w/ the woodworking shop location, why not demo the shed and expand the shop footprint by a few feet? Then use a corner/side of the shop for yard stuff. Might be a relatively inexpensive way to satisfy a bunch of constraints.

thull: good thought. I considered that. But GC gave the site plan to Ga. Land or similar name 4 weeks ago, for our revision, and is still waiting to get it back. At this point, I'd route a creek through the back yard or stack the Woodworking shop on top of our roof just to get things moving. It's no longer worth our wait to get everything just right. We're over 2 years into this; owned the property over a year while working with the architect, builder, etc.

We'll just be happy to get something built, somewhere. And we've decided to love it--no looking back; no regrets.