The GUARDIAN TREE
My daughter and her husband, who live in NY State, searched for a long time to find a small house that they could refurbish and have as an investment.
They finally found this gem 3 years ago. It is about 20 minutes from where I live so I was thrilled. The house is charming and sits on almost 2 acres of land with a small stream in the back…but, the real deal clincher was the ENORMOUS tree that stands watch over their dream.
It was the first thing that caught their eye and they fell in love with the tree even before they saw the inside of the house. Maybe that was a good thing since the house needed everything ... new wiring, heating, plumbing etc.
The house was built approximately 100 years ago and as is often the case in Southern homes of this era there was not a basement nor a crawl space. As the years went by the tree matured and the roots spread under the building ... eventually lifting and tilting it.
The challenge was enormous because there wasn’t a straight line anywhere and all the rooms were out of sync; but, they had a professional house lifter come in and when the building was off the ground they were able to dig out a crawl space. That was phase #1.
Since then the refurbishing goes on whenever they are here visiting. There have been many dramatic changes but one thing has not changed. That magnificent tree remains and, hopefully, it will reign supreme for many years to come.
posted by Ginnie at 6:48 PM
6 Comments:
Yes, there is a place near to us that is not such a nice house but boy wizz, the tree out front is magnificent..and I would buy that place just because of that tree you know!
It would be great to see progress pics of the house your daughter and son in law are re inventing...how wonderful!
Having had a tree fall on a house, I hope the tree leans the other way, or the prevailing winds blow the other way, or something like that.
I wonder if the tree is historically significant. I know they have a committee in Connecticut that locate and try to preserve historically trees and ancient trees in that State.
Virtually all houses here in the North have a basement. I think a house without one would be greatly limited.
I'm so glad they didn't cut it down. How much more has to be done, and do they plan on moving here full time?
Beautiful tree Ginnie and whats even more beautiful is the time and money that they are spending to refurbish this home. I love old homes and buildings and feel that it's just a shame when people let them go.
Love Di ♥
Nice Ginnie. I like that house and love the tree. I hope that they preserve both.
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