To cut down or not to cut down?? What would you do????

[Travis Phillips]

I have a large home I’m currently in the renovation phase of... I am looking for what would be a top dollar in the neighborhood. Granite counters all new bathrooms and so on.
Outside, specifically the back yard... is becoming a little bit of a hang up. If the front and the house itself are all top tier and I leave the backyard kind of mid tier, clean but not perfect, is that major detractor? 

There are 7 really over grown arborvitaes that I am considering cutting down. Mainly because ONE of them is slightly hanging over the back corner of the house. It isn’t a pine or an oak tree but it’s up there. The beauty of these hedges is that they grow into each other, meaning if it cut just that one then you’ll be looking at what amounts to a fully opened up side of a hedge row from the street. Not the most appealing visual... actually horrible. 

Should I just leave it? It’s just a tall hedge, so it doesn’t pose any structural risk, it’s just one of those things I assume a home inspector will point out. If so then I can just pull that one out. Right? It’s going to be about $3000 to cut them all down and grind the stumps and that’s on top of the $5000 already being spent on the rest of the landscape.

So question 1 - cut down the arborvitaes? Yea or Nay?

Now the other hang up in the back yard is the in ground pool. It hadn’t been open in 3-4 years... it’s completely green and the coping is less than stellar. However, all of the mechanics work, it holds pressure, the pump is good, and all that good stuff. So it’s just really grimey and I can’t guarantee the liner though it is currently full of water for what that’s worth. I plan on buying a new safety cover and getting a letter basically stating the mechanics of the system are good and due to colder temps I didn’t get into the quality of the liner though from the visual inspection things look ok.

Is that good enough for the pool or am I being naive? If the mechanics are sound and it has a brand new safety cover, does that suffice in general?

help me out BP

[Theresa Harris]

I'd leave the trees-they soften the landscape and provide some privacy and shade.

For the pool, you've had it inspected so include that letter.  Make sure the pool is clean (ie not green).  Many people would ask about the mechanics, but if the pool looks clean, they won't ask as many questions as they would if it was dirty.