To tree or not to tree

I have to preface this with a disclaimer.

I love trees.

In fact, one of the reasons we moved to this town was its prevalence of trees. I love that our backyard is shady and I love that there are so many squirrels and birds that make our trees their homes. I don't mind all the leaves we have to clean up in the fall, because it's a small price to pay for living in a wooded paradise the rest of the year.

But...

We had a couple of doozies in our front yard:
That center tree was in bloom last week.

360 days a year it is a scraggly mess and for a handful of days a year it has these precious little white flowers.
But like I said, the blooms only last a few days. The tree was never pruned or trained, or whatever it is that they do, so there are branches coming out all over the place. The general shape of the tree is as tall as the house, but not rounded or lush.

The second tree in question is the gigantic looming hemlock on the right side of the house:
You can't tell in the photo, but it is actually leaning (away from the house, but still). About halfway up the tree branches out into two gigantic branches. So it's like a Siamese twin effect. Also half the branches were cut off, making it top-heavy.

It drops tiny needles all year round. The acid from the needles makes it difficult to grow grass under the tree.

I pondered these two trees for a while. Then my aunt and uncle came over for a visit last summer. My uncle is very horticultural. I'm not even sure if that is a word - but he spends a LOT of his free time in his garden and yard. He has a million trees. Not literally. But there is an area of his yard we always called "the woods" growing up. I asked him if there was anything worth saving with these two trees. He didn't even hesitate to say no.

So here we are months later...

before


after


before


after