We took out the trees - one in particular I was not happy about removing. It wasn't that it was the biggest and required the most manual labor (and by manual labor I mean, it took Gideon and our landscaper a long time to get it down), but because it was one of the nicest, most mature trees in the backyard. Unfortunately, as our landscaper (Dave) pointed out, it had twisted up around itself and was bound to come down in a storm - either on our roof or our neighbor's roof.
All in all, we took down 4 trees and a bush. Everything will be replaced - but I doubt we'll see the new trees as mature as ours were.
Bonus: We have some firewood for next year.
Next came the concrete. All in all, we're taking way longer than we would if we hired someone to do all the work for us, but we're saving thousands of dollars in the meantime. The concrete, however, is something we willingly decided to handover to someone else. This is the one job we're paying someone else to do.
You can't see it from the photos above, but the cage is gone - completely. The concrete has since been poured and it looks great. As soon as it cures I'll post more photos. Next comes the irrigation system - that's if we don't need to grade the property.
