The "Grand" Tree

This is the tree that changed it all... or maybe not all of it, but really set us back quite a bit and made us change everything.

You see, we PLANNED to keep the tree all along. It was a fantastic tree, obviously.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about all of the moss hanging around. Some people say they love it because it's that truly "Old Florida" but part of me wonders whether all that moss is choking the tree and preventing it from being as healthy as it could be. Anyway... We always had intentions of keeping that tree.  This was the first site plan version.

The red circle is the "Grand Tree", although we did't really know this at the time. We got this plan approved by the Health department for the septic, with a separate drainage plan approved, and after we finished plans review, we thought all was well. We were going to keep that oak in the front and 3 more in the back.   Until, that is, until the "Tree Protection" department called to inform us that We were not quite far enough from that grand tree. Never mind the fact that 18 months ago, there was a WHOLE HOUSE sitting happily under that tree. But no, we needed to move the house, far away from the tree. Which meant that to "save" the one tree, we now needed to cut down 3 more trees. 

And, it also meant we had to draft a new site plan (Through one of our VERY slow engineers (another post)) and drainage plan and septic plan. This new plan made us have to drop the garage another foot, which meant we had to go back to the structural engineer and get have flood vents installed in the garage, which, of course, had to be approved by the engineer. And back through Plans review. 

So, 2 months later, this one was finally approved. 

That big circle is the setback that we were now required to keep around the tree. And it shortened our small back yard into a smaller 14.6' to the edge of the drainage ditch. But hey- we will have a really great side yard right?  And I do love that tree.