Mini update, just because I'm tired.  I wanted to post a recent photo of the front of the house. Someone on the website Old House Dreams mentioned that the dead tree out front looked like the one from the horror movie "The Conjuring".

My wife who is a horror movie fan, laughed like hell when she read that, and agreed with it. Well, I'm glad to report that the conjuring tree is gone. It loomed ominously over the electric and phone lines, and caused a fair amount of grief for the tree service guy who dropped it, but as you can see, all that remains is a conjuring stump.

Before:

After: