"It takes one minute to make a mistake and mess them up, but a life time to grow," Joe's longtime partner Kristine said.
SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — We all love a good home or landscaping makeover, but the property owner tied to this one says it's created an eyesore he never wanted. He says what he thought would be a routine trimming of branches at the hands of a local power company instead resulted in disfiguration of three beloved trees.
 
"It's just a mess," Joe Ball said.
 
"It takes one minute to make a mistake and mess them up, but a life time to grow," Joe's longtime partner Kristine said.
 
The couple wrote our Help Me Hayley after a standard pruning job by Inland Power left them with a massive mess and 'complete disfiguration' of their trees.
 
"It was our shade, they were our shade trees," Joe said.
 
Joe takes great pride in his property on Pierce Road. The lush, mature trees that line it almost serve as the land's protectors.
 
"(The trees) have been here since before 1977 when the neighbors bought their house," Kristine said.
 
But with trees like that come maintenance. Joe says every few years, Inland Power sends a crew by his home to trim branches away from power lines. There has never been an issue. When Kristine told him they were back last week to work again, he figured this job would be no different than the previous.
 
"I didn't think anything of it," he said. "I thought, it will be just like other times."
 
But it wasn't. Far from it.
 
"I mean, it just looked ridiculous," he said. "I pulled up....and I was just astonished. I couldn't believe what I saw. Half of my trees were gone."

Trees

And the clean-up job left for him was overwhelming. He says after previous trimmings, the crew handled the disposal of the limbs and branches. This time, it was left on his lawn.
 
"I had to cut these things just to lift them into the trailer," he said. "They were huge."
 
Evidence of that currently fills a trailer, a reminder of the frustration.
 
"We had to clean it up the next day," Joe said. "I didn't want it to kill our yard."
 
Joe did reach out to Inland Power. He says he was told by a company rep that their contracted crew was under the impression that he wanted the extreme amount removed. He says they alleged Kristine even told the crew that the couple had plans to completely remove all three trees. It's something she says is simply ridiculous.
 
"We never talked about having them removed," the couple said. "I would never get rid of these trees."
 
"Our neighbor suggested we reach out to you to get some resolution," Kristine said.
 
For an apparent, and very messy, miscommunication.
 
"It's really heartbreaking because we loved the trees," they said. "I don't know now if they will live or not. I just don't know. It just looks completely different now. And ridiculous. I just don't want this to happen to anybody else."
 
Our Help Me Hayley called Inland Power for an explanation on how this occurred, and how the couple can get some reassurance that it won't happen again.
 
The rep maintained they believed the homeowner wanted the extreme amount removed, adding that the extent of the work is 'not normal protocol' and neither is leaving such a large mess behind. They called this 'an extremely rare situation' and a case of miscommunication. They say the incident will be discussed amongst leadership within Inland Power to ensure this does not occur in the future. Steps will be taken to formalize a process so that crews and property owners are all on the same page regarding the extent of work being done.

Inland Power says they have offered to pay for total removal of all three trees and to cover the cost of replacements. Joe says he doesn't want to resort to having them cut down yet, and says due to their size and maturity, replacements are not a likely option. He wants to monitor the health of the trees after this incident before making any decisions. Â