I've cut down a tree or two in my day, and decided that using a similar notching technique would probably work:
Notches were cut in all four upright posts, with those on one side slightly (according to a precisely calibrated eye) higher than those on the other side:
After back-cutting the notches, and "coaxing" the structure away from the house with a hammer, the results were better than most people would deem possible:
Thus began the arduous process of removing hundreds of screws to comply with the "nail-free" requirements of my bulky trash pick-up. Several hours later, I was down to this:
The next step was to disassemble and remove the outer 2" x 6" frame:
Finally (since daylight and energy were both starting to get scarce), I removed the remnants of the vertical posts from the footers near the house. (I'll need to use a hand saw to take off the tops of the posts that are inside the planter boxes.) If the trash service doesn't come this afternoon, I will extract the footers this evening:
Not too bad for a day's work...
