Very helpful. Thanks so much!

Give yourself a break first of all! These things grow like weeds. Soon all will be forgiven and flowers will return.

Have a great evening.

Don't think I've seen one cut so high before...

Lance, this is why the highway department chooses crepe myrtle to plant in the medians. Cars can run them down and the crepe will grow back up from the roots. I had one that I had mechanically ground down to a foot below the soil surface and three years later it came back up.

Bite the bullet, get some cold beer and call over your buddies to dig it out.

It's too close to the house and the leaves (deciduous) are going to fill the gutters. Move the iris first to someplace they won't get deeper buried by the annual application of bark chips.

I agree with dotticarrano. You'll never be able to keep the crape small enough to not clog the gutter (at least not without annual butchering). I'd remove it (or try to) and replace it with something more suitable for that space. Just because builders/landscapers plant full-size crape myrtles right next to the foundation does not mean it's smart or good to keep them.