Hollies can be cut anywhere and grow back. Maybe cut them down to near the ground at the end of winter and let them start over, with initially smaller, bushier tops. As they are slow it will be years before their height starts to become a bother again. And you could always prune selectively (as opposed to shearing formally) to prevent them from again becoming too much.

Otherwise digging or pulling them out is going to be quite a chore. And will have to be done without damaging the house or any underground utilities that may be present. If you have wood siding for instance this can be easily damaged through being whacked by shovel or spade handles while recalcitrant stumps are being dug.

get rid of them.. based on the picture provided ... birds will nest in the new ones ..

ken

Foundation plants are important blobs of green that show other stuff off.

It's easy to look at them and be critical, thinking that something with flowers would surely be preferable.

Out in the side garden I have a wide, evergreen blob which I used to stand in front of and gaze at with scorn. I'm thankful that my husband made me look at it differently.

stand in front of and gaze at with scorn

Hopefully you didn't also used to do the same thing to your husband.

I would keep the hollies for the birds nesting so close to the house, buy close range binoculars, and be struck with awe.

Years ago, I built a nest box for black-capped chickadees that I mounted in a window corner. The nest box has a mirror on the underside of the slanted roof and a glazed cut out at the back so that I could watch from inside of the house the miracle of 'egg to flying bird in 1 month'.

removal includes.. calling miss dig ... sharpening your shovel .. and getting a tree blade for a sawzall ... cut down to 2 or 3 foot stumps [needed for leverage ....] ...... start digging... saw big roots.. rock trunks.. to find next root ... etc.. until you are done ..

foundation plantings are planted to hide the foundation ... and they should be sited for the future potential of the plant .. not the cute little plant you bought that day ...

such are not supposed to be planted on the foundation ... or a foot or two away ...

i bet.. if you take that moment to look with scorn ... you will note.. that the plants were NOT properly sited.. and that is the root of the problem of them not looking good ... and if so.. then no amount of pruning.. is going to make them look good ... they are simply too close to the house .. and by this time.. simply too big to reclaim ...

also keep in mind.. with no insult to the root mass .. even if you cut it to near the ground.. they will be back to size.. faster than you can put the pruning shears away ....

ken

These are all very good points, everyone. Thank you! I will think on these comments and post a photo or two when I can be home when it is light outside. In case that might sway anybody's opinion :)

I recently removed a decades-old burning bush at the corner of my house. I don't regret it but it sure was a huge job. Chopping the bush down almost to a stump was my first mistake. Because I did this, I had to drill a long hole through the center of what was left and install a long bolt through it when I realized that pulling the bush out with my truck was the best way to go. Mistake two was chopping off some of the larger roots with an axe, because I had to dig these roots out with a shovel after removing the stump. Most of the manual labor involved digging out the roots, and I may have been overzealous in doing this, but I didn't want little burning bushes popping up later. It took days.

Why can't you just cut the stump to the ground and carefully paint it with glyophosphate? When you plant the next shrub or tree in the correct location, you can deal with any roots there.

Why don't you just rejuvenate it?