Is i've got a huge tree right up against my house an emergency?
Not urgent. Distance is not a defect. It is a consequence, and it only matters through three specific mechanisms: something breaking and having a very short fall onto your roof, limbs abrading shingles and holding moisture against the structure, and — far more rarely than the internet implies — roots interacting with a footing. The useful question is never 'how close is it' but 'what part of this tree could fail, and is anything actually wrong with that part.'
What changes while you wait
Watch, on a years timeline. What changes while you wait is entirely about branches: limbs resting on the roof scrub granules off the shingles every windy day and shorten the roof's life, gutters pack and back water under the eave, and an overhanging limb gains weight and leverage each season. None of that is a safety countdown. It becomes one if a limb over the roof dies, if a codominant union facing the house opens up, or if the tree is an ash killed by emerald ash borer — dead ash go brittle unusually fast and are the one common close-to-the-house tree that genuinely should not wait a season.
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