The Great Outdoors

Once we got pretty far along in renovating the interior of our home, we ventured outside. Outdoor spaces have always been very challenging for us. First, there is way more outdoors than indoors to deal with. And, it keeps changing. The weather changes constantly, plants grow and die, weeds only grow, and there is wildlife out there that can cause damage. Also, working outdoors is hard and dirty. This isn't my happy place. But, the outside of our house could use some help and since we have been here for several years now my thoughts turned to curb appeal. Plus, we did find ourselves using the deck off the kitchen rather frequently and we just hated the view.

So, we set out to work on the yard. It is a big yard, at least for us, and needed a lot of improvement to match the standard we'd set inside. Our first thought was to look for outside help. Landscaping isn't something our neighbors seem to do, so we didn't have any easy referrals. After some online research we selected three candidates and started the process. We set up appointments with each to come to the house and talk about what we wanted and what they could do.

Now, this is where it gets difficult. We are pretty creative and have a lot of great ideas. I always try to temper this with a budget and I am quick to communicate the budget I had in mind to every contractor we talk with. I am hopeful that those professionals can balance the ideas we have with the budget we tell them. At the very least I expect to be told that our ideas are not feasible for our budget and get some help in focusing our efforts on what we could afford. Apparently, our ideas suggest that have way more money than we say we do.

Here is what we started with:

Back yard at the time we purchased the house.

Front yard at the time we purchased the house. I still shake my head as to why anyone would plant a specimen tree directly in front of the door . . .and then surround it with invasive shrubs.

This is the back deck. The view is not great and off to the right just past the frame of his photo, our neighbor's back deck is quite close.

The last time we did this process at our old house, the landscape companies did plans and then the cost of the plan was deducted from the total cost of the job, so if you bought the project, the plan was free. Here, you pay for the plans regardless. Paying for three sets of plans did not seem reasonable to me.

So, we started with one contractor and ordered the plans. Turnaround was pretty quick and here is what we got:

It had all the features we were looking for including a larger deck and a water feature. It also covered all the way around the house. It didn't address the rest of the yard, which would do little to improve the view from the back deck, nor did it do anything about that tree in front of the door. I'm told that tree is the most valuable item in our yard and we shouldn't try to move it. This plan was about 50% over budget. We did get a detailed estimate and a short timeline to complete the project.

I was not inspired by this plan. So, we moved on to contractor number 2. This group had great vision and their principles of natural design, native plants, and the ability to move that tree, were very attractive to us. We felt these folks thought like we did and we could work together. So, another plan was ordered. Based on the first plan we thought our budget was a little short, but we wanted to see what this group would do with it.

This plan was considerably more expensive and took longer to produce. Here is what we got:

Plans included detailed rendering of the back yard.

Now, that's what I'm talking about! It had everything. It did not come with an estimate, so the next step was to get that done. Now we saw the problem. It took forever to get an estimate from this group. When we finally got a number--and that is what it was--a number, not an estimate with a list of items. $250,000. I'm not making that up. As I pressed to understand what was included, it did not include the whole project. It did not include reworking the irrigation system, nor did it include moving that stupid tree. It didn't even include creating the access to the basement that the plan showed. I realized that this group was a "money is no object" contractor. Seriously, if money was no object we certainly wouldn't be living in this neighborhood.

We have now wasted over six months on trying to plan our landscaping. All we had to show for it was some drawings that we either weren't excited about or couldn't begin to afford. And, we spent money doing it! So, it is back to the drawing board. And, back to the process that works the best for us--doing our own design work.

Next post will show what we ended up doing. Spoiler alert: it turned out great, we spent less than our budget, but we didn't do the whole yard.