So you guys have surely noticed the surly, jaded tone of all my posts lately. I am fairly confident the root cause of that tone goes back to our landscaping issues that are still not resolved. I wanted to give you all the WHOLE story from the beginning because it's more bizarre than science fiction.
Just to refresh your memory, here's the list of mistakes/problems prior to this latest round of emails, though it's been such a long road I'm sure I'm forgetting a few line items.
* We showed up very prepared for our very first meeting with the landscape designer. In typical fashion, I obnoxiously provided him with a powerpoint deck of our likes/dislikes and do's/do-not's in the design he was to put together. I was nervous to bring all that info to the meeting because not everyone is capable working with OCD control freaks, but he made us feel like it was not only helpful, but gave him confidence that he had everything he needed to give us our dream landscape once it all matures. Based on that really positive first meeting, we were surprised when the landscape design came back nearly breaking all of our "do nots" and jam packed with plants on our dislike list. There were 52 mondo grass plants on his plan, when we requested absolutely NO ornamental grasses. FIFTY-TWO! We said no reds/yellows, and all the flowering plants were red. He placed a full size tree right in front of a window, which was on our no-no list. First I tried to just make edits or suggestions to his plan, but there was so little that could be repurposed that I ended up scrapping it. I did it myself in a landscape design program and provided the new plan back to him in full color CAD design with a legend itemizing the number of each type of plant etc. So we were not off to a good start before they even showed up to work.
* Our plan called for 5 crape myrtle trees to line the driveway, and we specified the variety we wanted in order to get the look we were trying to achieve in terms of size and color. However, we acknowledged that it might not be available and documented on the landscape design that we would gladly choose from a list of available trees if our first choice wasn't available. The week we heard they were supposed to start planting I left numerous voice mails and sent numerous emails to find out what trees were available and/or to confirm that our first choice was available and we only got an email from him AFTER they planted 5 trees of his choosing. He chose the Choctaw variety, for what it's worth. In that email, he did a pretty good job selling us on the trees he selected, so though we were disappointed he didn't stick with the plan and give us the choice, we just rolled with it and were happy with the specs on the Choctaw. So we came up to the house that night to see them and noticed they still had the tags on them, except the tags didn't say Choctaw, they said Sioux! So we looked up the Sioux and found that it stays very small, which is not what we wanted. We got in touch with them, and they said they would replace them with the Choctaw. So a couple weeks later, we heard they'd be replacing them, and on our usual Friday night visit to the house we saw the landscape crew leaving. And the trees looked to have been changed, (mulch disturbed, slightly taller than they were) but yet still the same. Sure enough, they planted new trees, but they planted more Sioux instead of the Choctaw as they should have. Why the crew would take out a healthy tree and replace it with an identical tree is beyond me. But they did. Another week or two went by before very clearly different shape trees showed up, and they are lovely. Whether or not this is what Choctaw trees are supposed to look like at this age/size I have no idea. I suppose we'll know when it blooms if it's an entirely unexpected color! I just know they finally wised up and removed the tags when planting the third time! :)
* The front bed left of the front door was twice the size it was supposed to be which creates a massive planting bed, and we can't (easily) fix it because the irrigation system is set up based on the shape and position of the beds. It really bugs me though because it's difficult to get balance with one bed being so much bigger than the other.
* Remember the tree I said he put right in front of a window on the design? In my design I pulled it way off the corner of the house in a bed that sort of curves out. However, they decided to plant it about 12 inches from the foundation, right under our eaves and roofline instead of where it was on the plan. This tree is going to get 25 feet tall. So that needed to be moved. And our builder/construction PM overheard us talking about the tree and chimed in and said "yeah, go ahead and move it and I'll add it to the change order" as though we were going to pay more to have the tree put where it was supposed to be.
* In spite of the plan CLEARLY noting not only "pink knockout roses" but also with an asterisk that says "*no reds" they went ahead and planted all red roses. So we complained, and they came back and replaced all 10 of them... this time 8 of them were pink and 2 were red. Seriously, my puzzler is puzzled. Dr. Seuss would have a flippin' field day with these people.
* The plan called for a lot of little loropetalum purple pixie shrubs (say that 3 times fast!) to line the front of the beds. These little dwarf pixies stay about 1-2' tall and were intended as a low lying front row of shrubs. Instead, they planted the purple diamond, which get 4-6' tall along the front edge of the beds, and in front of other shrubs that don't get bigger than 4' tall. So it's like the beds would be opposite - tallest in the front, shortest in the back. Awesome.
* They used no weed mat, no planting soil, no fertilizer, and paid no attention to the groupings of plants called for on the design. Basically, they showed up, dug holes all over the bed about 2 feet apart in all directions and threw a plant in it. Then they scattered a little bit of mulch over it. Not a proper layer of mulch, but there was some. However, with all the mistakes and attempted fixes to gutter boots, drains etc, all the beds got dug up and no mulch was left showing.
* They delivered a roll of sod, let it sit and die for a week and then took it away several weeks later when more sod was delivered. This was the spray painted dead sod we removed last weekend. When they came to lay that sod they busted two more pipes/heads on the sprinklers.
* We thought we had a leak in one of the irrigation pipes in the front yard because the front yard kept flooding, and as soon as we just disabled the irrigation system in the front it dried up. So they visited several times and denied any sort of leak or issue and pointed the finger at other trades. It turns out there were multiple issues. Yes, the grade sucked but it was their responsibility to do the final grade for positive drainage. Also, the same crew who kept saying there's no problem finally opened a valve box on the irrigation system and said "oh! here's the problem" and fixed it in about 3 minutes, but that was about a month after we started insisting there was a problem. Finally, we realized that the zone that was flooding the worst was getting hit by the poorly designed irrigation system by other zones overspraying, plus one small area had 13 spray heads in a single small area so it was just getting pounded with water. So based on all those issues, our builder demanded a new drainage plan to be drawn up and executed, and for several of the sprinkler heads to be capped off and other heads to be adjusted to avoid overlap. And they did come out and do some drain work. Just not the drain work my builder approved. So after a heavy rain, it flooded again!
* Because of all the flooding, more than half of the plants in our front beds died from drowning and in addition to getting the drainage fixed, they were to replace all the dead plants. But at this point, our trust was completely gone and we asked that they simply drop off the plants and we would replant them ourselves.
From this point, I think I'll switch over to just copying and pasting the exact email chain so you get a word for word recount instead of my perspective on it all. I'll warn you, ahem, I'm not on my best behavior in these emails, and not particularly proud of myself, but in my defense they had long since pushed me over the edge. Just for fun, I think I'll share the name of our landscaper and his company. It's about time I think. The company I've been referring to all this time is MLJ Landscaping "serving" the Dallas-Fort Worth Area since 1995. The tagline on their website and business cards reads "Creating Outdoor Experiences." LOL! It's been an experience all right!
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May 19th
From: Kim (builder rep)
To: Me, Builder, John Fossum from MLJ Landscaping
Subject: Replacement Plants
Rebecca,
Did your replacement plants get delivered by MLJ this weekend?
Thank you,
Kim
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May 19th
From: Me
To: Kim, Builder, John Fossum from MLJ Landscaping
that's a complicated question.
We went through the process of exposing all the drip line hoses that weren't already exposed to make the planting process easier. We spent most of our time in the back yard cautiously looking for a hose with each hole we dug. We still had lots of obstacles to work around like gutter drains, gas lines, irrigation lines, boulders, gobs of clay, and buried treasure (trash) like mildew covered bricks, lumber, insulation foam, paint, stain, candy wrappers, etc. But I decided I got the MVP award for exposing all the hoses, and Brent didn't argue. :) Smart man.
Just to refresh your memory, here's the list of mistakes/problems prior to this latest round of emails, though it's been such a long road I'm sure I'm forgetting a few line items.
* We showed up very prepared for our very first meeting with the landscape designer. In typical fashion, I obnoxiously provided him with a powerpoint deck of our likes/dislikes and do's/do-not's in the design he was to put together. I was nervous to bring all that info to the meeting because not everyone is capable working with OCD control freaks, but he made us feel like it was not only helpful, but gave him confidence that he had everything he needed to give us our dream landscape once it all matures. Based on that really positive first meeting, we were surprised when the landscape design came back nearly breaking all of our "do nots" and jam packed with plants on our dislike list. There were 52 mondo grass plants on his plan, when we requested absolutely NO ornamental grasses. FIFTY-TWO! We said no reds/yellows, and all the flowering plants were red. He placed a full size tree right in front of a window, which was on our no-no list. First I tried to just make edits or suggestions to his plan, but there was so little that could be repurposed that I ended up scrapping it. I did it myself in a landscape design program and provided the new plan back to him in full color CAD design with a legend itemizing the number of each type of plant etc. So we were not off to a good start before they even showed up to work.
* Our plan called for 5 crape myrtle trees to line the driveway, and we specified the variety we wanted in order to get the look we were trying to achieve in terms of size and color. However, we acknowledged that it might not be available and documented on the landscape design that we would gladly choose from a list of available trees if our first choice wasn't available. The week we heard they were supposed to start planting I left numerous voice mails and sent numerous emails to find out what trees were available and/or to confirm that our first choice was available and we only got an email from him AFTER they planted 5 trees of his choosing. He chose the Choctaw variety, for what it's worth. In that email, he did a pretty good job selling us on the trees he selected, so though we were disappointed he didn't stick with the plan and give us the choice, we just rolled with it and were happy with the specs on the Choctaw. So we came up to the house that night to see them and noticed they still had the tags on them, except the tags didn't say Choctaw, they said Sioux! So we looked up the Sioux and found that it stays very small, which is not what we wanted. We got in touch with them, and they said they would replace them with the Choctaw. So a couple weeks later, we heard they'd be replacing them, and on our usual Friday night visit to the house we saw the landscape crew leaving. And the trees looked to have been changed, (mulch disturbed, slightly taller than they were) but yet still the same. Sure enough, they planted new trees, but they planted more Sioux instead of the Choctaw as they should have. Why the crew would take out a healthy tree and replace it with an identical tree is beyond me. But they did. Another week or two went by before very clearly different shape trees showed up, and they are lovely. Whether or not this is what Choctaw trees are supposed to look like at this age/size I have no idea. I suppose we'll know when it blooms if it's an entirely unexpected color! I just know they finally wised up and removed the tags when planting the third time! :)
* The front bed left of the front door was twice the size it was supposed to be which creates a massive planting bed, and we can't (easily) fix it because the irrigation system is set up based on the shape and position of the beds. It really bugs me though because it's difficult to get balance with one bed being so much bigger than the other.
* Remember the tree I said he put right in front of a window on the design? In my design I pulled it way off the corner of the house in a bed that sort of curves out. However, they decided to plant it about 12 inches from the foundation, right under our eaves and roofline instead of where it was on the plan. This tree is going to get 25 feet tall. So that needed to be moved. And our builder/construction PM overheard us talking about the tree and chimed in and said "yeah, go ahead and move it and I'll add it to the change order" as though we were going to pay more to have the tree put where it was supposed to be.
* In spite of the plan CLEARLY noting not only "pink knockout roses" but also with an asterisk that says "*no reds" they went ahead and planted all red roses. So we complained, and they came back and replaced all 10 of them... this time 8 of them were pink and 2 were red. Seriously, my puzzler is puzzled. Dr. Seuss would have a flippin' field day with these people.
* The plan called for a lot of little loropetalum purple pixie shrubs (say that 3 times fast!) to line the front of the beds. These little dwarf pixies stay about 1-2' tall and were intended as a low lying front row of shrubs. Instead, they planted the purple diamond, which get 4-6' tall along the front edge of the beds, and in front of other shrubs that don't get bigger than 4' tall. So it's like the beds would be opposite - tallest in the front, shortest in the back. Awesome.
* They used no weed mat, no planting soil, no fertilizer, and paid no attention to the groupings of plants called for on the design. Basically, they showed up, dug holes all over the bed about 2 feet apart in all directions and threw a plant in it. Then they scattered a little bit of mulch over it. Not a proper layer of mulch, but there was some. However, with all the mistakes and attempted fixes to gutter boots, drains etc, all the beds got dug up and no mulch was left showing.
* They delivered a roll of sod, let it sit and die for a week and then took it away several weeks later when more sod was delivered. This was the spray painted dead sod we removed last weekend. When they came to lay that sod they busted two more pipes/heads on the sprinklers.
* We thought we had a leak in one of the irrigation pipes in the front yard because the front yard kept flooding, and as soon as we just disabled the irrigation system in the front it dried up. So they visited several times and denied any sort of leak or issue and pointed the finger at other trades. It turns out there were multiple issues. Yes, the grade sucked but it was their responsibility to do the final grade for positive drainage. Also, the same crew who kept saying there's no problem finally opened a valve box on the irrigation system and said "oh! here's the problem" and fixed it in about 3 minutes, but that was about a month after we started insisting there was a problem. Finally, we realized that the zone that was flooding the worst was getting hit by the poorly designed irrigation system by other zones overspraying, plus one small area had 13 spray heads in a single small area so it was just getting pounded with water. So based on all those issues, our builder demanded a new drainage plan to be drawn up and executed, and for several of the sprinkler heads to be capped off and other heads to be adjusted to avoid overlap. And they did come out and do some drain work. Just not the drain work my builder approved. So after a heavy rain, it flooded again!
* Because of all the flooding, more than half of the plants in our front beds died from drowning and in addition to getting the drainage fixed, they were to replace all the dead plants. But at this point, our trust was completely gone and we asked that they simply drop off the plants and we would replant them ourselves.
From this point, I think I'll switch over to just copying and pasting the exact email chain so you get a word for word recount instead of my perspective on it all. I'll warn you, ahem, I'm not on my best behavior in these emails, and not particularly proud of myself, but in my defense they had long since pushed me over the edge. Just for fun, I think I'll share the name of our landscaper and his company. It's about time I think. The company I've been referring to all this time is MLJ Landscaping "serving" the Dallas-Fort Worth Area since 1995. The tagline on their website and business cards reads "Creating Outdoor Experiences." LOL! It's been an experience all right!
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May 19th
From: Kim (builder rep)
To: Me, Builder, John Fossum from MLJ Landscaping
Subject: Replacement Plants
Rebecca,
Did your replacement plants get delivered by MLJ this weekend?
Thank you,
Kim
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May 19th
From: Me
To: Kim, Builder, John Fossum from MLJ Landscaping
that's a complicated question.
they delivered SOME plants, but not the right ones and not the right quantities. roman, who delivered them, was the one to point out that there weren't enough replacements for all that died, and then I noticed the red roses that should have been pink, too many indian hawthorn, no zhou zhou fuschia...etc.
We also tore out and replaced the 4 of the last 5 pallets of blue-green spray painted dead sod that were installed in the last round ourselves. and before you even suggest it, we've run the irrigation system as john set it, and even fed it with scott's southern turf builder but it was a lost cause. when we pulled up the completely rootless hay that lost its color with the first rain, the soil was moist. I feel like we've been begging for things we shouldn't have to beg for. i'm done fighting a losing battle.
we don't need them to replace the 150 square feet of sod in our front grading ditch because it would probably be spray painted hay anyway. we'll do it.
we don't need them to deliver the right plants. we'll go buy them and plant them.
what we do need is for the very serious situation with water continuing to sit on our foundation any time it rains to be addressed, though i don't know if it's a gutter boot, a drain problem, a grade problem, or something else we haven't considered yet. i'm not sure who needs to address it, but we don't want to wait another 5 weeks as our foundation shouldn't have to endure it, our NEW plants that we'll be replanting won't be able to endure it, and i'm just personally so tired and want this to be over.
i know you don't like pi$$y emails, so feel free to give me a call.
Rebecca
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May 20th
From: John Fossum at MLJ Landscaping
To: Me, Kim, Builder, Various other folks at MLJ Landscaping
Rebecca,
I am, indeed, sorry that you are NOT happy with the landscape. I really take this personally. Therefore, it is my focus and desire to TRY to find some way to make you happy, as it relates to the landscaping at your new home. To do this, I need your help. It would be very helpful for you to list, specifically, what items that you require to finally make you satisfied with the situation. I know that there have been problems, issues, mistakes, etc., but I want to put ALL that behind us and concentrate on what it will take to repair the problem(s) at hand.
As far as the replacement plants, I walked the yard and made a list. On THAT day, what I wrote down is what needed to be changed-out. Could plants have met their demise after that? Yes, but they also could have bounced back and/or improved. Here is my list:
(8) Indian Hawthorn, 5 gal
(14) “Purple Pixie” Loropetalum, 5 gal
(4) Red Knockout Rose, 3 gal
(5) Boxwood, 3-5 gal
Now, you see that I made a HUGE mistake by asking for RED roses and NOT pink. I take full responsibilty for this terrible error. However, as far as I know, the rest was delivered as ordered. You made NO mention of "Zhou Zhou Fuschia" to me, rather, I understood you to request "Loropetalum 'Purple Pixe.'" The ZZF variety is more of a northern shrub and gets between 4-6 ft. Which was the issue with the other Loropetalum, because they get huge. So, I am baffled by that particular request. But, as I mentioned, if that is what is going to make you content, then I am at the mercy of the situation. Once again, I would like a detailed list.
As far as the other items you discussed in your most recent email, without more information, I am not able to address or assist. I would NOT have recommended ANY fertilizer on new sod for at least 6-12 months, but that was your call, NOT mine. As far as the drainage issue, there are ways to help correct this, but may require more drastic measures (i.e., culverts under walk-ways, more catch basins, different pipe...). However, that would be more of an "onsite" evaluation.
Anyway, the "long and the short" of it is the aforementioned: WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE? Please make a specific list of your request(s) and if they are within reason, of course, I will expedite the accomplishment of said tasks, hopefully, to your satisfaction.
Once again, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration. But, moving forward, your detailed, direct input will allow us to finalize and to correct the work at your home. We are grateful for the landscape opportunity and want the job to be done to your satisfaction.
JRF
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This is the straw that broke the camel's back and pushed me over the edge. I feel like he dropped so many verbal middle fingers into that email that I can't believe he starts and ends the emails with a "sincere apology."
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May 20th
From: ME
To: John Fossum at MJL Landscaping, Kim, Builder, Various MLJ folks that got added to the madness
Hi John, All,
Thank you for acknowledging our extreme disappointment, though I can't help but mention the victim tone I'm getting from your email, being "at the mercy of the situation" and all. So just to be clear, I don't feel as though we've asked for anything that's not within reason. In fact, I don't think we've asked much at all for new landscape installation on new construction. We even did the plant selection/design for you! All we wanted was the right plants installed to plan, and we assumed we would have a yard without standing water on our foundation. Living sod would be a bonus, but the first two batches were fine so we'll call the last batch bad luck.
I would have gladly made a list of dead plants for you had I known when you were coming. Perhaps seeing zhou zhou fuschia loropetalum a second time would have rung a bell as it was on the original design I sent to you, attached for everyone's reference with that line item highlighted in yellow. When you transposed into your own software I see you dropped the ZZF and just called it loropetalum. I had no reason to doubt you at that point in the process, and you did specifically list purple pixie as requested. So my assumption was that the plants you installed on site were 9 ZZF loropetalum because that was on our plan and at this size I would have no idea they're not right unless the tags were still on them. Clearly they were never planted, so I shouldn't have expected you to replace what was never here. I hope that eases your bafflement.
Thank you for taking ownership of the red rose mistake, again, though Roman delivered 3 roses, not 4.
As for the "new sod" that we fertilized. It was a last ditch effort to try to revive the straw that emerged after one rain when all the faux color washed off. In fact, it did seem to revive a few pieces along the walkway. It was indeed our call, as it was to rip it out and replace it ourselves. No point in addressing that further. Our backyard finally looks great.
You asked for a list of what it will take to make us happy. It has only 1 item on it.
As I said in my last email, all we want is for our water/drainage issues to be resolved. To be perfectly honest, that won't reverse our opinion of this project, but when our water issues are resolved we will happily welcome the opportunity to part ways and stop nagging you all. I saw your note about not thinking there is an issue with the gutter boot based on the video we sent. Maybe there is, and maybe there isn't an issue with the gutter boot, but water pouring out the sides of it and then sitting on the foundation sure looked bad to me. Then there's the fact that it took 4 visits to acknowledge there was a problem with the pipes/valves/system causing our foundation zone to flood, a problem that took 3 minutes for Roman to fix once identified, so I think the gutter boot is worth further consideration in light of the history. That's not to say there aren't other potential drainage issues, merely that I want all of the water to move away from our foundation when the irrigation system runs AND when it rains. Maybe grade is still an issue. I don't care who addresses what - you all can fight that out. I just want to feel confident that we don't have water on our foundation and that all the work we're about to put into our landscape beds is not going to be wasted with more dead plants or ripped up beds for later drainage fixes.
I hope you find this information to be direct and detailed as you requested.
Thanks,
Rebecca
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Not surprisingly, I did not receive a response from anyone at MLJ to that email. However, we got an unwelcome surprise later that week...
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May 23rd
From: Me
To: Kim
hey kim,
did you ask MLJ to swap the roses by any chance?
i sent two emails asking them to just fix our drainage and move on and we'd do the rest because we don't want them meddling anymore. So unless you asked them to do it, they're really dense, not that it should be a surprise to me that they're dense.
we went out at lunchtime today to pick up a 4th matching red rose ourselves so that we could start planting tomorrow, and when we got home we saw that they had dropped off 4 single pink roses (3 healthy, 1 not), 4 more indian hawthorn (we needed 7 and now have 12), and he took away our 3 red roses leaving us with the 1 we just bought.
i mean, are we on a hidden camera tv show? do they wake up every morning after dreaming of ways to ruin our day? do they have brainstorm meetings to think up new ways? when we want them to show up they won't, and when we beg them to leave us alone they won't go away.
at my wit's end,
rebecca
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May 23rd
From: Kim
To: Me, Builder, John Fossum at MLJ Landscaping
Rebecca,
NO. I did not. I told them all we wanted them to do is fix the drainage by using the specifications that Dale has lined out. To call me and let me know when they plan on coming so that I can be there as well. I text John to get a progress report and he let me know that he would check with Greg. I called him later that day and left a message because I had not heard anything back. I would have like to have gotten the drainage fixed before the rain. I will continue to check with him.
Thank you,
Kim
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May 28th
From: Kim
To: Me, Builder
Subject: Drainage - Update
Rebecca,
I have not been able to successfully get MLJ to commit to a time when they will come out and change the drain system to the way Dale specified. I apologize, I have and will continue to call them until I get this accomplished. NOT so Funny thing is, I am holding their payments on your house until it is accomplished and still have not been successful.
[Builder] says there is a slight rise in elevation of the ground at the trees and it will drain better if we continue that swell around that tree cluster. The excavation guys that re-dug it originally are supposed to be there tomorrow morning to continue the drainage swell to around the trees.
Thank you,
Kim
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So that's where it stands today with MLJ Landscaping and John Fossum, the landscape designer with whom we've had the obligation to work.
Now, on to the brighter side... we ripped out all their shoddy work and redid it ourselves!
This is what we were working with:
 |
| You can clearly see the boxwood that died because they turned bright yellow. What you can't see from this photo are all the plants that were so far gone that they just shriveled up and disappeared. You can also see the Charlie Brown method of placing a shrub every 2 feet. |
 |
| mmm, now THAT's a good looking bed! Again, you can't even see what was there because they're so far gone! This is the one that is twice the size it was supposed to be in case you couldn't tell. :) |
We went through the process of exposing all the drip line hoses that weren't already exposed to make the planting process easier. We spent most of our time in the back yard cautiously looking for a hose with each hole we dug. We still had lots of obstacles to work around like gutter drains, gas lines, irrigation lines, boulders, gobs of clay, and buried treasure (trash) like mildew covered bricks, lumber, insulation foam, paint, stain, candy wrappers, etc. But I decided I got the MVP award for exposing all the hoses, and Brent didn't argue. :) Smart man.
Here's one half of the graveyard plants.
So all told, there were 5 plants total that were unharmed and left as is. 3 of them were on the far side of the house, and thus not exposed to the flood problems. 2 of them were the upright japanese yew that appear to enjoy swimming as they've really thrived and are showing new growth all over them!
We relocated and/or planted the following:
17 dwarf burford holly (though i'm just waiting for these "dwarfs" to turn out to be non-dwarfs with our track record)
16 boxwood
1 purple diamond loropetalum
11 purple pixie loropetalum
12 indian hawthorn
4 knockout roses
2 new pink velour crape myrtle
That's 63 plants, and for all the relocations, that means digging twice!
For mulching, I already mentioned in a previous post the problems we ran into with variability in the bagged mulch, but I think we did a decent job covering it up. It took 75 bags to this point, and we still need to pick up a few more for the bed we enlarged around the vitex tree off the far left corner, which I just realized is not visible in any of these photos, sorry!
Voila - this is what it should have looked like from the beginning with PROFESSIONAL landscapers. Sadly in this case to have it done right we had to do it ourselves.
You may have noticed the orange flags and big chunks of dead sod and missing sod. Those are the results of partial fixes to our drainage issues. We were going to just re-sod it ourselves, but our builder insisted they would make MLJ replace it. If they replace it with real, living grass this time, then so be it. If not, we'll just grab another half pallet and do it ourselves as usual. No sense in replacing anything now because they're about to tear into the yard again to fix the drainage for reals this time! Or so we're told. For now, we're very pleased with how the yard is shaping up. Hope you enjoyed this installment of landscapers gone wild.
The indoor project list is piling up because we've spent all our spare time out in the yard the past few weeks. I'll try to keep up to date with each completion! My hobby room/workshop is unpacked and ready for business. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: 5/29/14
The crew showed up to fix the drains today, and as you can see they are HARD at work! Anyone feeling confident our drainage problems will be solved this time? Please note the pallets have still not been picked up either. The grain in the photo is the window screen - we were being creepers taking that photo. :)
.JPG)
UPDATE: 5/29/14
The crew showed up to fix the drains today, and as you can see they are HARD at work! Anyone feeling confident our drainage problems will be solved this time? Please note the pallets have still not been picked up either. The grain in the photo is the window screen - we were being creepers taking that photo. :)
All I can say is I'm proud of you..proud that I haven't seen you on the news for attacking these landscaping people :) Complete idiots indeed.
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