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Anyone still looking for a landscaper, please see my recommendation here: http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php/topic,3893.msg60093.html#msg60093 :-\

I highly recommend the gentleman we recently settled on. At the moment this is our experience with and opinion of him: - He is definitely very trustworthy and knowledgeable and has had his business for over 40 years. - He is licensed and insured. - He is very easy to get in contact with via...

Actually, we have never had any discussion at all about how our payments would be remitted, so I can't validly answer that question. Sorry!

Oh, yes, absolutely; that's not even a consideration. The design has to be in a specific format for the HOA to review. My drawing was just to illustrate to our contractor what we had in mind for discussion. It's harder than you'd think to describe without illustration landscaping details. ; )

I had the site plan for my lot in my sales contract. I just drew on top of that in an image editing program like Photoshop. (It's open source software called The Gimp.)

Yeah, isn't it disgusting? : ( The breakdown for the high cost is along the lines of: - $2200 flagstone California room - $5000 pavers - $4000 18" seat wall with stacked stone veneer - $6800 grading, cleanup, irrigation, drainage, trees, plants, lighting, gravel, etc.

@broda - Actually, 2 feet is the minimum except wherever a large tree is planted, in which case it must be 3 feet minimum. After much stressful contemplation we've finally made a decision. I ended up drawing my own [crude] design with mostly everything we wanted and negotiated the price with...

I think you hit the nail on the head. We're having a really hard time with all but one landscaper. It's like we're chasing them down to beg them to take our money, which is ridiculous. If we're paying over $10k (and closer to $20k), they should be at our beck and call, but of our 6 contractors...

@broda - That's a great plan, but the biggest part of the problem is not drawing the design; it's figuring out how much every combination of options costs including all the different types of pavers, seat walls, rock facades, flagstone, generic ground cover, square footage, trees, bushes...

I actually just gave them my deposit and it's estimated to be about 4 weeks before they are to be installed. I'll definitely update once all's said and done.

Yes, design or at least pricing would be much appreciated. I'm still struggling with trying to figure out what we're going to be able to afford to do with our lousy plot of dirt. It doesn't seem such a small bit of land should be so darned expensive.

Another thing about standard shutters if you have them split so the top half and bottom half can be angled independently, you typically have a huge horizontal piece of wood in the middle of the frame, which is much worse than just the little handle bars.

I'm still in the process of getting bids from several landscaper/hardscapers and we're getting pavers with whoever we choose. Some companies we're talking to: - Prunin (prunin.com) - BAC Landscape and Hardscape (baclandscapinginc.com) - Vega Landscape (vegalandscape.net) - Ramco Construction...

@nosuchreality It's hard to have an exact estimate because there's also a California room with a concrete floor that may be ripped out or just covered, but it's on the order of about 800-1000 sqft I think. If we were to have a raised planter installed, we'd have them put in a wall in front of...

Wondering if any other Saratoga buyers have yet engaged any landscapers for a design and estimate. I've dealt with about 6 thus far and it's been a pretty tedious experience. One of the things I was unhappy to discover over the weekend in reading the HOA's design requirements is that it is...

Absolutely positive. I, like Biff Tannen, am very well acquainted with the smell of manure, and although it's strong, that doesn't bother me too much. This smell was the rancid, putrid smell of rotting garbage multiplied by a thousand. (For those familiar with the hobopower unit of stink...

Not to reveal my ignorance too much (I hope), but from when I first moved to Portola Springs (from Woodbury) until maybe last year I had absolutely no clue about how near the landfill is. When I finally realized that, it answered a mystery that I'd wondered about for years: During my first year...

Yeah, seriously, bleach? That's horrible! Pine Sol maybe but never bleach.

Really? That's surprising. Yes, totally love it. We used it with our older son and are now using it with our younger baby. It's fantastic and we love that it continually flushes out the dirty bath water. (That's especially important when he poos in the tub, which has happened more than once.) ...

One great thing about model 2 (I don't know about model 1) is that the master shower is very large and has a seat inside. That's likely where I'll be bathing my younger baby (using his mini-tub and a handheld shower head), until he's big enough for a big tub. That's only once we stop bathing...