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Sorry to start a whole thread for this, but there seems no way to find the contact info for the Aloha Landscaping company (owned by Mahe and Sam, so I've read). We've been searching everywhere, but they have no presence online and the only place we ever see them referenced is here on TI, but...

Greetings all! As you may or may not recall, I posted extensively about the landscaping process of our new build last year (in Saratoga, so we have the enclosed private courtyard outside our front door). Since then all the stuff we planted has gone crazy with growth and not in a good way. For...

Been in our Saratoga home for nigh on 5 1/2 months now. One of the big things that was important to us in buying the home was that we have gas appliances, where applicable (by that I mean we didn't want a gas refrigerator, but a gas stove was essential). Of course, all modern builds tend to...

Happy Halloween everyone! This will be the first year my oldest son is old enough to actually have fun trick-or-treating, so we want to be sure to take him around fun neighborhood. We live in Saratoga in Stonegate, but thus far it seems we are in for trouble if we expect to just stick with our...

I see that the bulletin board was updated some time recently. There's a bug in the latest stylesheet that's causing two up-arrows to appear over buttons. The cause of this problem is that the <a> tag has the arrow as a background-image per this selector: .buttonlist ul li a.active but its...

We want to get our oldest into a kung fu class once he's 3. There are lots of karate classes around and he's so young that it probably doesn't matter, but just in case it's something he'll continue on with for years, my wife wants to focus specifically on kung fu. Do you have any experience...

It's clear that Stonegate is overpopulated with children, as far as how many can fit into the elementary school. My oldest won't be in public school for another couple of years, but I've been hearing from others that we should already be working on getting him onto the wait list because we may...

I've never had a propane tank to refill before, but I need to fill one today (for our new patio heater) and it occurred to me I have no idea where there is a propane filling station in Irvine. I guess I could just call every gas station until I find one with propane, but since Google doesn't...

I'm considering (eventually) getting a BBQ grill for the patio and would like to opt for natural gas rather than propane. I see that there's a gas pipe stub sticking out of one of my patio walls but it just has a cap on it. Is there some kind of valve you can buy at Home Depot to just screw...

So our landscaping was completed last week and our landscaper setup the automatic timer to water daily for 4 minutes. This sounded liked an awful lot of watering to me, especially after reading some posts months ago here on TI where people said even 4 days a week for 2 minutes might be too much...

Just thought I'd start a new consolidated thread for this discussion since previous discussions about my landscaping are spread out across other threads. First, about our landscaper: If you're still looking for a landscaper, please see my recommendation for the great guy we chose...

We have been desperately searching for drapery over the past several days to cover our large windows that leave us completely exposed because the neighboring homes over our back wall look like they'll beer closing escrow soon. We're having a heck of a time finding drapes we like. We are trying...

For anyone still going through their upgrades or for anyone who didn't not buy the keyless garage entry upgrade (like we didn't), I highly recommend adding the keyless entry yourself. It's really cheap (about $20) and just requires that you program it (which is simple) and screw it into the wall...

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's had horror stories after the close of escrow and I've hinted in the past that I've had some troubles, but I thought I'd go ahead and whine about share them all here in case you're interested or have your own tales of woe you'd like to share. I can't...

Was at Costco over the weekend talking to the Ecowater System people there about their system. It has a lifetime filter that never needs replacing and acts as both a water softener and a water purifier. The only ongoing maintenance is that you have to pour more salt inside when it runs low. I...

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...

Nearing our close of escrow we've been dealing with lots of flooring vendors, most of whom are horrible or terribly over-priced. Keeping in mind we already had a specific carpet and tile pre-decided, here is a bit of a verbose list with notes of everyone we've dealt with: Tompkins Flooring (in...

I am in the latter stages of a purchase of a new build. Until recently I'd only been dealing with the lender that the builder requires you pre-qualify with. Once I finally got within striking distance of a rate lock-in, I decided it was time to explore other lenders. The only person I've had...

We had our first consultation with a hardscaper/landscaper yesterday. He took us around to a few homes in Stonegate where they recently did work. The hardscaping was fine, but the landscaping has us concerned. They seem to know a lot about plant life and how best to apply them, e.g., grow...

At the point in the loan process where we need to have an insurance quote in hand. I've never had homeowner's insurance before, and there are seemingly hundreds of agents in Irvine. Do you have any recommendations? Obviously, the lowest price is highest priority, but a nice, friendly agent is...