Modern Spanish Hacienda

Homeowner Testimonial

5/5

In February of 2012, we contacted the Green Scene to help us with developing a design for both our front and back yard.  Our home had no existing landscaping so our yard was very much a “blank slate”.  In our initial request, we were looking to convert our yard into a highly functional outdoor entertainment area that included a pool/spa, fire features, BBQ, patios and landscape (plants, grass, trees, irrigation and lighting).  Two of our friends had worked with the Green Scene on their yards and gave solid recommendations for the work performed.  We had also contacted a couple of other providers who landscaped our prior home, as well as some landscape companies that worked exclusively in our community.  While many of these other companies came in with lower bids, we couldn’t help but notice that their example projects looked the same and hadn’t really “aged” well.  In the end, we chose to work with the Green Scene based on the recommendations of our friends and seeing how their projects held up over a number of years.

 

To begin, Scott developed a couple designs for us to review based on our design preferences, shape of the yard, use of space and the surrounding views and neighbor’s yards.  The initial designs were very good and provided good ideas, but didn’t quite provide us with the “wow” factor we were looking for.  After explaining this to Scott, he suggested that we spend some time together sketching out some ideas together that we could incorporate into the overall plans.  So on a cold Saturday morning, Scott came to our house and we worked closely with him at our kitchen table to develop new plans that perfectly captured what my wife and I were looking for.  It was a pretty impressive experience to see the sketches come to life right before your eyes for those of us lacking the creative gene.

 

After we approved the plans, we were required to gain approval from a landscape committee for our community.  Scott and his team worked very closely with this committee to ensure that the documentation was complete and self-explanatory and that any questions or concerns they had were being properly addressed.  For context, this committee was very picky and their review process dragged out for four months.  During this time, Scott demonstrated a lot of patience and willingness to appease the highly redundant requests from the committee members.

 

After this exhaustive review process, we finally broke ground in August 2012 and wrapped the project in December 2012.  The team that was deployed was highly organized, very neat and incredibly professional.  During the course of the project, Scott made sure to meet with my wife and myself almost every week to walk through progress and address any questions or concerns that we had.  During these walkthroughs, he provided us with an overview of what to expect in the upcoming weeks.  In tandem with this direction, our project manager, Lisa, kept us informed of key decisions required during the process and significant upcoming milestones.  Given the complexity of the project and the involvement of the city inspectors during many key points in the project, it was very impressive to see it come together so quickly.

 

From a cost perspective, we will acknowledge that the Green Scene is not the cheapest company we looked at.  What is important to keep in mind, however, is the long-term value associated with their workmanship.  As stated previously, many of the example projects from the other companies we reviewed were in dire need of improvement (concrete cracking, plaster wearing, coping falling apart, fixtures not working).  The key to get comfortable with the added cost was to look at what we would avoid in re-work by using the Green Scene.  During the project, we did choose to upgrade a few features during the project, which did increase the scope of the project, but had we not made these decisions, the project would have come in as was originally budgeted, 10 months earlier.  During our previous landscaping projects, we encountered many hidden costs that were not previously considered in the contract that unknowingly raised the cost of the project.  

 

Overall, we are extremely happy with the results of the project.  The hardscape is truly amazing and while we have had some different thoughts about some of the plant selections, we plan to remediate those over time.  Moreover, it is almost one year after the completion of our project and Scott and his team are still fielding questions and fixing any issues that come to fruition to ensure that we are 100% satisfied with the project.  While it might seem trite, they really do stand behind their work product.  As previously mentioned, we used two different landscape construction companies at our prior home, but found this experience, the work quality and the “wow” factor to be second to none.   We would absolutely use Green Scene again without hesitation.

Project Photos

Click any image below for fresh inspiration for your backyard.

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