Thanks Fab for getting my new home fully landscaped!!
I'm an analytical/detail oriented person, so when I leave reviews I like to be thorough and fair indicating what went well, or not. I had Bluelake fully landscape the front, back and sides of my newly built home for virtually maintenance free enjoyment.
Back yard: Very satisfied. The back yard is mostly stamped concrete and it looks fabulous. There was a little tension when I was told that they couldn't accomplish the two stamp pattern we had agreed at the beginning would be the design. I told Fab, "if it cannot be done, so be it, I can accept a single stamp but I will be disappointed to not get the two stamp pattern we had discussed." He wasn't satisfied with that and even though I'd signed off on going single stamp, he went the extra mile to go around to all his suppliers and talk about how he could achieve the two stamp pattern as planned. He and his team put in a fair bit of extra effort and totally nailed it. The fire pit area having its own circular stamp design gives the yard real character.
Sides of home: Both sides were done exactly as planned/discussed. On one side Fab said to me "we'll probably have extra concrete, do you want an extra pad here on the unused side for storage" and they totally created a very useful storage section within the cost of the original contract. I doubt most landscapers would have done that without jumping the price. On the other side of the house the stamped concrete continues into a path from back to front and it looks awesome.
Front yard: Mostly satisfied. I will be honest, it did not come out as planned/envisioned. Very close, but still not as expected. We have a fully rockscaped front yard with a "dry creek bed" surrounded by larger grey Rundle rock. The creek bed border rocks were supposed to be black but Fab tells me there were none to be bought anyway so had to settle for a rainbow rock I don't really care for. Something I wish he'd known about up front. And I'd asked for Black boulders to contrast against the grey Rundle rock and instead received grey boulders with a weird rust color on some sides. It's done very well, don't me wrong - it just isn't the colors I had envisioned - so mostly satisfied.
We met Fab at the spring Home and Garden show and afterwards his quotes were detailed and provided in a timely manner, he followed up with us without being pushy and overall his customer service is amazing. All things the other companies we tried to quote with certainly can't say.
I could have found cheaper options but I'm certain the results wouldn't have been as good as Bluelake. All in all, the best thing I can say is: knowing what I know now, I would definitely still choose Bluelake if I was to do it again.
Thanks Fab!!