If you want something done right...

After asking Designer X to redo the design to meet our budget -- even our contract says that she will bring this in below a certain amount -- we got a really snotty response from her, followed by a completely unworkable plan. She removed all of our must-have items (the dog run, irrigation) and left in things we never asked for (custom-built artistic pieces, hello??)

So we fired her.

We trimmed the overblown design by ourselves and have contracted directly with the deck/fence carpenter and the landscape/hardscape installer.

Dave (the deck guy) started work this week, though it's been slow going because of the rain.