We hired Blessing to completely redesign our front and back yards, including removal and replacement of the existing front and back wooden decks, construction of a paver patio in the backyard, and removal of the old landscaping and implementation of the new landscaping.
We wanted to go with a low maintance design, with no grass, and with drought-resistant non-invasive species, very loosely inspired by aspects of traditional Japanese gardens. We also had four existing trees in the backyard we wanted to preserve and integrate into the new landscape. They also offered to do lighting and irrigation installs but we did not pursue those services.
Overall we are happy with the design and implementation. We had one meeting to look at the yard and explain what we wanted, received a design from Blessing, and did one round of complimentary revisions (mostly just changing some of the specific plants - and up to two revisions are included for free). Blessing does not do any wooden deck work themselves, but they subcontracted the deck work so we didn't have to deal with a separate contractor, and project managed everything for us as one project. The crew they hired to do the new deck (and demo the old deck) did a great job. I don't recall if our paver patio was done by Blessing directly or also subcontracted to a third party, but that turned out very nice as well.
We did have a couple hiccups in the project. First, our contract with Blessing stated the deck would be stained, but there was some miscommunication between Blessing and the deck subcontractor, who did not include deck staining in their contract (and in fact does not provide that service). However, in the end Blessing covered all additional and unexpected costs related to bringing in an additional contractor to stain the front and back decks, who did a great job, and I think speaks very well for the integrity of Blessing as a company.
After the landscaping as installed, we also found some plants were missing, including some large plants like 3' tall pencil bushes and 6' tall vine maples. I don’t really know how that happens, and I wasn't pleased that we had to find this for ourselves and it was not detected by Blessing, but when we contacted them about it they did make it right fairly quickly and without any kind of argument, including locating and installing the missing plants, and relocating some plants that were in the wrong place, and throwing in a few free plantings as well. They were very responsive throughout the whole process, from design to completion of implementation, so we never felt left in the dark or like we didn't know they would complete the project.
So in summary, I would say the implementation phase could definitely have been a bit more organized and gone a bit more smoothly, but at the end of the day we’re very happy with the design and with the final implementation, so it all worked out, and Blessing was easy to work with throughout. Despite the hiccups we mentioned I would still recommend Blessing, as the overall experience was good, and the final product looks great!
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