Kim Rooney Design

I believe there are 3 ways to be a leader, from ahead, from aside, and from behind. Kim and team helped lead our landscape project in all three phases. First, leading from ahead, she listened to our wants, hopes, and visions and created a outdoor plan which incorporated what we were envisioning and what was possible. We completely changed our outdoor area, adding steps for terracing around our home (our property is on 2 acres of hilly space), rockery, drainage, a 3 bay garage with a wood shop, a Class A RV parking, and downstairs storage (think daylight basement), a fully functioning green house, an outdoor kitchen with a sink, refrigerator, stove and grill, walking paths, several garden spaces including a secure vegetables area, and a gated entrance, all while ensuring we complied with local codes and building restrictions. As the GC (Terraine) moved forward with the project, Kim and team helped us make adjustments that enhanced our outdoor space and vision, or delete concepts that appeared good at the beginning, but not practical as we progressed with development. The plans were such that they were fluid in design. Along the way, she assisted us in finding the perfect rockery, steps, plants, trees, and aesthetic developments. In designing our outdoor kitchen (which we use often and love the space), we had to make real time design decisions which prolonged the kitchen space, but made the cooking island more practical and visually appealing (we took out three columns for roof support (which blocked our view) and moved it to one column with an I-beam in supporting the glass roof). She was beside us the whole way as our outdoor space evolved. When our landscape project was winding down, we added our own touches such as additional walking paths, gardens, plants, flowers, and trees. This was her leading from behind. Currently, our vision of our outdoor space continues to evolve as we add our own touches to each space. In the beginning, we described our hopes for the space as a "beautiful park that people just want to walk through and say hello to all the flowers and plants." Today, that is exactly what we have. We love to sit on our patio, turn our outdoor heaters on, sip a bit o' wine, and watch the grandkids or neighbors walk around exploring, destressing, and enjoying our creation. We are very grateful for Kim's attention to detail and demands for excellence from our contractor. We now have a space that is able to comfortable entertain large groups and where we stay busy with wood projects, planting, gardening, and green housing. Life is great! Kim and team did an amazing job! Thank you.

Kim created a gorgeous reimagining of our entire front and back yard - both vegetation and hardscape. The plants she chose will provide blooms and interesting color all year round and bring out different textures and visual interest from all angles. She was a pleasure to work with throughout the design process, but we especially enjoyed the way she interacted with the landscape contractor to make sure things were done well. She was also adaptable when plans had to shift. We love our yard so much now and are so grateful for everything Kim has done for us. We wholeheartedly recommend the quality of her work and enjoyed spending time with her all along the way.

Kim is a fantastic designer and very easy to communicate with. As a landscaping contractor, our work is so dependent on clear plans, and Kim’s planning and attention to detail make the entire process easy for us and the client. I’ve always appreciated her collaboration skills and wealth of background knowledge to problem solve any situation that might arise during construction. Her accessibility and optimism make the process fun, and the results are always beautiful!

KRLA has done 2 projects (small urban apartment project with roof deck and a 31 unit townhome project in Eastern WA) with our firm and working on a 3rd (68 townhome project in Bellingham). They have a great understanding of the needs for small scale commercial/residential projects and have added significant value to our project team. They have done a wonderful job in creating a thoughtful design with a relatable scale in the context of these projects.

Kim Rooney Inc is degreed, knowledgeable, and very qualified landscape design firm. Kim herself has a “beautiful eye” for landscape design. Her vision is spot on and beautiful! I would not hesitate to use Kim Rooney Inc again to design another outdoor space for us!

Cost of Kim’s services for planting a ~1500 sq ft hillside: 20-25k Cost of construction: 40k For professionals who are providing a long-term service, any negative reviews are red flags because it indicates that they were not professional in resolving issues privately with their client. In our case, Kim was defensive, made many costly mistakes, and then billed us for the hours spent discussing and resolving them. She charges principal level rates for inexperienced site research and permit assistance and cannot take ownership of her mistakes with professionalism and grace. She also makes it difficult to detect her mistakes because her contract insists that her office is the only one allowed to submit for permits. Here's our experience: 1. She made a costly mistake and did not take ownership. She unnecessarily delayed our permit process about 10 months when it could have been done in 2 months—she forced us to go through a lengthy design and permitting process because she was convinced that our hillside was a Steep Slope even though our Survey didn't indicate the presence of one. Luckily, a city reviewer emailed all of us asking why Kim drew a Steep Slope on her plans which was not in the Survey she submitted. It took a couple emails and a call from me to convince her that our slope was not steep. She billed for these discussions, the revisions, and resubmitting permit revisions. She had a hard time taking ownership for this mistake, and instead blamed the surveyor for not labeling the Steep Slope, but the surveyor is not responsible for labeling it if it doesn’t exist. The overall financial damage of her mistake was over $15k, among the unnecessary hours billed by Kim, the unnecessary permit fees, and an unnecessary Geotech report we had to get as a result of this process. 2. She mistook a shrub for a protected tree and drew it in the wrong location on our Planting Plan. When I texted her, she told me she was billing me for discussing this mistake and that she would charge me for revising the Planting Plan around the correct location of the shrub. What’s to keep her from taking advantage of me and making intentional mistakes just so she can charge me more? 3. She didn’t deliver what she promised on our proposal and pushed back on our vision because she was afraid the city wouldn’t allow it. She billed us hours for inaccurate site research, mislabeled our setbacks, and didn't design short retaining walls which the city would have allowed.

Thanks to Kim, our duh backyard transformed into a place we enjoyed using with our family and friends. We had a relatively small space, but she was able to still carve out sections, each functional, each with its own character, but blending into the overall design of our house. She listened intently to our requirements, was very detail oriented designing options, and even more so when we worked with our contractor to execute the designs. That combination of abundant ideas with keeping high standards during the install process made the final product as nice as it ended up being. Thank you, Kim! We couldn’t have done this without your help.

Kim was amazing. Listens very well but is blunt when necessary and expresses her own opinion to ensure that we understand the design / cost / practical implications of our decisions. Great eye for maximizing space based on our needs. Incredible attention to detail in the drawings and in construction administration. A great advocate for the owner during the construction process.

Kim listened closely to our goals and priorities about creating an enclosed front yard that would be private and delightful from inside our home as well as an aesthetically pleasing and welcoming look from the street. She was an efficient, reliable partner throughout the process, including finding contractors and reviewing and interpreting their bids with me and visiting a nursery together to learn more about our likes to settle on final materials. We unexpectedly moved right before the project began, but we were excited to get started and will hopefully have the chance to work with her on a future project at our new home.

Kim Rooney is a consummate professional whose attention to detail and eye for good design were invaluable! She is responsive and easy to work with. I would recommend her for any landscaping project- large or small!

Working with Kim was great. There were multiple obstacles on this job including grading issues, problems created by prior contractors on site, budget constraints and a time deadline. Kim's approach is very practical and she offered a great design that met all our needs. Her design fit perfectly with the house design and feels like a part of the neighborhood. In addition, the design reflects my taste and responded to my "wish list" of what I wanted and how I would be using the yard. She had innovative ideas that made this yard an "exceptional yard". All work came in under budget and she was able to meet our time deadline. This was a great experience and a great job.

Kim was absolutely amazing to work with! She brought tons of great ideas, was super organized and drafted a brilliant design for our yard that even took into account dog friendly plants! I highly recommend Kim and would hire her again in the future,