Design Plan

Here's the preliminary design that Karen prepared for us. She did a great job in addressing all of our wants. However, we hade a budget in mind and sadly, we could not incorporate as much of the plan as we would have liked.



Karen envisioned a low wall where we could sit by the firepit. Around the entire path was flagstone stepping stones. She incorporated a large dining area and another area for a swinging seat. Very nice!

Plus One Landscape

I solicited a number of companies to give us estimates for the backyard work. Most of the other companies gave us ballpark numbers and were unable to provide any design advice. Karen from Plus One Landscape, came out to meet with us several times and even submitted a design plan for our review. Karen gave us some addresses of jobs that they worked on recently and we went to view the work. While visiting one of the past jobs, the homeowner came out to chat about the work that was done. He was most pleased with their detail and professionalism.

StoneLink

I've thought about using Stone-link products for the past year. It's a concrete based product that looks like flagstone. I've visited the head office where they have a display setup in front. Price-wise it's pretty competitive to interlocking and patio slabs.

My brother in law knows someone that installed Stonelink for a front patio. It was installed a couple of years ago. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a lot of chipping and cracking at the edge of each stone tile. I don't know if that was due to defective materials or due to salt. Anyways, after seeing that Stonelink didn't appeal to me anymore. I wanted some material that would continue to look nice for several years.

I took the following picture at StoneLinks head office.