A couple buys a house and they are happy.
It is an old house with a vintage charm that can be revitalized. Time goes by, and piece by piece, improvements are made to the old house. As improvements are made, the vintage charm of the old house evolves into an onerous curse.
Case in point:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/roto-rooter-plumbing-and-drain-services-jessup#hrid:fVOvSWgDVbld_A0ijHglGg
So, after roto-rooter destroyed our front lawn, we searched high and low to find some landscaping expertise. After consulting a number of professionals and receiving a few estimates, we decided to hire John Shorb Landscaping to
rectify the sinking mud bog of our front lawn and to do some brush clearing in the back yard, as well.
The negotiation and consultation process with John Shorb's manager, oh let's just call him - Todd, was a staccato piece of various emails, phone calls, and meetings. Todd, an affable young man, came up with a number of ideas that would help keep rain water away from our house, e.g. - like having a drainage system for our gutters and regrading the lawn with a swale, but when it came to ideas of clearing the jungle overtaking our backyard ~ not so much. He was steadfast in his opposition for my desire to have grass planted in place of the tangled mess of English ivy and weeds that had grown out of control. In spite of his misgivings of the lack of ability to grow in that area, my desire to have the clear cutting replaced with good old fashioned grass (which I found to be a bit odd since I was the customer and home owner).
The bid was put in and amended a few times, then eventually a very fair price was agreed upon and a contract was signed. The work was done efficiently and on time. The end result was a nicely regraded front lawn with a swale, a irrigation system which carries the rain water from the gutters into the depths of the back yard, and a complete deforestation of the back yard.
Months have passed by and not a single sink hole has emerged and the grade has remained intact. The regrowth of the grass has been mixed. All of the seed in the back yard has grown into a full, plush lawn. It is in the front yard where there are patches of grass that are having difficulty growing. I threw down some more grass seed in the middle of Spring and it seemed to help a little, but as the summer has progressed, the grass growth has regressed. The stunted growth of the grass may be from the lack of shade that the large cedar trees, which we had removed from the front of our house months prior to unearthing of our lawn, used to provide, but I am no landscape expert, so - I dunno. Either way, I am not content with the end result of our front lawn. I would also like to note that the manager's misgivings about grass growing in the back yard did not come to fruition.
All in all, John Shorb did a very good job with landscaping our home at a reasonable price, but our problems with grass growth prevent me from giving them any glowing accolades. Which is a shame, because I give awesome glowing accolades. read more
