A Huge Thank You To Tony Of DNA Landscapes

Yesterday we saw an event that we thought was never going to happen - we signed off the garden with landscaper Tony of DNA Landscapes. 

It was Christmas Eve when we gave Tony the go ahead to start to landscape the garden and it was hoped that work would start in early January and be completed by early March. Tony started on time but a combination of terrible weather and our adding more jobs to the schedule (fencing, a path to the side and landscaping the front) saw us waving him off just yesterday; although, in fairness, the work was completed a couple of weeks back.

I suppose it was a bit ambitious of us to imagine that a job like this could be done in eight weeks in the middle of winter but the finished project was well worth the wait and Tony (sometimes assisted by son Carl) has been exceptionally thorough in carrying out the work. He is a true professional and a perfectionist who insists that every single aspect of the job is completely spot on. If any materials did not reach his standard he rejected them and I think that his attitude to quality rather than speed reflects well on the finished job.

Although many of the following photos have appeared on this blog before they haven't been on the same day and the sequence shows how the work progressed.

Not forgetting the front too.

So it's an enormous thank you to Tony who I think convinced several of our neighbours that he was moving in after five months. I've no idea how many trips he did to and from his home in Felixstowe but he probably found himself heading to Framlingham on autopilot by the end of the project. Although he underpriced some items in his original estimate as some prices went up, he didn't ask us to make up any of the difference (although we certainly didn't let him be out of pocket). Unlike some landscapers we have used in the past, he never asked for a penny in cash; he provided VAT receipts for everything.  We can't recommend him highly enough. 

It's Over

We're in Rochester today and for the next few days visiting our family but we briefly got back to Framlingham from Scotland on Saturday to find something that we had begun to think we would never see - the house project is FINISHED. Yes, whilst we were up in Scotland, Suffolk's finest decorator Gerald Clements had been to put some finishing touches to Marion's potting shed and painted the garden walls, DNA Landscapes' contractor had laid the new driveway and Addison Electrical had completed the garden wiring.

The shelf in the potting shed looked out of place.

So Gerald painted it and gave it a removable cover.

He also spruced up the paintwork which the contractors had left looking a bit shoddy

The grey walls are less obtrusive and go well with the bi-foding doors.

The lighting is a nice finishing touch to the garden

And there's finally room to both park the car and turn it round.

So, at last, almost eleven months after work first started on the house, we've done everything we planned (and quite a bit more). Here are some before and after photos - each pair taken from roughly the same spot.

 

So, that's it. Eleven months of hard work has finally come to fruition. The big question now is "what on earth am I going to find to blog abut in future?"

Don't worry, I'm sure I'll think of something.

Project Update

I was going to call today's blog Almost There but decided that that would be tempting fate. It was anticipated that we'd be finished this week but gardener Tony tells me that it will be next week now. What will he tell me next week?

Our ever reliable and always excellent decorator Gerald Clements kept to his word and arrived bang on time to paint the outside of the house. Aided by fine weather, he (and his colleague James) finished in just over a week and the nasty shade of orange is now banished to our memory. The new colour Dulux Linnet White goes well with the greys of the windows and bi-folding doors and I'll post a photo when I can get round the front which is now a bomb site similar to how the back was for three months.

Speaking of the back, when we got back from a visit to Paul in Rochester last week the plants had all been unloaded and placed in position ready for planting.

And by Thursday most were planted.

By the weekend we had a finished path.

And were finally able to put our furniture out. We still don't feel able to use the garden properly with Tony in and out with his masonry cutter and cement mixer getting stuff prepared for the front but if it's sunny on Sunday we may be able to sit out here.

At least we can see an improvement on what we lived with for months.