Outside Dreams Landscape Design & Construction

Working with Amy and Felix has been wonderful! When we first contacted them about our backyard patio, we had two other bids already. Their design was beautiful and Amy did a great job explaining the difference between slab concrete (which was one of our other bids) and installing pavers. Amy and Felix had great ideas and were very professional and thoughtful. We took a long time to make a decision because of the cost. Compared with the other bids we had, their bid on the paver patio and walkway was very competitive. They were very patient with us as we had many questions and asked them to come out several times before we were able to 'pull the trigger'. Amy helped us divide up our project into several phases to be done over time. The most important was the patio and walkway leading to the front of the house. The crew showed up the day they were scheduled! On the first day of the project, or Phase I, the crew arrived by 7:00 and started right in! Most days, they were still working until 5:30/6:00 pm. The crew was always helpful and flexible. I had to take my car out of the driveway several times and they were always willing to stop what they were doing to help me get out. They were very hard workers! Amy's partner, Felix even worked along side them a few days. I understand he does that with every project. This large project took several weeks to complete. One week, Amy came to see how things were going and noticed that the step from the patio to the walkway was a little too high. With kids, it would be safer to add additional step to make each step shorter for smaller legs. She had her crew fix the issue without any additional cost on our part. They finished the Phase I, just in time for the 4th of July party I had planned! The crew cleaned up everything before they left. It looks amazing!! Phase II started several months later. We didn't know what we wanted in terms of design in the front yard and left it up to Amy to come up with something amazing. She came up with adding an additional walkway from the front door to the sidewalk in front of our house in addition to the retaining wall & landscaping plantings. The kids and I had been walking across the grass to get to the sidewalk to walk up to school each morning - so an additional walkway was a great idea. We were not sure how it would look to have a paver walkway against a slap porch. Amy showed us pictures of other jobs she had done. With the great job she did on the backyard, we trusted her... and she was right! Looking at the front yard now, we are positive it was the right decision! She has a great eye for design! With Phase II, the front retaining wall and planting beds look amazing! We had a very beautiful tree we wanted to save and be apart of the new landscape. This would require the base of the tree to be covered slightly with mulch/dirt as it was located behind the retaining wall. We were concerned the tree might go into shock and not like the extra soil around its base. So far, 6 months later, the tree is still doing good! During this stage, once again, the crew worked hard, kept the area in front of our house clean each day, and were very polite. Phase III, several months later, included landscaping the backyard, adding bushes and one tree, installing rock edging, fixing the grass and sprinkler system. Once again, we have nothing but positive things to say about the work ethic of the crew. With this phase, we had some new sod and seed on the lawns. Originally they set the sprinklers to water two times a day for two weeks (or 10 days?) until the lawn became established. When it was time to reprogram the timer to water less often, I got a call from Amy asking if they can come in and reset our timer!!! I totally forgot about it! I am very thankful she had it in her calendar to check on me :-) After they were all finished with the project, we were having trouble with our sprinklers. They were going off at weird times during the night. And we had some flooding near the sprinkler controls and main water valves. My husband was traveling a lot at the time, so I just called Amy to see if someone could come and take a look at it. Felix came over that afternoon to tighten everything up. He also helped me with programing the timer. We have been so impressed with their responsiveness and work ethic that we hired Outside Dreams to handle all of our lawn & landscaping maintenance! We are still extremely happy with the service we continue to receive and have recommended their services to several friends and neighbors. You will not be disappointed!

Amy came out to look at our yard so she could create a landscape design for us. She was pleasant and professional at that first meeting. It took her at least a week to come out and get final measurements and then an additional 2 weeks (at least) to get the design to us. We finally heard from her and she came out and showed me a nice design and gave me an estimate which was loaded with possible charges and unknowns in terms of what they would find in the sprinkler system etc. She overshot our budget that we told her we could spend by at least $28,000! Seemed a little much. I reviewed it with my husband and contacted her with additional questions via email. She took a few days to get back to me and we finally decided on some very basic work which still seemed very expensive. She told us that once she had a signed proposal she could get her guys out that week. We then didn't hear from her all week, I called her and emailed her specific questions in terms of sq. feet measurements, etc. that we needed to order sod, etc. She never answered those questions which she could have looked up on her CAD design in minutes. I finally called and threatened to find someone else and she called me back and again said she would have her guys out to start in the next couple of days. Still didn't hear from her. After more emails with questions from me she said that she needed to come out with her partner to evaluate the sprinklers as they didn't quote it right to get it to pass inspection. Then she proceeded to be a no show (which is really irritating). We then found someone else to start the work at a significantly cheaper price and they are starting tomorrow. I would NOT use this company in the future.

I made an appointment for last Wednesday, May 23, 2012 for 9 am regarding repair of our exterior lighting system. At 8 am that day they left a message saying the repairman wouldn't be coming due to an emergency. When they didn't call again to re-scedule I called them to ask THEM if they wanted to re-schedule me. The receptionist left the phone for a few minutes, and when she came back she gave me the next Saturday, May 26 at noon. By 1 pm that Saturday the repairman still hadn't come, nor had we received a call, so I called them and left a message to call me. An hour later someone called to say that the same repairman had an emergency and wouldn't be coming. Seriously I think they had no intention of coming and possibly have too much work and don't want to do repairs. Just a feeling I got. We would never try them again. Our time is too important to wait for the visit that never comes.

Set up an appointment for a bid. Day off appointment called to say she would be 30 minutes late. Arrived 60 minutes late. Woman was nice and said she would have the bid later that day. Never received a bid. Called back several days later to ask about the bid. She did not apologize or offer to send it right away, she just stated "well we've been busy, it is that time of year."

We actually changed the design twice which they were more than happy to accommodate. She was very knowledgable regarding landscape design, specifically around horticulture which was important to us because we wanted to make sure we were planting the best options for trees, shrubs, etc. They were punctual, detail oriented, and professional. The crew was very good and cleaned up at the end of each day. They finished the job fairly quickly but not rushed, they're just good at what they do. Highly recommend.

They are very professional and did great work. The staff were also very friendly. They came back and replace some flowers that did not survive free of charge.

Our backyard was an overgrown mess. Amy seemed as anxious as we were to fix it. The plan she drew up was beautiful and she worked with us to keep it within budget. She and Felix were accessible and helpful. The crew was prompt, polite, respectful, and left the site spotless each day. Everything went smoothly, the yard looks amazing, and I am very happy!

We needed a new retaining wall because our old one was leaning and no longer holding the soil in place. Amy Kruse, the owner of Outside Dreams who did the estimate, assessed the situation and designed the new wall to match our house style and colors. Her partner Felix and his crew did the work. They demolished and removed all of the debris from the old wall, installed the new wall and left the yard looking better than it did when they started. The project took aproximately 4 days to complete. The workmen were extremely polite and professional, always arrived early in the morning and worked hard throughout the day, meticulously cleaned up their mess and finished when they said they would. The finished wall looks fantastic! We have received numerous compliments from our neighbors and are so happy with the results that we will be having another retaining wall replaced in our backyard next year.

They started and finished when agreed upon. They did a very nice job and we are quite pleased with the finished project.

Everything went according to plan and schedule. We love the way everything turned out.

Because I was so pleased with the job Outside Dreams did at my old home, I didn't hesitate to hire them again to come and make improvements at my new house. I needed new back yard plants - including concealing the big electrical box, removing a tree, and a paver walkway ramp to replace the concrete walkway and many steps in my front yard. I was very impressed once again with the design that Amy presented to me. She worked with me to make the cost within my budget with different paver options and got HOA approval for me. Felix came out many times to make sure the project was on schedule and everything was progressing as planned. They were professional and the crew curteous and I was very happy with the final results. Should I need more landscaping done, I will definately call them to do the work.

The project took about six days to complete. The existing landscaping was 22 years old and very overgrown. The crew was prompt, polite and kept a clean worksite. Any concerns we had were addressed in a timely manner. We did have an issue with the polymeric sand used in the joints of the flagstone patio. It did not set up with the first application and Felix did come out to reapply it. There are still a couple of joints that are soft which apparently should not happen with this type of compound. I think we would consider a different compound for any future projects in the front yard landscaping. Updated review on Sept 20th. We asked Amy to come out after the re-application of the polymeric sand joints as there were still issues with the sand not setting properly, gaps which were several inches wide and a white residue which completely hid the beauty of the flagstone. There was also one stone which needed to be removed and re-leveled. Amy did meet with us, agreed that these items needed to be fixed, took pictures and told us a crew would come by to take of it. A crew came out on Sept 12 and dug out some of the joints and reapplied the polymeric sand, put chips of flagstone in the larger joints and scrubbed some of the stones. The one stone was not re-leveled and there is still a tremendous amount of white residue on the flagstones along with hardened sand now. We feel that we have been very patient and agreeable in getting this resolved up to this point. We asked when they were going to come back to complete the job and called them, but have not heard back. It is for this reason that we changed our grade of this company. It is unfortunate because the design of the landscaping is lovely, but we question the commitment to a quality installation.

This was a combination of improving on our landscape design while correcting some previous landscape workmanship issues done by another company. Amy Kruse was very professional and provided not only good ideas, but had potential solutions on the spot. She was responsive, and their pricing was fair. Their crews were very good, the work was done on time and the quality was very good. They installed driveway borders, a paver sidewalk, a stone sidewalk, a sitting wall and patio, they redesigned our front yard and brought in more plantings also. They also provide seasonal maintenance and consult regularly on potential improvements. We are very pleased with them, and would recommend them.

Great experience We would recommend and use again. Amy, Felix and the folks at Outside Dreams were fantastic from the time they came out for an initial quote. Before, during and after the work, there was great communication, the crews showed up and worked on time and were professional. With a big project, we had some minor issues after the work was done and Amy and Felix corrected those issues in a timely manner and to our satisfaction.

One of the things that they did was lay pavers with conduits underneath so that we could install a drip system at a later date. We asked them to mark the location of the conduits so that we could find them when the time came.Later last fall, we decided to install the drip system. We dug up our yard in two places to find them, and no conduits could be found. We contacted them numerous times for help, even assuring them that we would pay them to come and help us, but I never received a response. I had started to think that they had never installed the conduits to begin with which was why they hadn't been found. This spring, we contact them again- this time I had my husband do it. They did come out, and although we told them that we did not need it marked and had explained the whole situation, they came out and re-marked the same spots. After more phone calls and emails, they agreed to charge us $75 and sent someone out to dig for the conduits. They dug up more areas than we needed (there was only one conduit we really needed to get to) so we had to repair those holes, and it turns out that they could not find the conduits either so that had to dig up ton of our yard before they were found. It turns out that the conduits were not properly marked to begin with which explains why we couldn't find them and their own worker had to turn over a large section of our yard to find them. Overall we ended up having so many issues with poor workmanship which we didn't really realize until after the fact that I would not recommend this company for anything other than laying pavers (those do look beautiful) and I would encourage someone to be at home while they work to check on what they are doing because once it is done it is very difficult to get them to make a change or get a response.

I was thoroughly impressed with this company. Amy designed the yard last Fall. She listened to all my ideas and concerns. When she came back with the design I could tell she had thought about our conversation and did a great job incorporating my thoughts into a creative plan she knew would work well. She was always on time and called even if she was running a few minutes late! She never failed to call me back or answer my emails in a reasonable amount of time. My concerns were addressed efficiently. The demo and install team headed by Felix, worked very hard every day even during some cold rainy days. They were friendly and respectful. Felix did a great job heading his crew. He was usually on site some time during the day and was willing to answer questions and address concerns. He also did a great job revamping our old sprinkler system. When the project was completed they cleaned up the front driveway, side walk and street area where they had been keeping their trailer and landscaping materials. It was quite dirty but they did a superb job of cleaning the area. I've never had that experience before! The yard looks great. I am anxious to watch it mature. I would highly recommend Outside Dreams Landscaping!!!

. They are extremely professional to provide a nice drawing showing exactly what they are going to do. They are very detailed and there will be no surprises. They are not necessarily the cheapest. I think we would be going with them though we have not made up our minds.

Amy and Felix were great! The project lasted just over three weeks. They came out, understood the project and came back with a beautiful project plan and design. They brought samples, pictures, a packet with building standards and guarantee information. After interviewing a few companies, we selected Outside Dreams. They took care of the entire HOA process and came back with full approvals including the lights which we did independently to keep costs down. We went through several iterations of the plan trying to hit the budget and get the yard we wanted. The work started right away. The end project is absolutely wonderful. Work progressed very well for all but two days where the light snow seemed to cause them to wave off all but one person for the two days. The crew was very polite and friendly, always cleaned up after themselves and worked steadily through the day. Large projects always have hiccups and things that have to change. I expect that. They were very flexible, discussed deviations from the plan with me and found elegant solutions in every case. I got hit with one change order for $350 which I was largely expecting as the supports under the deck were warped. Perfectly acceptable. The big pieces of the project were definitely the pavers which have near flawless curves, sinking of the fire pit area and running of the gas line. These all took some time but you can really tell that pavers are their thing. For larger projects, they do keep a small (10 ft or so) trailer on site but it is well maintained and not an eye-sore. I can't over-emphasize what a pleasure it was to work with them. With such a large project and so many moving pieces, I was certainly nervous that things might go south. Once they started and I saw how they handled things that popped up, I was completely comfortable. The team was dedicated to this project - I wasn't getting split crews that were on three different houses. They were always right on time (save one out of 20 trips during rush hour) and even met me at 7am to fit with my work schedule. There were quite a few quality items I noticed that I had to ask to have corrected through the project. Usually a couple of minor items each day (I checked everything very closely). These were immediately addressed with a great attitude. I do wish that they did a close out inspection each day and left a checklist of things that were going to be addressed later so I didn't have to check up on everything. Also, while the price was good and fair, there were a few changes I made to the plan where I felt like things I removed didn't bring the price down as I expected and when I added some things they seemed a bit high. This wasn't to the extent that I felt they were being dishonest but it did feel a little lopsided. There was one design flaw where water pools up in the low point draining off the yard - something that probably should have been considered in the yard design. I was disappointed by this and would have to pay more to have it remedied. The project finished about two days later than anticipated. While there were some areas they could improve on to really nail the concierge experience, I would highly recommend this team for any landscaping projects. The yard is stunning and they were great to work with. It came out exactly as I had hoped. Well worth the cost for a completely gutted and redone yard that truly has a custom feel.

I contacted Amy Kruse twice in August 2010 and had decided to attempt the pond myself. After several failed attempts, I contacted her and again. She was polite and happy to help me after twice being turned down for the work. She came by with her co-owner, was quick on an emailed estimate, and followed up. Her crew came in and did the work in 2.5 days fixing all my mistakes in the process. After my inspection and finding some minor things, her crew fixed them the next day without extra cost. She did not take any money up front and made sure I was fully satisfied before asking for payment. Highly recommended and I will be hiring the company again. Cheers to Felix and Amy as they are very good at what they do.

They did a really great job, they listened to what we wanted and then drew it out to make it look pretty. The installation was done really well. They have a small crew, but they are very hard working. Start to finish it took 4 weeks to do the front and back yard. The clean up was great, I had no mess at all. They cleaned up after themselves on a daily basis.

Most companies do not seem to value customer service, however Amy does. It is very nice to start of the season with our yard ready to go. I really appreciate Felix helping me with our sprinkler system.

From the very beginning they were the ultimate professionals. Adjustments were made with accommodation. Pricing was competitive and quality of work was excellent. When there were a few issues they resolved to complete satisfaction

She always showed up on time, and communicated well if there were any issues.

From Start to finish the experience was top notch!!!

The job required moving rock, bringing in soil to correct the grade, replacing sod, and putting in new drainage. After we accepted their bid, they were prompt in scheduling us for the work. They did a great job, we are very happy with the results.