When you have your home remodeled, you expect everything to look and function its best. But if you neglect the surrounding outdoor areas, there can be problems. For instance, imagine a drainage nightmare that was caused by an uncorrected grading problem. Now you have a mini mudslide occurring on your property every time it rains and that mud is getting tracked into your brand-new addition.
Or what about having a small patio outside of your newly remodeled basement that isn’t even big enough to set your furniture on. You walk out from your beautiful new space onto a nonfunctional patio that really serves no purpose.
These are just a couple of the frustrations that we’ve witnessed from homeowners who have had a beautiful home remodeled but did not involve a landscape design professional on the project.
While you are likely confident in your builder’s expertise in remodeling your home, you may be worried that this experience won’t extend to the outdoor living areas of your property. You don’t want to be left with an ugly or nonfunctional landscape surrounding your beautiful new home.
Of course, this isn’t the case for everyone. There are certainly some remodelers in Northern Virginia who understand the importance of working with a landscape designer.
In fact, some even take the steps to bring one on board from the start. But if your remodeler hasn’t suggested it, you might want to start the search on your own.
By bringing a landscape design expert in Ashburn, Aldie, or Leesburg, VA into the mix, then you truly can get the home and the yard that you’ve been dreaming about. Let’s explore just some of the ways that a partnership like this can make a big difference.
Matching the Right Expert to your Needs
Let’s be clear about an important fact. We do not claim to be experts in home building. After all, we are not remodeling contractors. You do not want us remodeling your bathroom. But in the same way that you would not bring a landscape designer to do the interior remodels to your home, is a home builder the best professional to be handling your outside living areas?
The answer is no, and that’s said with no disrespect to remodeling contractors. They are the true experts at what they do—and they’re expected to do a lot. They know how to do cabinetry, install bathroom fixtures, re-do entire kitchens, put up drywall, and have a keen eye for interior design, among many other skill sets. They even build entire additions with complicated exterior renovations such as changes to the home’s roof, windows, and more.
But they would likely admit that they are not experts when it comes to outdoor living areas.
In fact, we have worked with (and are in frequent touch with) remodelers in the Northern Virginia area that have called us in on the job. Whether they knew they needed a drainage problem corrected or they wanted us to add additional patio space to a new addition, we have been brought in for our exterior expertise while they handled the home build and the interior.
Building a Partnership Early On
Bringing in a landscape design expert in Ashburn, Aldie, or Leesburg, VA will go a long way in enhancing your project. But it’s important to bring in this expert early. Landscaping often gets categorized as the “finishing touch” but if you wait too long to involve a landscape expert, it can be too late to make important changes.
If you’re looking for a larger scale project, even if it’s going to be years down the road, such as a patio, a pavilion, an outdoor kitchen, or even a pool, these are all major construction projects. It is helpful for us to be involved during the remodeling phase to ensure that the layout and spacing are ideal for your outdoor living projects. Otherwise, you might end up with an outdoor kitchen that has your air conditioning unit sitting right next to it. Or you might have an odd layout in which your basement is below your kitchen, requiring steps to be put in. These are real scenarios we have faced.
Being involved early on also prevents headaches such as having to re-tear up your yard to add utilities that could have been added during the construction phase. The truth is, when landscaping companies are brought into a project late, the space might not be what you truly want it to be. Or, it might require repairs and fixes to make it that way which wouldn’t have been necessary had we been involved early on.
But when a landscape contractor is involved from the start, there are so many benefits. Besides preventing the headaches that we’ve mentioned, you can also save yourself money.
When items such as sewer systems, electrical lines, or gas lines are planned for in advance, they can be taken care of at the time of construction rather than after the fact, saving you big time. You’ll also have things the way you want them from the start without having to go back and correct problems down the road. That means you’ll have the perfect-sized patio for your new addition and you won’t have to worry about grading or drainage issues spoiling your new space.
The Best of Both Worlds
Working with a landscape design expert in Ashburn, Aldie, or Leesburg, VA, will bring success to your remodeling project in many ways. One way is avoiding aggravation. Instead of having that mini mudslide occur in your yard when it rains, grading and drainage will be accounted for during construction and it won’t become an issue.
Similarly, when you walk out of your brand-new basement, you’ll now step onto a patio that complements the space rather than feels crowded or nonfunctional. All of your furniture fits perfectly. Now, when you’re entertaining, you can seamlessly extend your party to the outdoors.
Working with a landscape designer can also save you money. By having a master plan and accounting for outdoor renovations that are going to be taking place (now or in the future) you can plan in advance. That means that utility lines for your future outdoor kitchen can be run now, during the construction period when your yard is already being torn up by machinery for your remodel, rather than having to tear up your yard down the road. That saves you money and it saves you headaches.
Choosing Wisely
At the end of the day, the choice is yours. You can have a beautiful home with a yard that falls short of your dream or you can have the best of both worlds. When remodeling contractors and landscape design pros of Ashburn combine their efforts, you wind up with a dream team that will give you a truly completed property (dream home plus dream yard). There is no reason that you should have to compromise or settle for anything less.
At Rock Water Farm, we enjoy working with some of the wonderful remodeling contractors in the Northern Virginia area. Together we can form a partnership that will help deliver on your expectations of having the total package.
If you’re ready to get the best of both worlds for your Ashburn, Aldie, or Leesburg, VA home, then request a free consultation and let’s start talking about making your dream a reality.
