When you look at your yard do you see a glimpse of what its potential? If you have an unfinished backyard it’s like a canvas just waiting to become a masterpiece. Chances are you’ve been dreaming for a long time about the possibilities and now you’re finally narrowing in on making those dreams a reality.
We know that the process of getting started with a design/build project can feel intimidating. Even the most basic of projects are still a large undertaking and you want to ensure that everything goes right. After dreaming about the possibilities for so long, there is no room for error on the road to creation. You want your dreams to come to life the way that you’ve pictured them all this time.
That’s exactly why we’ve created this guide. We want to help you as you begin your journey of taking those dreams and making them a reality. This guide will walk you through some of the most common projects to consider, provide ideas on how to make a big dream work within your budget, and even give you a timeline of what to expect during the design and build process.
We hope that by offering this information that we can help your process go more smoothly. You’ll be on the road to making your landscaping dreams a reality in no time.
Whenever we design an outdoor project for our customers, we are always thinking what could keep them outside for a minimum of four hours? That’s ultimately what you want with an outdoor project—something that will increase your enjoyment of time spent outside. Maybe just having a hardscaped patio with a fireplace is enough to do that. Or perhaps maybe you also want an adjoining outdoor kitchen or the pool of your dreams.
We can design virtually any space that you dream of and help make it a reality. Let’s look at some of the most common projects that will also give you the most return on investment in terms of not only monetary value, but also enjoyment.
Patios are probably one of the most common projects that we design and build. They are the foundation for most outdoor living spaces. This will be where you set up an entertaining area, a dining area, or will maybe even become part of an extension of your home with an outdoor kitchen or pool.
The biggest benefit to adding hardscaped areas to your property is the fact that they make your space more useable. You can set up patio furniture or sit around a fireplace and truly enjoy your outdoor living space.
Fire features are another common outdoor project that we do, typically as part of a patio. While we have created both outdoor fireplaces and built-in fire pits, in most cases we find that a fireplace is the more desirable feature. A custom built-in fire pit can take up a large portion of your patio (as much as 150 to 200 square feet of space). Because it’s immovable, you’ve now dedicated that space to only fire pit use. There is also the problem of not being able to direct smoke. If the wind changes, it could be blowing right at you.
A fireplace, on the other hand, can be built on the edge of a patio and only use up as little as 50 to 75 square feet. The smoke from a fireplace can also be directed to blow up and out of the chimney. However, if your dreams are truly centered around a fire pit, we’d love to talk more about it. At the end of the day our goal is to create spaces that you’ll love to use.
Adding an outdoor kitchen to your backyard is another great way to enhance your space. There was a time when an outdoor kitchen just meant a built-in grill and maybe a sink. Today that’s the basic starting point.
Many outdoor kitchens include a variety of other amenities such as a refrigerator and freezer, plenty of cabinet storage space, a warming drawer or oven, and maybe even something special like a custom-built pizza oven. We can take your ideas and help bring them to life with a one-of-a-kind custom kitchen design.
Outdoor kitchens are also often combined with other design elements that help to improve their usability throughout the year. Adding an outdoor fireplace, a pavilion to provide overhead cover, and even television and audio components can make your outdoor kitchen the spot everyone loves!
If your backyard dream includes a pool and/or spa, we can help create a custom design that will make your pool and spa truly unique. One thing that sets Rock Water Farm apart from other pool builders in the area is the fact that we consider not just the pool but the areas surrounding it. While these spaces are often overlooked by pool builders, it is the space as a whole that really helps create a backyard oasis.
Whether it’s adding beautiful trees, shrubs, and ornamental grasses in the landscaped areas around the pool, installing a natural stone patio where you can set up furniture, or even helping design a pool house or pavilion where you can cool off, we can take all your dreams and help bring them to life.
If you have big dreams that you’d like to take from idea to reality, but you don’t have the budget to support all of it at once, you don’t have to let go of your dreams. That’s because we can tackle your dream in stages.
In fact, about 15 percent of our projects are phased out, meaning they’re completed over a predetermined period of time. That’s one of the biggest benefits to hiring a landscape professional that truly understands the big picture. We can plan for your complete project now but build it in stages that your budget will allow.
Staging a project typically means starting with the patio. A patio can be very disruptive to the landscape in terms of tearing things up so while we’re doing that, we can put the footers in place for a future pavilion or outdoor kitchen that you have planned. That means that we won’t need to tear up your yard again—we’ll just be building vertically at that point.
When we do an initial design consultation with our customers we discuss all of their ideas and whether their budget will allow for the project to be done all at once or whether we should talk about phasing it out. If it involves phasing, then we’ll discuss the stages. Typically projects are done in two or three stages. For example, we might do the patio first, followed by the pavilion and outdoor kitchen, and finally we may add a pool.
We understand that there are often budget constraints. You might have a child in daycare—which around here can be as expensive as $2,000 a month. Perhaps you want the patio now so that you can dine outside or have a nice place to sit while the kids play on your swingset. You’ll add the outdoor kitchen once the kids are in school full-time and your budget allows for it. Or maybe you have an older child you’re supporting in college right now. You want the patio completed in time for their graduation party but you won’t be able to afford the outdoor kitchen until that last tuition check is cashed. That’s life and we understand it. We can work with it.
One thing that our customers tell us they appreciate is the fact that we are not pushy salespeople. We view ourselves as consultants. We will consult with you about what it is that you want and how we can achieve it, but we will not push you into that decision.
If the time to build is not now—that’s okay. But when the time is right, we’re here. We’ll consult on your dreams now and come up with a plan that’s feasible even if it doesn’t mean doing it all at once or even right away.
At Rock Water Farm we pride ourselves on thinking of all the little details that a lot of other landscape companies forget. It’s something that sets us apart and why our projects are often so unique. We obviously focus on your dream but we also think about those details that perhaps you wouldn’t have even considered yourself—such as how traffic will flow about your outdoor space when you have a party, where to put your pool patio based on where the sun shines the most, or even whether your patio is big enough to fit all the chairs you need around the table for your family to share a meal.
Though small, these details can have an enormous impact on your overall enjoyment of the space. When you’re investing in an outdoor living project, you obviously want to be able to enjoy it to its fullest.
Before we consult with customers on planning their outdoor living spaces, we have a questionnaire that we ask them to fill out. The answers to the questions we ask helps ensure that we’re not only designing a space that is aesthetically appealing, but one that is truly functional to our customers’ needs. We also encourage our customers to browse magazines, blogs, and books to get ideas about what they like. It always helps us to have pictures of ideas that speak to you.
To give you a sense of some of the questions you should be asking yourself before meeting with a designer, we will share some of the questions found on our Landscape Design Questionnaire. This is a sampling of just some of them:
You can see that we spend a lot of time during the initial design phase to think of every possible detail that we can. Even the smallest of details can have a big impact on the overall finished project and we make it a point to think of everything.
Our design process is completed in stages, starting with the initial consultation. The initial consultation is an opportunity to discuss your dreams and in turn, we’ll discuss what’s involved in bringing those dreams to life. This is the time to show us pictures of projects you like and to review the completed the questionnaire that we previously provided for you.
It’s important to have all decision makers in the household present during the initial consultation. Getting everyone on the same page will ensure things keep moving forward rather than having to “back to the drawing board” should one of the decision makers in the household disagree with the design.
Following the initial consultation we’ll have a follow-up meeting to show you the conceptual design. While we were dreaming big at the initial design meeting, this conceptual design will have really narrowed down what it is that you want and during the follow-up meeting we’ll hone in on it even more. We can discuss budget in greater depth, including whether or not you need to phase out the project or if we’ll be completing it all at once.
Finally, during the final design stage, we will sit down with you to discuss the finalized plans. At this time, we’ll have you sign an agreement with us if you plan to move forward. At Rock Water Farm we do not perform design-only work. We spend a tremendous amount of time on our designs and by the third phase of the project we’ve come to know you and your dreams in a way that will allow us to complete it the way you truly want. Once you’ve signed the agreement and given a deposit we will release the design in order for you to have a copy but until that point we retain that design ourselves.
After you’ve signed an agreement with us, it typically takes about four to six weeks before your project is started—though that can vary based on the complexity of the project. If it’s a simpler project (such as a simple phase one of a multi-phase project), it could be even sooner. While we do get very busy during the warmer months, it’s always worth calling us about getting on our schedule and starting the process. However, the earlier in advance you can plan—such as using the off-season to meet with us and discuss your ideas—the more likely you’ll get on our schedule quickly.
One thing that our customers really like about us is the fact that we’re not only able to design and build your project but we’re able to maintain it, too. While we started out as a design/build company, it was our customers’ ongoing desire to have us also be the ones to maintain their property that lead us to expand into maintenance services. They had already come to know and trust us from our design and installation work, and wanted to continue that relationship rather than hire another company for their maintenance needs.
Rock Water Farm is a complete maintenance company, meaning we can perform any services you require. We can do as little or as much as you wish but we do offer a complete list of services, including lawn fertilization, seasonal clean-ups, mowing, pest control, and much more. Once your project is complete, chances are that you want to invest in maintaining it and we’re here to help.
Many of our maintenance customers think of us as their own personal property manager after we’ve designed and built a project for them. We’ve built ongoing relationships in keeping their outdoors living spaces looking as good as they did the day we first built them.
We hope that you’ve found this guide helpful in beginning the process of bringing your outdoor living project to life. Those of us here at Rock Water Farm would love to be your tour guides, leading you on the way to the backyard of your dreams. Whether it’s a patio and fire feature or an entire pavilion complete with a kitchen and a pool, we’re here to help you get started.
If you're ready to get started, contact us for a free consultation and we can answer any questions that you may still have.
