New from Tennessee

[Missy]

Hello Everyone, My husband and I have an independent garden center in Knoxville, TN. He opened the business with his folks about 8 years ago. He started out mowing lawns and doing landscaping while in college (that was almost 20 years ago). Now we have 4 acres with 3 greenhouses in a prime area of town. We got into hardscapes a few years ago with our first project being a custom kitchen showroom at our nursery. The project has truly paid for itself with the jobs it has brought in. I look forward to getting great input from you guys. Nice to meet you...

[MuirView Design]

Welcome Missy! Nice to meet you also. It's nice to have you here and we look forward to your input. Do you guys do the installation stuff yourselves? How's business looking for the spring down in that part of the country?

BTW - the blogspot link in your signature is not working.

[Missy]

Hi Adam, We do have a crew. We try to keep the whole job (except electrical and plumbing) with one crew. I tried to post some work on the 2008 pictures thread, but I must have done something wrong! I'll try again later.

Thanks for the "heads up" on my blog address being wrong. I have corrected that now.

We still have a few big jobs going right now and a few more bids out, but after that I'm not sure what is going to happen. That's one reason I'm getting on here to see what you guys are doing. I have big jobs finishing up but builders can't get the rest of the $ from the bank to pay us!! The economy was fine here until after Christmas...now, I don't know....s l o w...

[MuirView Design]

What was the issue with posting pics? You should be able to do it through the manage attachment dialog. As long as they are one of the supported formats and less than 4MB, they should post fine. The site is set up to automatically resize the photos.

[Missy]

Here are a few examples of our work. Sorry, just now got back to uploading them.

[cgland]

Nice work Missy! My only criticism is that something looks off on the pergola. It looks as if your top boards are running in the wrong direction.

[Missy]

Hi Chris, Thanks. While that pergola job was great fun to do with wonderful clients, they were VERY hands-on and decided EVERY detail of the job. We had a different vision for the pergola, but "the customer is always right" and he was writing the checks. All in all we had a very happy client, so we were happy!

[Missy]

Also, this picture is from a weird angle in the neighbor's backyard. This is the way the guy nextdoor sees it.

[cgland]

The construction looks solid Missy, but usually the top boards run perpendicular to the header boards. As long as the customer is happy though.

[JZap]

Welcome Missy! I looked at the same thing Chris did with the Pergola, but they get what they want. I'm sure you'll find out quickly on here, if you thought you were critical of your own work...there is much more on here which is really how we become better. If everyone says nice work! You think you're the best and never get better. I honestly think the workmanship is phenominal for just getting into the hardscape biz recently. Of course the small detail I noticed the most is the space above the fridge? Do they remove it seasonally? Just looks unfinished there.

[Missy]

Hi JZap, Yes, they do remove that seasonally. There are covers for the other appliances, but budget constraints only allowed for a frig that I wasn't sure would hold up to our winter temps. They spend a lot of time at a condo in the winter with no one at their house. They didn't want a shelter over the kitchen part. Sometimes you just have to work around things and with what you've got.

Thanks for the feedback..all of it. I'm always looking for ways to improve my designs.

[JZap]

Great! Lol, there is plenty of critics here to help you improve your designs! Myself included. These guys like close-ups.

[stoneguy]

Very Nice work. I love your use of objects such as pillars and placement of kitchen. It gives it a nice 3Demensional aspect.