Landscaping

23/02/16: Well haven't we come a long way.  We have 2 more quotes for landscaping.. we have pared down our options basically because we have many lineal metres of retaining walls to do.  So... in a nutshell....

• South side behind the gate - mulch with ground cover plants interspersed throughout - this will not be a main thoroughfare - just easy care easy access to "stuff" like aircon unit, gas, rainwater tank, rainwater "let out the yucks" release valve (who knew??)
• Back lawn - lawn!  Buffalo - back shed in back left corner - until maybe when a pool comes there will be 17m x 6m grassy area :)  Alfreso with charcoal coloured broomed concrete.... this may change at a later date - retaining wall from back right corner lowering toward left back corner, and retaining from right back corner toward front on right side lowering.. but continuing to end of fence at front.
• Right side - parking concrete pad behind double gates, grass area out from laundry to alfresco, clothesline against fence lift up type arrangement
• front - retaining wall from left side lowering to driveway at front of house - in charcoal stone split face - bringing front lawn up to height of house so it will be level.  Charcoal broomed driveway to curb and around in front of gates (right of garage).

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17/5/15:  Having received the quote from the original landscape design company as mentioned below and picking ourselves up off the floor... we have moved on!

We have received a few other quotes and we will not be proceeding with those we talked about below... seriously.... being a landscape design company is NOT a license to print money... (or it wasn't last time I looked...)

What we now if is a sensible, liveable, straight forward design.  Grass where it should be.. we are opting to have acid-stained concrete for the alfresco and pool areas.. plain black pool fencing and plain black pool gates for south side and north side areas.  We are separating our yard into 5 areas - South side, rear, pool, alfresco and north side.  

• South side we are planning large pavers and some "fancy grass" that looks like moss apparently.... we are gonna run with this.. perhaps adding some mondo and other ground covers.... on this side of the house is where all the "stuff" is.. meter box, hot water system, air-con, watertank... stuff
• Rear side will contain grass grass grass grass and grass... and a garden shed.. and sometime.. a wall containing a vertical garden.... 
• Pool side will contain.. the pool
• Alfresco side will contain.. undercover outdoor area, spa, my office 
• North side will have the clothesline, undercover parking roofy thing, dog washing machine (for the dog bedding... not the dogs!)

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Well, we've been working with a landscape design company and have been very impressed with the pictures of their previous work. We have not been overly pleased with the manner in which they have interacted with us. Because we don't have registered land they have decided that they don't need to make this a priority. The layout they have created for us is really nice and ticks all of the boxes and we are looking forward to receiving their 2D representations and the 3D walkthrough. That will come next. We received the "estimate" yesterday.... and almost choked. Literally. It's about 2x the number we envisaged - and it doesn't even include the fence! No fence.... seriously! So, right now the plan is to get the 2D and 3D from them, which then makes the drawings and plan ours and not theirs - and then get other "estimates" for the same work.

Once we own the plans, we'll share them. Our home is gonna look and be fantastic!