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My husband & I hired Matt to design our Eichler Atrium. He was originally excited and told us our project would cost “way less” than our $20k budget. He also told us it could easily be done before our desired completion date.
He became very unresponsive shortly after we signed the contract.
Our project came out to $20k, but without several items we asked for multiple times, like tall plants, lighting and a vertical succulent wall. Our stepping stone walkway was poorly designed and does not accommodate a normal human stride. He tried to charge us for an irrigation timer we already owned. He argued with us in e-mails & accused me of lying. He wasn’t here to make sure the project was being executed properly. He did not come after it was completed to make sure it was done correctly.
He tried to push our project date back despite the fact that we were responsive & he sometimes took as long as a week to answer us, and then tried to blame the landscaping company.
His excuse for being unresponsive was that he had a big, important client (implying we were not important).
We would not hire Matt again and we would not recommend him.
We’ve had an exceptional experience with Matt at Water and Earth Landscape Design. He brought his expertise and a great sense of quality and design to our back yard renovation. Easy to work with and was very patient with our questions and requests. We love Matt’s solutions for our mid-sized space in Willow Glen, which included pergola, deck, stone patio, lawn, lighting, irrigation, and landscaping. The carpenters and landscaping company he brought on for the job were excellent and hit their deadlines. Highly recommended.
We did a 60min virtual design consultation with Matt as we are in planning stages of our backyard renovation project. He offered very useful pieces of information and tips to help us clearly envision what we wanted. Using a satellite image of our yard, he did a rough 2d framework of the renovation while we talked. He was able to talk about the range of costs we can expect. Overall, the meeting gave us a good base on how to approach our project. Based on this meeting, we are strongly considering to work with Matt throughout the different phases of our backyard renovation.
We interviewed Matt in August to help us get a landscape design for our new being-built home. Matt met us on site and was friendly and forthcoming about what services he provides and doesn’t. He was knowledgeable and seemed well connected in the industry. Most importantly to my partner and I – his design aesthetic was modern with a flair for unique.
We spent about a month and a half in design development to find the balance of design and function. Matt was always open to our ideas and pushed back when he thought an idea might compromise the design more than we thought it would. He always had real pictures to show of what things would look like and had cool new ideas to propose.
Once we finalized the plans, Matt sent the design out to get bids. He doesn’t work with only a single contractor so was able to talk to us about the cost and benefit from his experience about working with different ones. When a bid came back in higher than our current (now lower budget), Matt was very helpful in helping us figure out what our priorities were and re-working the design to help us make it happen. We didn’t expect Matt would so hands-on and supportive after the “final designs” were given to us, but he’s still here and we are grateful! Photos to come soon!
My family recently purchased a brand new home, and the front and back yards were nothing but dirt. One of the first things we did before we even moved into the house was try to find someone to design our landscape. After reading his reviews and looking over his portfolio, Matt was the first person I reached out. Within 10 minutes I already had a phone call back from him! We immediately scheduled an appointment, and on the day of, we walked through the yard and discussed ideas and what my family wanted out of the space. Matt was incredibly knowledgeable about different materials, trees/plants, and even specific tastes/trends within the area. Not to mention, he’s just a friendly and easy-going guy. It didn’t take long to decide we wanted Matt to be our designer.
The design process itself was really straight-forward. Matt does an initial draft, gets your feedback, and then iterates a couple more times until it is exactly what you want. Matt is super responsive and will answer any questions you have a long the way whether it’s by phone, email, or text.
That was really important to us given we’re busy ourselves with the move, work, and our family.
Now, as we move into the stage of actually building out our yard, we have a clear design we can show to builders that captures exactly what we want. I would highly recommend Matt to anyone looking to have their outdoor spaces done.
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