It Could Happen to You - Rejected from Landscapers' Challenge

I was hoping for a sweet backyard remodel (that's nothing compared to a structural remodel) paid for by HGTV or their affiliates, but we'll have to hold on to our dreams a little longer. We have some friends who recently completed a huge backyard project with one of the landscape architects who is doing one of the Seattle area landscapers' challenge makeovers. I'll try to keep my chin up.

Thank you for writing to us at Landscapers' Challenge. As you already know, we are traveling to your location this year, but we have already chosen our homeowners in the area. We will keep a copy of your application on file for future consideration, please feel free to do so.

Again, thanks for writing. We wish you the best of luck on your landscaping project.

Sincerely,
Landscapers' Challenge Staff

Form location: http://www.pietown.tv/shows/lcclientreqs.html
Submitted: Thu Jun 15 22:54:52 PDT 2006 from www.pietownprods.com

AreaSize: 600

LongLived: We've lived in our house since 2000. It was built in 1906.

ElseLives: We have two little boys, Elliot age 5 and Asher age 2. No pets although we might buy a frog soon.

CharacterizeStyle: Our 1906 farmhouse was stripped of any character in the 1950s, but we've slowly injected our own personality into the house. Our style is eclectic and probably in need of reigning in -- a little retro, contemporary asian and a little mid century modern. We like a clean look, but we're not afraid of kitsch.

ProblemsProject: Low functionality for the children. An ugly rectangle of weed infested grass. The yard is broken up and doesn't flow with the rest of the house.

MostLeast: High points: privacy and a chinese maple tree. Low points: weeds, weeds, weeds. No place to sit and eat dinner. The house doesn't integrate with the outdoors as well as it could.

DreamTheme: We'd love to have a place to barbeque and hold dinner parties or just eat dinner outside. A relaxing place to sit and read in the garden. A place for the kids to play. I would like to look out the window from any room in the back of the house and see landscape that's inspiring and tranquil. We'd also like to have drought tolerant, low maintenance plants.

FunFacts: Most people have a preconceived notion of Seattle that includes - the space needle, indie music scene, coffee, rain, microsoft. Seattle has great summers, it's not as rainy or grey as the stereotypes would lead you to believe. Seattle lives it up during the summer with tons of art walks, farmers markets, streets fairs and outdoor music festivals. We live in the north part of Seattle in a neighborhood called Greenlake which is a centered around a lake called..... Greenlake. Our neighborhood wallingford / greenlake has many young families and couples who are omnipresent in the parks, sidewalks, cafes and restaurants. It's a lively, artsy, family centric, fun place to live.

Hobbies: Reading, biking, yoga, martial arts. Right now our main activities involve entertaining and wrangling little kids.

Uniqueness: We're a warm and friendly young family who have recently emerged from remodel hell (a corrupt contractor and a project that took three times longer and twice the budget we expected). Our remodel project (an addition of 1000 square feet) which put out of our house for the last 8 months is near complete. We're thrilled to be back in our house and start living again. We're in dire need of backyard landscaping and would love to spend our summer in a new beautiful backyard.

agreecheck: on