ToolBox Design, San Francisco CA

Sanem and her team helped us turn our backyard from an unkempt bush into a small-big garden where both adults and kids love spending time outdoors. We found Sanem's Toolbox company via Thumbtack and we had initial conversations with a few companies but we liked Sanem's one the best. Looking back, we are very happy about the decision.

We appreciated her professionalism, experienced eye, overall communication and of course the result - delivered within the budget and agreed on timeline. Not that everything was just smooth sailing all the time - there were moments when we felt like things could be moving faster - as a working from home homeowner, you notice every day when people are NOT working at your backyard and that can make you antsy - but apparently that was all part of the bigger plan because the project was delivered exactly within the timeframe we agreed on (5 weeks). That included us deciding mid-project we wanted one particular type of turf that was not readily available, she managed to magically get it for us from somewhere else and still make the overall schedule work.

Sanem was very helpful throughout the process striking a good balance between listening to and helping us clarify our vision AND offering her suggestions on what she knows from her experience will look good & be functional. The same applies to changes we did vs the original plan - she did offer some fancy upgrades which were outside of our budget but she was also very constructive towards finding a solution which fits both our budget and preferences. She is a fun and pleasant person to interact with and she could keep her calm/ cool even under pressure.
So 5 star experience for us and would recommend her to anyone esp when looking to give their backyard/ garden a new life (adding our BEFORE/ AFTER pics for reference - yes, it is the same place, picture taken from the same spot).

I had an awful experience and wouldn't recommend this company to my worst enemy.

1.) Very slow. This job took a little over twice as long as they originally estimated.
2.) On a good week, we got maybe 2 days of work a week from them. Sometimes weeks with no word.
3.) Felt like extortion. We had paid everything up minus the $1000 final walkthrough, but our yard wasn't even half way finished and a total construction zone - so when they started pulling up new charges it felt like we couldn't say no.
4.) When I told them the drainage wasn't what we agreed on, I never heard from them again.

Update:
They had a lawyer send me a letter to take down my negative review. This felt very threatening at first, but I'm not even sure if it's legit because the guy's name is nowhere on the firm's page. If this does go to court, I will be blogging the experience.