Axel Landscapes Serving the greater Minneapolis and St. Paul metro areas WINNER: 2007 MNLA Award for Residential Hardscape WINNER: 2005 Hedberg Award for Segmental Retaining Wall |
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Chris Axel's
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"For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere that gives subjects their true value" -- Claude Monet
From Design Concept to Realization, you'll love your new landscape
On this page you will learn about the most important aspect of any landscape project--- the design. Innovative design is our biggest priority. We've won six major design/craftsmanship awards since 2000, and have won more Hedberg awards than any other company. More detailed information on landscape elements, including pricing, is in our Everything You Need to Know section. We submit projects for award consideration every year. Not every project is judged a winner, but it's good for us anyway to be involved in the process and thinking about what makes a project outstanding. We want every project to be a head-turner, so your friends, neighbors, and future purchasers of your home say "Wow, that looks great!"
First meeting: Prepare yourself for a pleasant, totally non-intimidating process. All projects begin with an initial discussion about your project. At that point, we would schedule an initial meeting at your home. The first meeting is a chance to learn about each other, and identify what your goals are for the project. Feel free to make a list of items you want to address. We want to hear everything that you hope to achieve, and answer any questions you may have about the process. We'll give you our input on how we can best achieve your goals. We will also give you rough pricing estimates for your project and help you to establish a working budget. Before we leave, we'll take all the measurements we'll use to put together your written estimate. Find out why it's to your benefit to set a budget for us here, at the bottom of this page (or simply scroll down.)
Second meeting: The second meeting is our turn to present our design and written estimate. We often make a minimalist sketch of your project so you can visualize where everything will go, although not all projects require this. Often the written estimate and a walkthrough outside is enough. Our goal is to provide you with as much information as possible, so you totally understand the proposal, without charging a full landscape design fee. The one caveat is that we can't leave drawings or sketches with you unless you buy them, or hire us for the installation. If you want full-scale drawings with elevations and construction detail, we can provide them for a design fee. You can keep those drawings when they're finished, and if you hire us for the installation, you will be credited the design fee.
Getting on the schedule: Once we've agreed on the design and written cost estimates, you'll receive a written contract spelling out the details. Upon receipt of your signed contract and down payment, you'll be scheduled in the next available position. We're efficient installers, and weather permitting, the date we give you for installation is the date we'll show up.
FINAL MESSAGE We can work with big ($100,000+) or small ($3,500+) budgets to come up with a great outdoor space for you. We're friendly people, and clients tell us we're a lot of fun to work with. Look around our website, particularly the Recent Projects page or the Photo Gallery to see all the different things we can do. Landscape offers the highest return on investment for your home improvement dollar, often over 100%. Things like paint, tile, and appliances depreciate as they wear. Landscapes done well are alive, growing, and maturing, becoming more valuable as they age. There are two great news articles (from Smart Money and New York Times) about this in our Reading Room. These should be considered required reading for anyone considering improvements to their outdoor space. We love this work, and we're excited to share it with you! Below I've posted a bunch of landscape plans, so you can get an idea of how we work. We can do anything from pencil drawings to computer-aided design. Below is our 2007 MNLA Award Winning Project
Here's a bunch of plans we've designed in the last year or two.
The plan above goes with this photo below
Click for the Video Tour of this project (opens in a new window)
Be sure to visit our Recent Projects pages to see more of our work. Or try the Reading Room to learn more about pricing of all different landscape projects.
*** Why should you give us a budget? *** Landscape is major construction, just like redoing your kitchen or putting on an addition. You wouldn't think of doing an addition without establishing a budget first. How would the architect and contractor know what to propose to you, without knowing whether you want to spend $25,000 or $500,000? You could choose a 300 square foot functional kitchen with premade cabinets, standard appliances, laminate countertops and linoleum on the floors. Or perhaps you want a 300 square foot gourmet kitchen with high-end appliances, granite countertops, marble tile, and rare-wood cabinets. Obviously, the two options have huge cost differences to redo the same 300 s.f. kitchen space. Landscaping has similar choices to be made in the design process - what materials to use, how much land to move and shape, whether to plant for "full greenery today" or to use smaller plants which will grow to fill their space in the future. Knowing not only what type of landscaping you want, but also the budget you want to stay within will help us to work with you to get the landscape solution that fits your dreams and your budget. It is nearly impossible for us to hit the mark without a target to aim at. You will get the most for your money, and the best possible design and impact, by establishing a budget we can work to. I know that to some readers, this sounds counterintuitive, like you're giving up all your leverage. Allow me to explain. How Pricing Works We can handle landscape projects from $3,500 to $100,000+. Our prices are based on our cost of materials, overhead, equipment requirements, and the amount of time it will take us to complete your project. It has nothing to do with what size house you live in, what car you drive, or how much we think you can pay. The same patio with the same access will cost the same at a $2,000,000 house or a $150,000 house. This is not true of all contractors, by any means, but it is true of this company. We do excellent work, and we have a great reputation with our suppliers, clients, and community. Our goal is simply to charge a fair price for honest work, and keep winning awards. Example: You give us a budget of $25,000. We design the spaces, create our written estimate, and we find the total is $21,347. We don't artificially increase our bid to $24,999. The total we present to you will be $21,347, and we will offer suggestions for additions to your project to make it better, and use up your $25,000 budget. Remember, we're trying to win awards each year. The more we can get you for your money, the more likely we can win an award with your project. We spend a lot of time every month analyzing our costs. The estimate we give you is firm. The only way your bill should go higher during the project is if you add something. If you agree to a project at a certain budget level, you will receive that project at that budget level, whether it's $3,600, $147,000, or anywhere in between. Final thoughts on Budget At the first meeting, we can give you a rough idea of what your project will cost. If it's more or less than you wanted to spend-- no big deal! We simply rescale the project goals to match your budget, or we plan to install the project in phases over the course of several years. Either way, you will get a great design, because we know where the parameters are. I like to think of the designer and client working together as a team to figure out the best way to achieve the project goals. Our costs are our costs, and we can't change them. But we can use our experience and creativity to get you the most for your investment. It's in both our best interests. We're on the same team--- if we work together from the beginning, it's much easier to arrive at a great result!
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© 2004 Axel Landscapes For info call us at 612-819-2828, or Email Us! Contact the Webmaster to report broken links |
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Finalizing
the design: During the second meeting we'll also discuss your
thoughts on the design, and look at changes or tweaks you'd like to
make. These designs and estimates are totally flexible, so we can make
any changes you'd like at this time. If necessary, we can schedule a
third meeting to go over the changes and new pricing, but often it
can be done on the spot or via email exchange of updated bids. 
