The water feature on the side of our house was a key factor in our selecting this property as our home. The sound of falling water is amazing, especially from the rear deck which overlooks Goose Creek. Unfortunately, like so many things in the house, it was poorly maintained. We didn’t help things by hiring a pond maintenance firm that drained and cleaned the pond/stream on a regular basis. They were able to eliminate all of the algae but the rocks were becoming more and more disordered, looking like they were on the verge of collapse. The water feature sounded good, but was nothing to look at.

This spring, 2017, we took on the task, contracting with three firms to handle portions of the renovation. All of them did a great job and they deserve a shout out here.

Julia Brizendine and her VPC Landscape Construction firm handled the rebuilding of the stream, hardscaping and landscaping our previously unattractive stream and under deck area. Julia looked at our collapsing, straight-line stream and envisioned something else entirely. She and her team managed to create bends and varying widths in the stream bed, without needing a total rebuild. They arranged our existing rock and added a bit more to make the area look and sound so much better.

We wanted to be able to see the stream in the evening and to be able to safely walk around our house at night. We selected Patrick Harders from Enlightened Lighting to help us with this portion of the project. Patrick recommended a design that included some under step lighting as well as specialized lighting fixtures for a few trees and other elements. Enlightened Lighting implemented the plan smoothly and the results are excellent.

Our existing stone work was showing its age, some stones had come loose, some had cracked, and existing lighting fixtures needed to be removed. Patrick referred us to Richard Baker and his firm the King’s Masons. Richard came out and accessed the job, making several important suggestions and built a plan to repair and upgrade our crumbling stonework. His firm did a great job rehabbing and replacing.

We ended up very happy with the work from all three firms.