you are going to have a problem.. between the slope of the outward bed soil .. and the grass ... you ought to consider a retaining wall of about 3 bricks .... that accomplishes a number of things.. but the prime two will be.. leveling the soil level for watering ... but also.. keeping the lawnmower and weedwhip away from the garden .... now.. if you are willing to do that.. then i suggest you at least double the width ... even tripling it .... first.. so you can have at least a foot or two of bare mulch.. to widen the walkway.. for snow.. and drunken guests.. lol ... then also have a patch of mulch on the retaining wall side ... then you plant things towards the middle of the bed ... its all very neat .. first pic below to give you an idea of what i am talking about ... this will also lend structure to the front of the house .... second pic below.. you can see that the land sloped severely away from my house .... by adding the wall ... it lends solidity to the landscape ... it will also insure.. in the ensuing years.. that your sidewalks soil is not undercut and washed away.. which is why i had to do it for the cement patio pad ... a month after it was poured.. a torrential downpour nearly washed it away ... undercutting about 2 feet of the north side ... i was near apoplectic ... [my head was ready to explode] is putting the wall in.. w/in your ability??? now.. after all the hardscaping .. you will be ready to plant something.. lol ... your thoughts??? other than you dont have a budget to live your outdoor dreams ... i would rather you think of a 2 or 3 year plan ... of how to do it right.. rather than slapping some plants in.. and then 3 years down the line ... wondering why it all failed.. in the alternative.. go buy some mums in late august .. and slap them in there for a fall bloom show.. and be done with it ... and then try to figure out how to water them on a slope ... good luck.. must be exciting to have a new house. .. and sidewalk .... ken

Agree with eleena. In my bathroom, I can't get the cleaner for the tile on the mirror, or the faucet cleaner on the floor, or the floor cleaner on the faucet. You can't clean the whole thing without a damn spreadsheet. Teasing aside, having a simple cleaning service is not an upper class thing, at least not for two-job households. However, the reality is, having an intelligent, reliable cleaning person is an upper-class luxury, unless you happen to be lucky. I would love to have a touchup every week or two. However, I remember what the cleaning people did at my mom's place when she got sick and couldn't do it all herself. Each week, something new was broken, scratched, stained or missing. She couldn't afford to supplement the housekeeper's income by running out and buying new carpets or collectibles or lamps on a weekly basis--which is precisely what you are doing if you allow someone to break something in your house without paying for it. She lucked out for a while with an old Italian lady who cleaned like she did, but for the most part they were more trouble and money than they were worth. Now, if you can afford real staff, then you can get into human resources techniques. But if you can't, then you're not the employer, just a customer, and you take what you get.

Suz, we are in Cypress as well and have been having one heck of a time with our PB. May I ask you who is building yours? Two weeks ago I came home and caught the tile guy just about to put in the WRONG tile. He assured me it is what I had picked but luckily for me I had taken photos of the sample and the numbers to the tile. We called the PB directly and I had to read the number to him before he agreed they had sent the wrong tile. Just yesterday, the plasterers came. I only found out when I got home. Guess what? Wrong plaster. So now, instead of chipping it all out, they only chipped out the incorrect plaster just below the water line and are going to bond the CORRECT pebbletec on over. I'm thinking they should chip all of the incorrect plaster out so that we don't have 2 coats w/the possibility of delamination but haven't heard back from them. They're scheduled to come tomorrow. :/ I will never recommend our PB!!

Bry - Read my prior posts. We are talking about... Let's be clear, I made a reply and quoted text from a post that started out by saying, "Regardless of Custom vs. Tract vs. Production vs. Semi-Custom vs. whatever else you want to call a build," then continued to say, "If everyone expects less out of what they view as a certain type of builder, then everyone is going to continue to get less out of them." You then took issue with that reply. So we are not talking about, "a sink being installed square and a stamp in concrete being made at the correct angles." I was clearly replying to the idea that the only difference between custom and tract builders is people accepting lower quality work and the advice that they shouldn't. Which you must have known when you responded by saying, "I think it is irrelevant whether custom or not in terms of quality of workmanship. I fail to see how selecting a builder’s floor plan (for example) somehow justifies poor workmanship (within allowances as you say)." So I apologize for taking you to task, but clearly we are not only talking about, "a sink being installed square and a stamp in concrete being made at the correct angles." We are clearly talking about the difference in acceptability in different contractual relationships.