Part 1

Crystal: Having Ed help with the design. I felt like he knew me right from the beginning so that was really helpful. And, we just had a lot of trust from the very beginning. 

It was like, ‘Here’s my vision, make it come to life and add what you think professionally needs to be done.’ So, that was amazing. 

Without the project being complete, we would not be able to look forward to our wedding. So, this is a huge relief and it’s way better than we could have ever imagined.

John: We had a deck that was a few inches off of the ground that was rotted that we knew had to come down and we spent a lot of time, effort and money doing the inside of the house and started doing the outside. So it was time to do this.

Our wedding being canceled in Maine kind of put pressure on having that done. Because we moved it to the backyard.

Crystal: I knew I wanted ‘open.’ I wanted ‘very clean.’ We wanted to remove a lot of the trees. The boys are 6 and 8 and 17 and we wanted them to grow up here. We wanted them to play football… and the yard is so beautiful, it just felt like you just couldn’t see it.

John: We’ve been out here every night eating dinner. We have music playing. The kids like that.

Crystal: We play games.

John: We play games outside with the kids now. So it’s giving us the space to do family stuff which is nice.

Crystal: And it’s kind of our recap before the kids go to bed. We sit out here and just enjoy some quiet time. In the morning we bring coffee and it’s lovely.

I think everybody was like ‘Wow! What are they doing back here?’ We’ve had two neighbors so far ask to use your services already. We’ve had the ones behind us and the ones across the street. So, that’s a compliment as well.

I will say I did call around to a couple of places. The experience was night and day. So, you know at first it was you call people and they just ask you a slew of questions… ‘What’s your budget?’ But at PLANT it was different. It was very detailed. It was very much about us. I never felt pressured. 

I did even say to Javan- you know it’s like he took the time to understand what we were looking for- what was important to us. It was something like, ‘Tell us your vision, let us come up with what this idea is together. And hey, by the way- I’ll work really hard for you.’ And if I work hard for you- can we do this together?’ 

And there was a level of comfort in that, that was just so different than any other person we spoke to. And… we knew immediately. We had other people come, and the second Javan left- we both kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Okay, yeah we’re good!’ It was just a connection right away that we felt really trusting with.

Part 2

Crystal: One of the things that I liked when Javan first came out (we had mentioned the wedding was the immediate need) but PLANT kind of took it to a different direction and said, ‘Well, let’s talk even further than that. What does down the road look like… your dream backyard?’

So, I think talking about what our lifestyle is like- and then what we envisioned long-term… is kind of what helped marry the two to come together. Javan took a peek at the inside of our house… asked me about my style.

It was like… they just kind of got it. And we were really trusting from the very beginning. I felt super-comfortable after the very first time we all spoke. 

John: We got really lucky when we bought this house. We bought it from original owners who really took amazing care of it. Everything we’ve done has been done to upgrade, modernize, make it our own- and this was another piece to that. 

To bring value to the house and have it our own as well. So yeah, I think this is going to be something that we’re going to use for a long time to come.

Crystal: We wanted it to be a space too where it was like… designed for people to come over. We like to host- we like to have… I mean, there’s only four of us here most of the time… but, every space has a reason. 

I wanted the fire pit for those, kind of… chilly nights. Even when it’s hot out the boys want to use the fire pit. The dining room table is our dinner space when it’s nice out. And then we play cards behind us on our gathering spot.

John: We sort of had a pseudo bachelor party. Essentially, our family over…

Crystal: It’s not pseudo, we had one.

John: …just in our backyard and everyone was like… totally amazed because they saw just a couple of weeks before that… 

Crystal: How different it looked.

John: …it was a really big transformation in the backyard, so. The neighbors keep coming over and looking… and, you know, complimenting how it looks… so.

Crystal: And it’s very different from everyone elses, so we kind of love that. It’s really our style.

John: Yet, from day one- Javan, Ed… from really start to finish. They’re awesome… and we will love to refer them.

Crystal: Everybody was really pleasant too- respectful. I felt like this wasn’t just our space that was being transformed, it did kind of feel like it was PLANT’s as well. And I think that was something special that… it wasn’t just a job to them. It meant a lot for everybody to get it done and done right. We know they went above and beyond.

John: Yeah.