Sarah Ray Design

Sarah Ray and her design build firm are nothing short of exceptional.  Sarah and her crew restored our trust in the home service industry after experiencing a botched home interior addition & remodel  seven years ago.  Our experience with Sarah now sets the gold standard for any home service provider we hire in the future. 

We spent a month carefully interviewing 6 landscape designers, architects, and design-build firms.  Sarah was always the front runner and knew the second we hired her that we initiated a great partnership and were embarking on an awesome ride!  And it was, on every front.

Sarah is not only a talented visionary, designer and expert in her field, but a great listener, collaborator and partner.   We have a large flat backyard (about 5000 sq. ft.) that was overgrown and neglected.  We had ideas of the style and design elements that we liked, but it was overwhelming to think of how to get there!  Having Sarah shepherd us through the design to build process was a privilege and an experience I will always treasure.   She is extremely approachable, upbeat, patient, and easy to work with.   She was very open to listening to our ideas and iterating on design options together. 

We also hired Sarah to build/implement our master design plan.  A full design-build firm appealed to us because of the seamless and efficient implementation of the design.  Sarah is also very available throughout the build process and was onsite nearly every day, as was her foreman.  Sarah also met us countless times at various suppliers so that we could carefully select our materials.  Her build crew is talented and very hard working.   They started at 7:30am and worked for 7-8 hours/day, sweltering hot conditions or not.  We really appreciated the undivided attention and the integrity and all-around work ethic displayed by Sarah and her crew.

You will also find Sarah to be very transparent.  Her billing system is the most logical and straight forward approach I have experienced in the home service industry.  The invoice is directly tied to our contracted line items whereby charges reflect only percentages completed on a weekly basis.   All change orders were at my request, and were only represented in the invoice if we agreed to it prior.  There were no hidden costs or surprises.  So, aside from my change orders, the project cost aligned with the signed contracted budget.

Sarah created a gorgeous garden space that is everything we ever dreamed of and much more.  Our family is looking forward to enjoying this beautiful extension of our home, our new found sanctuary, for years to come.  Sarah Ray Design comes highly recommended for any size project.  Thanks a million, Sarah!

I have a remarkable yard which is the envy of the neighborhood. A delight to watch grow and change over the seasons. I now have areas of interesting plants, 6 trees, a darling picket fence bordering the side yards with a matching wooden bench in the rear area, and a flagstone walkway between my driveway and front porch that allows me to walk through this lovely new garden every day. I very often overhear passersby who have stopped to gaze and remark on the garden. We have even caught more than one person taking snapshots. I can recommend Sarah Ray for many reasons. She is well versed in gardening principles and a recognized and much applauded student of landscape design. She is gracious, dependable and creative in her approach. She executes all levels of the contract with utmost integrity.

I have a remarkable yard which is the envy of the neighborhood. A delight to watch grow and change over the seasons. I now have areas of interesting plants, 6 trees, a darling picket fence bordering the side yards with a matching wooden bench in the rear area, and a flagstone walkway between my driveway and front porch that allows me to walk through this lovely new garden every day. I very often overhear passersby who have stopped to gaze and remark on the garden. We have even caught more than one person taking snapshots. I can recommend Sarah Ray for many reasons. She is well versed in gardening principles and a recognized and much applauded student of landscape design. She is gracious, dependable and creative in her approach. She executes all levels of the contract with utmost integrity.

Here is the thing that I think sets this crew and company apart from others that we contacted. Yes, the crew of Strada Design Group (they do landscape design and installation as well as a bunch of other landscaping tasks) showed up on time. YES, they proved to be extremely hard working and thorough. Yes, they had great attention to detail and performed the work outlined in their bid. But what sets these guys apart from the others is that the business is run by a team who truly listened to us and our needs. They gave us confidence in them because they were all professional and hard working in a way that we haven't experienced very much. Don't let me get started on the painters we hired.... Anyway, if you are looking for a team of professionals to do whatever landscaping stuff you need, I totally feel god about referring these guys. You won't be disappointed.