FineLines Design Studio

Thank you Shelia for your kind words and review! We really enjoyed partnering with you and helping you achieve your desired front yard. We hope that it will bring you and your family delight for many many years to come!

Thank you so much for your kind review Lisa! It is always a pleasure to work with you. We hope your front yard brings you and your loved ones joy!

Lorraine, we appreciate your kind words and support! It was truly a pleasure to collaborate with you on this project. We are so grateful for the opportunity to work with you. We hope you enjoy your transformed back yard and outdoor living areas for many years to come.

Linda, thank you so much! It has been a pleasure working with you on this project. We greatly appreciate your amazing treatment of our subcontractors and team. We hope you enjoy your new front garden for many years to come. Our team is excited to see the finished product once the new shrubs and landscaping are installed!

Thank you so much for your kind words Susan . We truly enjoyed working with you and Kris from start to finish and so glad to hear that you are happy with the end results. I think with your personal touch, it looked even better at the end. Hope you will enjoy your backyard for years to come and we will be here to help with your next project when the time comes !
We will be posting photoshoot pictures on our Houzz Portfolio Soon!

Best Regards,
Melda

Dear Dan and Lynn,
We truly appreciate your kind words for us and happy to hear that you were pleased working with us. We hope that you will enjoy your new front garden for years to come. It has been pleasure working with both of you. Like you said , projects like this will always have hiccups & trade-offs but what matters is how we handle it. We always have our customers' best interest in mind and will do anything possible in our power to make things happen. Thank you so much for the opportunity again!
We are here to help at anytime.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark
on the behalf of Finelines Team!

Dear Mrs. Gwynn,
Thank you for your review. We would like to hear from our clients about their experience with us no matter how they feel about it. This gives us the opportunity to improve our customer service and correct any misunderstanding if there are any.
I regret to see you feeling the way you described above because there is no reason for this and I hope that it will all be clear to you or anyone who reads my comments below. While our 40+ 5 Stars Houzz reviews from our “actual clients who worked with us “ and 9 years in a row Best of Houzz Customer satisfaction and Design awards since 2012 can be enough to tell all about who we are and how we work , I will do my best to address all your comments to make sure you and any of our possible clients will have the opportunity to get to know us better and see how we really handle our work as opposed to how you claim to be the case.

Your Claim #1: “She tried to persuade us to just have a zoom meeting instead of F2F due to Covid-19. “

Here is how it goes from receiving an inquiry to scheduling our Free Consultation:
We DO NOT do cold calls; we only RECEIVE inquiries. Once we receive a new inquiry, we either talk to them right then when we receive the first call or if the inquiry came through email or someone left a message requesting our services, we callback to get more information about their project and explain how we work including our design process and the possible fees associated with it. After the initial conversation over the phone if the client would like to move forward scheduling a free consultation, we take the next steps to do so.
Due to Covid-19 and out of respect to our client’s choices and for their safety, Like any other company nowadays, we made some changes and start giving options to our clients to do their “First Initial Free Consultation” , or their “Preliminary Design Meetings” where we present our designs and 3d model/ video animations and even for their “Preliminary Budget Meetings” online using Zoom platform or in person for a F2F meeting. It is a free consultation and It is up to them how they would like to receive it.
We even created new guidelines for our clients about how to gather the information and the legal paperwork necessary for us to do their Outdoor Living design such as Survey of their house or HOA / ARC documents , their wish list , budgets , ideabooks and property pictures and still work with us during Covid-19. We email our guideline along with our welcome message to each prospected client who contacted us for our Design-Build services.
Just like we have sent one to you, We then follow up with our Design Questionnaire to get more information about our client’s goals and specific expectations, their likes and dislikes etc. All of these happens before we even meet them so we can get to know them better and have a productive first consultation. We ask some optional days and times to meet whether for an online zoom meeting or on site F2F and we do our best to schedule their free consultation for a time that is convenient for them.
We will continue to respect our clients and their choices as described above as we believe it is still necessary to have those choices at the time being because so many people continue to work from home due to Covid-19 and may or may not want to jeopardize their families’ health and chose to do online zoom meetings despite the fact we use masks and keep our distances during F2F Meetings. It is not our call to make.
While most of our clients appreciate the fact that we are here to help them either way , whether they prefer online service to meet at the comfort and safety of their home or meeting with them in person for a F2F meeting with our masks on and keeping our proper distance , we understand that you did not like to be given that choice and took it all wrong as we understand from your claim as being persuaded to do one way or other.

Your Claim #2: “A Couple Hours before the meeting, I received a voicemail asking if we want to change the meeting to zoom meeting due to rain”
The key word here is “Due to Rain”:

For the nature of our work being described as mainly creating “Outdoor” Living Spaces, we do our F2F meetings at the actual site whether that will be a Frontyard or a Backyard Project. When/If it was storming all night long and we do have an early morning meeting such as your like 9 am and the rain continues or suspected that might be the case, we give a “courtesy call” to our clients to see if they would like to reschedule for another day or still would like to meet as planned even though we might not be able to go outside and do what we need to do as part of our consultation. Sometimes our clients act faster and we get the call from them asking us if we should reschedule our meeting due to rain because their yard being so muddy to walk on after an all-night long rain as they know their site conditions better than us. It may rain in one part of the town a lot more while very light rain could be happening somewhere else. This is just a common practice in our profession and considered to be an effort to give the best and timely manner customer service to our clients, to ensure that we can actually accomplish the ultimate goal of our free consultation time including seeing, walking and taking pictures of the site and brain storm ideas with the client as we look at each and every detail together and answer their questions.
Again, this was a courtesy call within an hour of our scheduled meeting time which was made as I was already on my way to your property around 8am and not couple hours before as you claimed to be. We do not bother our clients at 6am even if it is courtesy call. We also have enough experience to know that there is a chance that our clients might not get the message on time to call us back when we made the call and expect us to be there regardless , for this reason we do not change our scheduled meetings or not show up just because we left a message unless there is an emergency. I was on my way already by the time you called us back being really upset about our message which we do not understand your reasoning behind your madness as you could have said “thank you for the courtesy call but let’s keep our meeting as we planned “. I would have not been able to be there on time at all if I would have waited for your response. As you and I both know I was there on time and ready to give you our free consultation as promised and I even mentioned about the call you received from one of our team member being just a courtesy call and not intended to cancel our meeting or to make you upset to a point that you yelled at my staff on the phone without even listening her explanation about the intention of her call. We do not disrespect our clients in any way and expect the same in return, without open communication we can not work together as your project team , Client & Finelines, and expect to accomplish anything.
While we prefer to be on the top of our work and over communicate while we think of your comfort and safety at all times , you seem to not like to be given choices at all and taking all this offensive. We will not apologize for being proactive and over communicating and we will not change our proven communication system as most of our clients appreciate it very much so, especially during construction so they are always informed or making informed decisions when they are given choices or proper , timely manner information.

Your Claim #3: “Melda said she will send us some sample within our budget range so we can get sense of what we will get. Ended up, all the samples we received were over $60K. She said they did NOT do any project in $20-$30K and so do not have samples in this price range. This is just a shocker to us!!!”

When we have our free consultation meeting, some clients ask us to give a ballpark estimate after we brain storm ideas and my answer to that will be always that we need to do the design first in order to have specs to calculate the cost properly. As we all know everybody’s budgets and ultimate goals are different as well as their property characteristics in terms of architectural style or site conditions. We custom design every project and do not use cookie cutter approach, so yours would have been only specific to your needs, your budget, and your ultimate goals.
We are not a single trade company who deals with single element such as concrete as an example to give you a quick square ft price onsite for a patio extension. Outdoor Living Projects are complex projects and include many trades and design elements that needs to be put together for a realistic budget calculation. So there is no way to be accurate or even be closed to it based on just ideas discussed during our meeting.
Being a professional award-winning design-build Landscape Firm, we prefer true calculated estimates based on an approved design as opposed to throwing “guestimates with no obligation” so to say. We have a professional design process we go through to design either per your given budget or per your desired wish list. We help our clients to see the big picture, explore options and design not only specific to their goals and desired outcome but also being compliant with their HOA Regulations and City Ordinance. So, as you will understand it takes time to study the information we collected on site regarding to the site conditions and architecture of the house, through email communications, or from our search using online resources in order to design it properly. For this reason, we do have design fees associated with our services as we discussed with you starting from the moment you contacted us. We have sent our Design agreement for your approval following our consultation meeting through DocuSign on 09/22/2020 as we promised.
To help you understand our design-build process I offered you the following:
When you asked the same question, my answer to you was that I could NOT give you a ballpark estimate but I could send you couple of example of our work including their process from 2d design , 3d model/video animation, After pictures and tell you how much those projects cost to our clients so you can have an idea of our design-build process, quality of our design and construction work completed and associated overall cost. I also said that would be more realistic because they will be recently completed projects and not years and years ago then throwing numbers with no bases. I did not say that we will send you example of projects at a certain dollar amount but just as representation of our work to ensure you that we can design your project and deliver properly based on your own given budget or wish list following the same design-build process.
How we approach to designing just for you? Again that is a choice most likely you will not like to hear about it but we have to either design for your budget or for your wish list because there is no guaranty that your wish list will be in line with your budget. In another words, your budget may or may not be enough to cover the cost of your wish list items. We help our clients to marry the two by being realistic towards their expectations vs what they can afford and be open to phasing if needed.

Your Claim #4: “Eventually, the owner, Melda, arrived. From our conversation, we found out Melda does not have any design education or background, we hired designers to work for her but she is the ONLY one to meet with clients. It is NOT her own design. She then outsources the job to install the landscaping. “

When it comes to who I am and what is my credentials, or what kind of company structure we have I have to tell you that you got it all wrong and I do not know even how to my surprise as I answered all your questions kindly and very clearly during our meeting. If you had any doubt , I wish that you would have taken the time to read my bio on our website or ask further questions or simply read our reviews on Houzz.com to get to know me as a Landscape Designer before making such claims that I do not have a design degree or it is NOT my design etc.. We could even provide you references upon request.
Instead, you made the choice willingly to write this review with all these disrespectful comments and false claims with an intention to ruin my reputation as a designer without any reasonable ground to stand on and I do not appreciate them at all as I have over 25 years’ experience along with my formal Landscape Architecture degree & MBA to stand behind and working towards my RLA to add to my credentials soon. I did give you brief information about my self a Landscape Designer and Finelines Design Studio as a firm and how we work yet you seem to take it all wrong and twisted somehow.
Interviewing companies for your project is an essential part of the decision making process and not a waste of time. You can interview as many design firm as you choose to do so and you are free to select the designer you clicked with or the company of your choice but just because you do not want to pay their design fees and want more free service you have no rights to put such reviews to miss lead their potential clients in an effort to ruin their reputation as a designer or company in general.
This is called “dragging someone’s name through the mud “ and It is very unprofessional to publicly say false or bad things to harm someone’s reputation.
But you got something right , yes ,I personally make sure to meet with each and every client as the Owner and the Lead designer and manage the projects from start to finish to ensure my clients are well taking care of along with our other team members including designers and construction managers involved in the process. I am the lead designer so every design starts with me creating the concepts and involves our design team members to do the cad work , 3D modeling , take offs , admin to enter the estimates and our group of trusted trade partners who works like an in house team to execute our projects under our supervision as Finelines Team.
We are boutique style small Design Firm and our clients select us for their projects for this personalized / handholding project management style for a reason. They want to know someone will be there to take care of every detail important to them , inform them in a timely manner and they have one call to make when they needed no matter how complex their project or how many trades involved. Myself and everyone on Finelines Team , from admin who answers the first call to our designers who works with me side by side to create your ultimate staycation or our Trade teams on site who is doing the work go above and beyond to take care of our clients and their needs. We do not send out each project to different subs/trades for competitive pricing, we have the same teams goes from one job to another to complete our projects and not having them under our direct payroll keep our overhead down and we pass on the savings to our clients. Again, if this is not for you, we understand.
We trusted you when we did what we said we will do to help you with your decision-making process and even sent you our intellectual properties without a single thought. Trust is everything and to be valued and trusted team is our number one goal in our partnership with our clients so we can take care of them while we provide for our families.
As far as I am concern, my team and I , we did everything to serve you so far as a potential client at no charge to you and instead of saying thank you for our 1-hour free consultation for you to pick my brain , my honest answers to your questions, time & ideas exchanged, detailed design/project samples sent by emails taking the risk to be copied and implemented , in return you chose to write such a review which ensures us that we were not a good fit as a Client & Design Firm to work together in the first place.
No matter how hard we try we know we cannot make everyone happy. For all the reasons above, we can conclude that we are not the right company for you, and you are not the right client for us, so we wish you good luck with your project. We will also mail this letter to you as our formal response to your complains and false claims.
Respectfully,
Melda Clark
Owner/Lead Designer
On the behalf of
FinelInes Design Studio Team!

It has been pleasure working with you and Rikesh on creating your new outdoor living space for you and your two beautiful girls to enjoy years to come. We will still be here to help you further enhance your outdoor experience. Thank you so much on behalf of our team!
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much for your kind words Beth! I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying your backyard. We enjoyed working with you and Jann.
We appreciate your business and we are here to help anytime .
Best Regards,
Melda Clark
On behalf of Finelines Team !

Thank you so much for your kind words Erin. We truly enjoyed designing your outdoor living space and working with you. So glad to hear that you happy with the end results. I guess we were right on time completing your project so you can enjoy your beautiful outdoor space while working from home around these days. I am sure so many people wish they had done the same thing prior to Covid-19 to make their time at home more relaxing. .
We appreciate your business!
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much Ahu! We hope that you are taking advantage of your beautiful outdoor space while working from home around these days. We are here to help if you need anything else.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much for your kind words Mark. We truly enjoyed working with you and Thao and glad to see you happy with the end results. We hope that you will enjoy your new outdoor living space for years to come.
We appreciate your business!
Best Regards,
Melda Clark
On the behalf of FineLines Team.

Thank you so much for your kind words Lisa! It has been pleasure working with you.
We truly appreciate your business.
Best regards,
Melda Clark
On the behalf of FineLines Team!

Thank you so much for the opportunity and the kind words! We truly enjoyed working with both of you on this project and look forward to hopefully working with you in the future. It is nice to hear that our construction management process worked seamlessly and it was not a hassle for you to deal with. Enjoy your beautiful backyard!

-Finelines Design Team

Thank you so much for your kind words Mr. Maddie! We loved working with you and enjoyed every bit of your project. We hope you're enjoying your beautiful backyard and look forward to working with you in the future!
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much for your kind words. It was such a pleasure working with you on this project and We are looking forward to working with you again in the future. We will be in touch to schedule photosoot in spring to capture the best shots of your beautiful front entry garden.
Happy Holidays !
Best regards,
Melda Clark
On the behalf of Finelines Team

Thank you so much for your kind words Traci! It has been pleasure working with you and Michael. We are so glad to be able help you with your project and truly appreciate the Oppotunity .
Best regards,
Melda Clark

Dear Jill and Jeff,
Thank you so much for the opportunity! We truly enjoyed working with both of you in this project and so happy to hear that you feel the same way about working with our team. It is nice to hear that our construction management process worked seamlessly and it was not a hassle for you to deal with. We are hear to help any time . Enjoy !

We really enjoyed working on your project & getting to know you along the way!
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to design your project and complete phase 1. We are excited to continue working with you. Thank you for the recommendations!

- The FineLines Team

Thank you so much for your kind words Alana! It has been pleasure working with you and Adrian again for designing another beautiful home of yours! I truly enjoyed designing every aspect of this beautiful garden , front to back including your secret garden :) I hope that you will enjoy sharing lots of happy memories with your family & friends for years to come in this lovely home. I cannot wait to do our photoshoot and share them with The Houzz community !
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much for such a detailed review Mrs. Chadwick! It makes us so happy to see our clients appreciating each and every design aspects of our projects the way we hope them to be. Your descriptions are telling the whole story behind our design.
I truly appreciate the time you put into writing this wonderful review about our work.
Thank you so much on the behalf of All FineLines Team members who contributed to the successful outcome of your project!

Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much Mrs.Chlone! It has been pleasure working with you and your husband. We are so glad to hear that you are happy with the end results and enjoying your new garden with your family and friends.
We truly appreciate the opportunity !
Best Regards,
Melda Clark
on the behalf of FineLines Team.

Thank you so much Mr. O'Brien. It has been pleasure working with you and your wife. We hope that you will enjoy your backyard for years to come. We will post your project pictures in our Houzz portfolio as soon as we have our professional photoshoot completed. I will be in touch.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much Mr. McDonald. It has been a great pleasure working with you and Mrs. McDonald. I hope you will enjoy your newly remodeled backyard for years to come.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much Mrs. Mullman. It has been pleasure working with you and Mr. Mullman. We hope that you will enjoy your yard for years to come with your family and friends. We will post the pictures from our photo shoot on Houzz as soon as they are ready. Thank you so much again!

Thank you so much for your kind words Pelin. It has been a great pleasure working with you and your husband throughout your project. We hope that you will enjoy your backyard for years to come. We will be honor to help you again in the future.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark
on the behalf of FineLines Team

Thank you Elif! We enjoyed designing your Landscape Project and We will be happy to help you to bring it to life when the right time comes for you and your family.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark
on the behalf of FineLines Team

Thank you so much for your kind words. It has been a pleasure working with you and your wife. We are excited to be continuing to work with you to enhance your outdoor living area with special lighting effects. Thanks for your business.

Melda and Kourtney

Thank you so much for your kind words Mr. Schaefer. It was pleasure to work with you in this project. We can not wait to the photo shoot in Spring to display your garden here at our Houzz profile and on our new website soon.
Best regards,
Melda Clark

I would not be forthcoming by not taking shared responsibility for the problems that occurred during the course of this challenging project. Remodeling is, after, all a problem solving business and has many unknown facts that contribute to the success or the failure of a project when dealing with existing conditions. This is where, I believe, the misunderstanding of issues regarding this project lie.

I respect Mr. Vilven’s right to his opinion, but his recollection of the facts is not completely accurate. In the conditions he mentioned above, he forgot to indicate how badly his original pool gunite was constructed, which he witnessed himself during remodeling (Please see before photos below). It was a poorly constructed gunited pool consisting of more sand than concrete in the mix. Yes, while most of the pool leak repairs can be successfully resolved with the same applications we have used in this pool remodeling, such as stapling the crack prior to plaster (16 staples in this case), due to the existing conditions, the cracks are coming back. We were not contracted to rebuild the pool from scratch. We did our absolute best using all known techniques of the industry to fix this type of leak problem.

As far as the “badly deteriorating” decks and patios, they are a result of the existing soil conditions that I took very seriously during the design process (Please see before photos below). I created a new modern / sleek look that the homeowner was expecting for us to create with minimal possible future movements. The new patio and pool deck design is broken down into segmented concrete areas to prevent and/or minimize future cracks and needs for repairs by allowing individual movement of each pad without affecting the other areas. (Please see after pictures below)

As far as the finishing of the patios, despite the fact we offered serveral different material selections including textured concrete to minimize the possible slippery conditions, none of the materials passed homeowners’ approval due to being too busy with texture/pattern or cost. For the modern look they wanted to create, they chose to have smooth concrete finish with no texture at all. No matter how many layers of silica sand with sealer we applied, there is no guarantee that the smooth concrete will have enough texture to prevent slick situations when wet. We had no way of creating the look the homeowners wanted and guarantee that it will not require personal attention to this matter during their use of the areas at the same time. Anybody with a little understanding of what a smooth concrete feels or looks like will understand the situation we were facing with. Unfortunately, we have no magic wand and we are limited to what is available and possible in terms of materials approved by homeowner.

Other leak related issues have been addressed as they come up on at our expense. Some of it was even due to old plumbing bursting under concrete after the completion of remodeling, which they were clearly and contractually not our responsibility.

Per the leak detecting company, the issue with the detached main drain is some thing very rarely happens in pool remodeling, and in remodeler’s career, it has only happened 3 times, but possible. The pool company addressed the issue as well when it was discovered and extended their apologies for overlook.

The only issue left to fix in the spring was the mortar cracks as a result of with soil movements due the existing bad soil conditions. We recommended to the homeowner to let the soil expand and shrink before we repair them since they were continuing to happen. Homeowners agreed to wait until spring for us to come back and fix it so they can have fresh look on the pool for spring. Unfortunately, their pool and decks will continue to move and crack due the soil conditions, and sadly we cannot do anything about it.

I regret that we could not create a lasting relationship with this client. I take this extremely personally since so much of our joy is in the happiness of our clients when we present their personal design in their home.
But I must stand by our company and represent the facts.

We pride ourselves on our professionalism, integrity, and quality of work. Customer service is our #1 goal as our Customer Satisfaction awards and 17 5 start reviews here on Houzz.com are prove of my personal attention to each and every project from start to finish.

This was a beautifully finished hardscape project down to every detail. The clients were very nice people, and makes all this even more upsetting. We never turned our back on them and handled every upcoming issue they brought to our attention. With numerous attempts and immediate responses to inquiries, we were very surprised that we could not meet any satisfaction with offered solutions.

If you love our designs, have read all our reviews and this one made you hesitate to contact us, we understand and are disappointed that such damage can be done on social media. We will gladly offer you contacts that you may reach out to personally. We can walk you through our renovated gardens so you can see the results of our completed projects.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further question regarding our Design-build process.

Best Regards,

Melda Clark
On the behalf of FineLines Design Studio Team

Thank you so much for kind words Mrs. Peters.
We do appreciate your business!
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much Travis! I hope you will enjoy your new transformed backyard long years to come.

Thank you so much for your kind words Mr. Cannaday. We are looking forward to working with you again on your next project.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

I am so glad to hear that we were able to help you with your dream project It was a pleasure working with you and your husband as well. Please keep us in mind for your future projects as well.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much for your kind words Mary!
It has been a pleasure working with you and Mike on this project.
We will post the rest of the pictures on our Houzz Profile soon.
We appreciate your business!
Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Dona,
Thank you so much for your kind words and the opportunity to collaborate with you on this project. With your exceptional eye for color and material selections, we were able to complete the transformation of the Front Entry , Living room and Den areas up to our client's satisfaction. We are looking forward to working together again for the next phase to complete this on-going project! Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures...

Best Regards,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much for allowing me to be part of your project Mrs. Garrity. I really enjoyed working with you and Mr. Garrity.
I hope you will enjoy your yard for years to come!
Respectfully,
Melda Clark

Thank you so much for your kind words about our team Susan! It has been pleasure to work with you and Mark . I can not wait to finish your project and post our pictures on our Houzz profile.
Best Regards,
Melda Clark