The first rain came and went and we are getting into perfect planting season. Except I am no closer to getting a planting plan, much less a full design for the landscape. The lead to Ron did not work out; I gather he might have been too busy on other projects. It took very very long to first get to meet with him and then to get a proposal; and just the fact it took more than 2 weeks to produce the contract proposal seems severely at odds with my explicit request for short turn-around time.
Another thing to factor in is the pool: I just got word from the Alpine club that I am now on the top of the waiting list; but I am really leery about signing up for a $20000 one-time membership fee of which only 20% will be returned on resignation. In addition to the one-time fee there are monthly fees totaling $250 (incl. a food minimum).
In contrast, I would need to pay in the order of $50000-70000 for a pool at home.
