9 days late (43%)
A couple of teenagers came out to plant the shrubs and flowers. The owner showed up a couple of times to supervise. Due to some changes to the shapes of the flower beds from the original design, more plants were required so he went to get those.
No mulch was provided for in the contract so we'll have to get that. The landscaper says he doesn't put down mulch but lets the homeowner do that. Odd. Sounds like an oversight by both him and us but since he's way behind in his work he wasn't anxious to add any extra work, even though it would finish the landscaping properly.
As I requested, more sand was swept into the gaps in the brickwork. I shouldn't have had to tell them the job was not acceptable, but I did. They did this without complaint though. You could tell from the amount of time the guy spent adding the sand how sloppy the first effort was.
The girl that was doing the planting had never seen the water timer on our faucet and couldn't figure out how to turn it on even though the dial had an "On" setting. Then she couldn't figure out how to use the Gardena hose quick connect ends. Those things have been around for at least 15 years and are very common. Sigh.
No work was done to finish up the kennel.
The owner requested payment for everything but the kennel. We told him we'd pay him when the job was completed, as the contract stipulates. That will encourage him to get the job done.
We're very pleased with the end result. I think the brickwork could have been done better though. There's gaps when the bricks go around a curve when they should have trimmed the blocks, or they put small wedges in the gap instead of properly trimming the blocks. But, it's not terrible. You can tell they were getting anxious to leave so they took what I think are shortcuts, but I'm no expert.
I guess no project goes off without some difficulties and it's sure a hell of a lot better than our renovation nightmare.