"My daughter decided she wanted to go to school in Washington, D.C . We bought this brand new townhome for her to live in. After that, we had it for a rental for about 5 years. My wife and I decided in 2010 to retire and relocate to D.C. The house had gone through a total lack of maintenance, and especially in the backyard. We envisioned this space as being an outdoor room for us, some place for an extension. I wanted something that looked nice, that had both winter and summer color. I wanted an hardscape that was serviceable easy to keep clean.

The deck was an unforeseen blessing. We just planned on making a rectilinear deck and calling it a day, and James said, 'Oh no, the transitions not there, between coming from the house in the back yard…' The deck turned out to be the most usable space that we’ve ever had. We can let the granddaughter play down here with her friends. We can set up there and have friends over and chat and talk and we can barbecue and have all kinds of usable space.

We interviewed 3 candidates and James and Design Builders turned out to be our favorite. His ideas just made the other people look like grassblowers – they just didn’t really have any idea for what to do back here. Of all the people that I’ve worked with and known since I’ve been here, James really is a person that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to do something to their house."