With the recent drought situation in California my husband and I chose to stop watering our front yard lawn and had also recently had a large over grown tree removed that could have possibly fallen onto our home and our neighbor's in a severe winter storm. As result, the yard was barren and in dire need of new landscaping for many months. We knew we wanted a drought tolerant landscape but didn't know how to start the design or what type of plantings would be best. We checked with several sources on line and after visiting Hansen's show yard in Castro Valley we chose Hansen Landscape Contractors. We met with the owner, Steve Hansen, who showed us around their large show yard to give us an idea of the many options available to us--different types of rock, pavers, concrete, plants, ponds, waterfalls, etc. Their show yard is beautiful. Once we decided to use Hansen, we were contacted by one of the project managers/designers (Louis Siegel) to get us started on the project and who also finalized the project with us. Louis met with us to get a general idea of what we wanted. We were informed he would draw up a design and informed us of the cost involved up front. He gave us a timeframe of when to expect it and how he would send it. Once we received it and reviewed it, we discussed it with the project manager. The design was broken down by price so we were able to approve or reject anything we didn't want so that we could stay within our budget. Communications were done by email and by phone for the most part after the initial meeting and found Louis to be very responsive to our calls. We were given timeframes of all the activities that needed to occur and given choices of the products so that it was what we wanted. The project stayed on track; we were always informed in advance of what to expect. The project manager was on site when it started, check in periodically as the project was progressing and did a final walk through. After the landscaping was completed the project manager did a 1 week, 2 week, 1 month, and a final check up at 2 months on the health of the plants. We found Louis and all of the other workers to be very professional. I highly recommend Hansen Landscape Contractors.