Garage Opening...

We have immediate openings for garage insulating and finishing. Please call 403-819-1948 for your next day quote.

Awards Banquet...

We had a great evening at the LANTA awards banquet. We were presented the award of merit for our Bel-Aire project, alongside many other terrific projects by some great landscape companies. The entire team attended and enjoyed a great buffet meal and a very entertaining and informational event.

We learned a number of things during the presentation, including the fact that we are pretty good at what we do. This event gives us an opportunity to 'measure up' in our industry. We keep our head down the rest of the year and have never wondered or worried about what other companies are doing, we just mind our own business and try to grow and improve every day. We had no idea what to expect from the evening, but were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the projects we are grouped with along with the quality of the presentation. Great job by the LANTA group to make all of us feel great and proud of our projects.





One great item that deserves mention is that LANTA took the time to make sure our name on the plaque was capitalized properly. You see, LeeDavid is one word, however the L and the D are capitalized. This is how is it engraved on the plaque. We strive to achieve a level of consideration unmatched in our industry on all our projects, and it is incredibly nice to see the voice of our industry seems to have the same mandate. Thank you Marnie, Nigel and the staff at LANTA for your incredible consideration on this seemingly little detail, it means a great deal to us!

Hedi and Elton enjoyed the event which is meant to recognize the accomplishments of our company, but truly our success couldn't be achieved without them. Thank you. Management felt it necessary to reward their efforts on this night as well and presented them each with a Tomtom GPS for their vehicles. (no more getting lost excuses either).


Notes for future award submissions

1. Provide more staging of furniture and props to achieve a more lived in look in the photos
2. Submit mature projects. Plants that have grown up to their designed potential allow for a higher judged score (obvious to us now)
3. Submit more details in the written essay portion. The judges take a great deal of care to understand the project, and all details are important.
4. Keep shooting pictures, in this digital age one can never have enough pictures.
5. Start all projects with the thought that this is going to be an award submission project, this keeps the end result in mind at all times and keeps us focused on doing the best possible job even in tough goings.

Another one bites the Drywall Dust...

We are finished in Silverado, and Because Mick said we could, we are posting some of his garage photos.

Here's a good look at the difference a single coat of primer can make on the finishing of a garage interior. Keep up the good work Elton!


Final Clean up and painting underway.

The new sub panel goes in, set into the wall. This can only happen before the garage is finished, otherwise all the wiring and the panel sit on the surface and look ugly. Great choice to include electrical now Mr. Homeowner.

These are a couple more detail pictures of the heater, the hookups and the venting outside. Looks really neat and tidy.

Here's Hedi Cutting in for Elton.

Great work team!

Facebook...

LeeDavid Landscapes is now on Facebook. Check us out and become a FAN!

Be careful out there...

Sunday...

Need I say more?

GREAT NEWS!!!

For immediate release.

Home Renovation Tax Credit - Win for Green Industry
In the weeks leading up to the announcement of the 2009 Federal Budget, The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance requested industry consultation. The Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA) responded in a major way by providing Minister Flaherty with an action plan to stimulate the Canadian economy by investing in green infrastructure. Michael Murray, CNLA President, was very pleased that Minister Flaherty took the recommendation seriously. “This is a great development for Canadian home owners and our industry. We hope this is just the beginning and look forward to this government’s support in the future”, said Mr. Murray.

Canadian homeowners are now eligible for the Home Renovation Tax Credit outlined in the Harper Government’s recent Federal Budget for 2009. Families will be eligible to claim a 15% non-refundable tax credit for eligible expenses made in respect of eligible dwellings. The credit will apply to expenditures in excess of $1,000, but not more than $10,000, resulting in a maximum credit of $1,350 ($9,000 x 15%).

Examples of HRTC Eligible and Ineligible Expenditures:

Eligible
- Renovating a kitchen, bathroom, or basement
- New carpet or hardwood floors
- Building an addition, deck, fence, landscaping or retaining wall
- A new furnace or water heater
- Painting the interior or exterior of a house
- Resurfacing a driveway
- Laying new sod

Ineligible
- Furniture and appliances (refrigerator, stove, couch)
- Purchase of tools
- Carpet cleaning
- Maintenance contracts (furnace cleaning, snow removal, lawn care, pool cleaning, etc.)

CNLA is national federation of nine green industry associations representing over 3,600 companies in the landscape, independent garden centre, and nursery sectors. CNLA’s members are thrilled with the Home Renovation Tax credit as they are the growers of trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials; retailers for all garden products and plant material; and professional service providers who will create stunning gardens and landscapes for homeowners across Canada.

The green industry that CNLA represents contributes $14.48 billion to Canada’s economy and employs 132,776 people across the country.

Garage update...

In between the major snowfalls, we have been successfully finishing the interior of garages. To date we have completed 8 garage projects, 4 of them with heaters and 1 of them with some nice shelving.

Here we have installed a unit heater, which is critical to a quick project, as paint and mud dries much quicker in temperatures above freezing.

Elton and Hedi are installing the final bit of insulation and will be completing the gyproc portion of this project shortly.

This project had a special requirement for insulation, as the bonus room above the garage had walls exposed to the cold attic space above the garage. We can't put insulation batts here as there would be an amazing amount of redundant framing required in a really tight space, so we contacted Tiger-Foam and purchased a DIY kit of insulating spray foam. The product comes in 200 sqft and 600 sqft application packages and includes all the necessary hoses, spray nozzles and instructions required to provide a proper finish. The foam is rated at R-7 insulating factor per inch of finished thickness, and we were able to put on 2 inches and provide a factor of R-14, equivalent to a 2x4 insulated wall. Success.

The foam, the heater and the finished garage will help keep not only the vehicles warm, but will allow this family to enjoy their bonus room more, as the chief complaint was that this room above the garage was consistently 5-7 deg c colder than the rest of the house.

Winter wind...

They are building a commercial retail center in Cranston, and have been constructing this fire break wall for about 3 weeks now. It looks like they completed it and had taken down the one side of the scaffolding. Well wouldn't you know it, the wind picks up from the East (rare) and rips down the other side. Now we know why they spend a significant amount of time supporting the wall itself with guy wires prior to the rest of the building being built against the wall on both sides. What a mess to clean up...

LeeDavid Landscapes is now "Award Winning!"...

We were just informed by LANTA, that we have received an Award of Merit for our Bel-Aire project. More details to follow once we receive our award...

here are the criteria we were judged by...

The Landscape Alberta Nursery Trades Association (LANTA) Landscape Awards
reflect the Association's commitment to the development and promotion of high
standards of excellence in the landscape contracting industry.

The program is designed to reward independent landscape contracting
companies that execute quality landscaping projects in design, construction or
maintenance, and the citizens who underwrite such work. LANTA’s Awards Program
also strives to increase public awareness of quality landscaping, to encourage
the contractors’ use of quality materials and workmanship, and through example
and recognition, to encourage all landscape contractors to pursue excellence.

Each landscaping award entry is evaluated independently against a list
of industry-set criteria. A jury of industry experts judge the entries: the jury
is comprised of professionals chosen from the fields of landscape architecture
and design, education, landscape construction and landscape maintenance.

Here is an email I received from a client this evening. I love this picture. The lights are amazing all the time, however with the snow cover they are breathtaking!

Hey Neil - hope you are doing well. Thought you might like to see your
work, still looking great in the dead of winter. Out there tonight in the
hot-tub with my frozen hair!
Have a good Christmas.
R.
Nice.

Past clients, you should always feel free to share with us your pictures of your yards, and also include pictures of you, your friends or family enjoying the yard!

Thanks R, for the nice email! Merry Christmas!

Updated website...

We updated the website today with project from:

Bel-Aire