This is an excellent question. I'll start by saying that most of us in the landscape design industry tend to see things only from our own perspectives and our own limited experiences, so you are likely going to get responses that tell you that these people to this and those people do that. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending how you look at it, in any profession (landscape design, landscape architecture, design/build, landscape contractors, landscape maintenanace, ...) there is no standard operating procedure. It is as diverse as the people who make up each component of the industry. That good news is that there is someone out there that will do exactly what you want both in terms of procedure and product. The bad news is that it might take a lot of hunting and leg work to find someone that fits. The key thing is not to get too locked down with the idea that you need only to look for someone who has the title of one of these. The truth is that this type of work is done both well and poorly by some folks in each of the described categories. You should strive for someone (or entity) that typically does what it is you are asking for (product and procedure) rather that someone who is reaching up to it or someone reaching down to it. You want your project to be typical. That means they are competent and capable and you are just as important as the next client. You might find that many LA offices might view your job as less important by comparison to others that they typically do. Although they may be great at what they do, chances are that your project is not really what they do, so that would not make them great for you. You might find an LA that typically does little projects that are not as grand as yours. That would not be good either. If you look hard enough (or just get lucky) you might find an LA that does exactly what you are asking for. Now you can substitute either "design/build" or "landscape designer" for LA in everything I just described and it is equally true. However, people exist under these titles in greater numbers giving you a larger pool to fish in. The biggest pool is the design/build contractor. S/He is often the best value because the goal is not to make a living on designing, but to use design in order to get work. This means that it will often cost less for the design and that the design process can be much more straight forward and direct since they would rather get to the point of building than racking up design hours. The project is designed to work the strengths and profitability of that company which is great if you are familiar with their work and you trust in their "brand". However, your goals might diverge from theirs a bit. The independent designer should be working for you rather than toward the goals of contractors. One problem here is that it is very difficult to know how capable the designer is at making a plan that does not leave too many variables to bidding contractors. A designer is simply someone who designs. Some have great and diverse experience both artistically, technically, graphically, and from a managerial angle. But some are people who just thought it would be cool to do landscape design. So, you really have to do your homework. My opinion is that your best bet in terms of efficiency in finding someone is to search out landscape projects in your area that are very appealing to you on similar priced homes and find out who did the work (local, capability equals your taste, probably a similar budget). People are pretty easy to talk to if you see someone outside and complement their landscape. They'll talk (probably crediting themselves for the ideas). Gush on them and find out who built it. Chances are that it will be a design/build firm simply because there are more of them. I hope this helps. Don't rule out any of them based on title. There are great capabilities in all of these. I'm an LA, by the way.

Well after reading this...it scares me. I've been in the industry for over 30 years, and there are pros for both methods as well as cons. Choose wisely as it can affect your future situations. First, one post talks about setting doors in on top of floors to eliminate cutting around casing. This is WRONG on many levels. First if the door is exterior it has to set directly on the main floor, either concrete or subfloor. If interior use a piece of 1/2 inch drywall for doors and for the base to leave a gap. If your doors already go all the way down just use a jamb saw to trim the casing and there will be no cut lines around them. This is why they make the saw. Also, think, if you put your doors, trim, or cabinets on top of a floor and then there is a problem with your floor, you have to remove it all. This adds risk and cost. But, if you use shoe mold or quarter round, then you never affect anything but that part. Imaging breaking $5000 worth of granite because you put flooring under your cabinets and couldn't get it out without removing them. Yes you could cut around them but what if water was involved? Do you want water there underneath where it can mold?. Shoe is cheap, quick and easy. Minimal added expense to protect the possibilities. You can remove flooring without affecting surface materials and vice versa. Sure, flooring installers like to do floor first because it's easier and faster with less cutting. But they don't pa for the problems that arise in the future. Think hard about saving a very small amount of money in the scheme of your project. I will NEVER do a job where the flooring is underneath, I'd rather just walk away and let someone else absorb the risk.

It would probably be far cheaper to buy a used one - I see the convection microwave combo offered for $50 to $75 on craigslist often.

Yes!! I got your message...Good to know it is back...Hope to hear soon from the other members I messaged earlier... Check you message box... Hehe Not sure what is going on.. the email reminder thingy is still not working ..I have set it to receive emails for all events. I still emails on things like; someone posted, liked, but none for messaging. I will redo the settings again and see if I get the whole thing working again properly. Want to have the exchange thing ready and set for the swap. I need to set things aside for folks..