[Gullwing7]

I have an end unit that is for sale and already rocked if you are still looking. But to answer you question. The very large front yard cost about $5000 as did the very large backyard, but that had less space because there is a pool in it. You can look at in Mockingbird Villas in the Village of Fenney in the Villages homes for sale. Luis Landscaping supplied my rock and spread it, I supplied the prep work.

[PoolBrews]

We did my corner end unit about 3 years ago. 3,000 sq ft took 31 yards of rock. I paid $12,000, but that included grass removal, 4 large palms (2 Sylvesters and 2 Mules) 4 decorative retaining walls, and a bunch of other landscaping plants. I capped off a number of my sprinklers myself, only leaving them where the new plants and trees needed the water.

I would never hire the folks that did it again - while the work turned out great, they were a real pain to keep working. Kept showing up for 2 hours, then going somewhere else. Kept wanting the next payment in advance (I said no).

I got down to having a good chunk of rock that still needed to be spread, and finally had to threaten to have someone else finish the work - I had someone that would do it for less than what I still owed them. They came the next day and finished.

Jamies gave me a quote for the same work with 2 less palms and less plants - they wanted $19,700. While it was a pain to get it done, I did save nearly $8K.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Bill1701

Whatever you do, be sure to get it approved by ARC.

And if I were you I would wait a year. It is very cheap to maintain lawns here.

[CanTho]

Originally Posted by gwenhwalker@yahoo.com

Depending on your district. Arc is not allowing full rock replacement anymore. I tried with no luck on a patio villa


[/U]

Patio Villas are completely different in everyway . Totally 100% different including the roads which are considered private.

So to say Arc is not approving full rock replacement is simply not true.

[Marathon Man]

Originally Posted by davidn

Im looking at a courtyard villa that is an end unit that has quite a bit of grass in front that I would rather not deal with. I understand that one must get ARC approval, but Im not sure how much it would cost to remove the grass and replace it with landscaping and mostly rock. Its a large area, maybe 1500 sq feet. Has anyone done such a large area and will to offer up how much theirs cost for their square footage? Thanks.

Keep in mind that you will not be approved for a rock only yard. There must be a certain number of plants.

My former villa was all rock. Rock turned out to be more work than I envisioned. I was always cleaning it to keep it looking nice. Picking weeds, picking up leaves, etc.

My new villa is all grass except for landscaped areas. I bought a lawn mower and pay Massey to treat it. About 15 minutes a week and I have a nice looking lawn.

[sswitenki]

Be sure to get ARC permit before any expensive changes. It would be horrible to be told to put the grass back after a huge investment

[jmcica@aol.com]

Can you share details? I tried to email you. Looking to purchase in that timeframe

[KRM0614]

Originally Posted by davidn

Im looking at a courtyard villa that is an end unit that has quite a bit of grass in front that I would rather not deal with. I understand that one must get ARC approval, but Im not sure how much it would cost to remove the grass and replace it with landscaping and mostly rock. Its a large area, maybe 1500 sq feet. Has anyone done such a large area and will to offer up how much theirs cost for their square footage? Thanks.

They won’t let you rock the entire area. Landscaping rock down here is &60-: yard and you can do it yourself I did landscaping in a huge lot in Michigan with a shovel and wheel barrel

[curtmcgee]

Get ARC approval. One owner replaced grass with astroturf. She was forced to dig it up and is facing fines. There may be a 50% grass restriction in certain CDD's

[kimgarwel12@gmail.com]

We just got an estimate for rock in front of our golf cart garage and around the back of it, plus stone edging/cap. Also around a tree in front which they are going to dig out and replace with a Robelina. They will also lay the weed barrier. My husband is raking up all the pinestraw and disposing of it and laying the French drains from the gutter downspouts. He's already pulled and disposed of the shrubs we don't want and we'll replace with our own plants. Estimate is for $3400. Seems high to me, but apparently the going rate around TV.

[nevjudbaker]

You better check with proper people before you do anything. They will tell you what you can or cannot do. If you don’t and it is against regulation they will fine you & make you replace it with whatever is allowed.

[dkaufnelson]

I suggest you hire a good landscaper to make it attractive with some little walls and rocks with bushes here and there to make it look nice. One of my neighbors who has a courtyard dumped rocks all over his lawn area and it is quite an eyesore. A landscaper can make it rocks and walls and some nice bushes or trees and make it attractive whereas just dumping rocks all over what used to be grass is really ugly and I for one think you would not be happy with how it looks once done. Either leave the grass and pay someone to mow it or save some money up and hire a professional landscaper to do it nicely so you will be proud whenever you approach your home. I removed the grass on my property for my courtyard and extended all the current pine straw all the way out to the end of my property line then planted flowering bushes and trees and some flowers and it looks very pretty. No grass to worry about but keeping with the pine straw mulch look and nature versus just piles of ugly Stone all over.

[Lisa99]

We have an end unit villa but most of our backyard is pool and lanai.

We hired a landscaper to convert to rock and they charged $6500. They did a horrible job. The work was shoddy and they broke several sprinklers.

Besides the fact that the work was done so poorly if I were to do it over I'd leave the grass. The weeds in the rocks are an ongoing maintenance headache. Would have been much less work for us to continue to pay someone to mow.

[Toymeister]

Originally Posted by lrvalley

We did my corner end unit about 3 years ago. 3,000 sq ft took 31 yards of rock.

If that is true every square foot of your yard has 13.392 inches of stone coverage.

It doesn't.

I have found that it is extremely common for landscaper to greatly inflate the amount of stone used to impress the customer or justify a higher price, knowing full well most do not know how to calculate the volume of one cubic yard.

[Woodchopper545]

Who did you have remove the grass? Also did you put a weed barrier down before putting down the rock?