Okay Home Owner Questions...

[VooMan]

My opinion, as someone who has done all of this crap myself over the past few years:

1. Roofing and Sofits - The roofers are going to leave shingles and nails all over your yard for you to pick up.

2. Sprinkler System - this will help you find the shingles and nails the roofers left all over the yard, AND the mess the sprinkler guys make will be washed off the walls of the house before you paint. LOL

2a. Side Note: "call before you dig" only means that some idiot is going to spraypaint your yard where he "thinks" the gas, water, electrical, and phone lines are. Your sprinkler installer WILL hit something with his manly ditchwitch. Even though Call Before You Dig sucks, if you have them come out beforehand you will not be charged a nickel for repairs to the stuff the various workmen break. My sprinkler guy cut my phone line in four places, my next door neighbor's phone line, and my cable.

3. Paint the house - it's always easier to paint the house BEFORE all your plants are in and the landscaping is done... it sucks trying to paint behind bushes and shrubs. Plus, you'll spill paint on the poor plants.

4. Fencing - Like Sarettah said, put the fencing in before the landscaping. Unless you're doing a concrete block wall. Then you might want to do the fence before the sprinkler since they will definitely bust up some pipes no matter what...

5. Gardening - last but not least, clean up all the crap and put in your plants and sod. In one weekend your house will undergo a DRAMATIC change.

5a. Start from the back of the house first. In other words, work from the furthest point where people will be bringing stuff in and out, and work your way closer to where the materials will be staged. Do NOT put down sod and then start walking wheelbarrows full of crushed stone through the lawn and around to the back of the house.

5b. Railway sleepers are nice, but they leak dirt and eventually rot. If you can start off with Castle Block type prefab stone blocks you will be much better off.