[Noah930]

Are you going to go with a contractor who does it all for you? Or are you looking just for the labor to make it all happen?

We renovated our backyard a few months ago. The few contractors/handymen we talked to all seemed to want to do pavers. Personally, while the look is nice and clean, it's something I most definitely did not want for my own backyard. (Why do all these guys want to sell us on pavers?)

So I took measurements and did sketches on graph paper, and figured out how much material we needed. We took out an existing (but tired) lawn, and replaced it mainly with decomposed granite (DG), a flagstone patio, and with some remaining soil (covered with Mexican pebbles/rock) for ground-level planters. We had an idea of what we wanted, so we just needed someone to do the heavy lifting. We used a neighbor's recommended contractor. Fortunately, we don't have freeze-thaw here in the flatlands of California, so surface prep is simpler (you don't need 4-6" of gravel and sand base, for example). I went to a few building supply yards and figured out which one was the cheapest; prices vary widely for materials, I found. And between the gravel yard and Home Depot, I think we were able to get all material we needed. Bought them myself and had the materials delivered, and paid for the contractor/labor separately.