Installation new patio

I hired Horizon Landscaping to remove lawn, build new pavers patio and build planting beds around my back yard. They were a pleasure to work with and the quality of the work is excellent. Horizon Landscaping came up with a great design. The workmanship was top notch. Everyone on their team was professional and responsive. The team's attention to detail was impressive.
I'm very happy with completed product and would definitely recommend Horizon Landscaping.

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Removed a big fir tree grow out of the patio.

Mike and his crew are amazing!!! This is the first time I use their service and I'm super satisfied with their work. I have a deck built around a big fir tree and all my other bid are based on a full day of work to zip down all branches/trunk (in order to protect the deck). Some of the tree companies are even reluctant to take the work because of the challenge. Mike and his crew came onsite without talking about any difficulties and got the work done only in few hours (thus charge a lot less then others). They not only zip down all branches/carry down trunks, but also cleaned my yard (deck, drive way, roof, debris fallen on nearby trees) and even my neighbors yard. The work was done clean and professionally. I was surprised by their expertise and highly recommend anyone to give them a try! I would definitely use them again in the future.

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Won the contested hearing for a traffic ticket

I got a traffic ticket on 06/2x/2010 from an officer on the spot, because the officer said that I ran the red light. The location was on 40TH ST, crossing the 520.

There were some options after getting the traffic ticket:
1. Pay the full amount // about $124 at that time
2. File mitigation request // by given a sound reason, Judge may reduce some amount, say $30 or $50.
3. File the contested request
3.1 Contest by yourself // Don’t bet on the police man is No-Show in the courtroom because there will be a policy representative for all traffic cases on the court day. It is true for Redmond City.
3.2 Contest by an attorney // Per my knowledge, $250 is the bottom price for an experienced attorney. Why bother to pay $250 (at least) to save $124? I don't know the cost to involve the help from Microsoft Group Legal, so i leave it to others to comment.

I thought I ran the yellow light, not the red light. After some researching, I decided to attend the contested hearing by myself, without an attorney. I sent mail to Redmond Prosecuting Attorney for the policy cam video record. They refused to provide it to me, until my second mail, see my mail content in the section below.

The video showed nothing related to my case. It didn't prove that I ran the red light. It started to record at the next intersection, the one next to what it should capture, which happens to have a green light.

I went to the court with it and both the judge and prosecutor got confused about the video. My case was dismissed.

Besides my victory, I also learned a lot from my court experience. Per my observations, the defendants got more chance to win on that day. There were 6 cases without an attorney involved, including mine.

#1. A parking ticket. It was dismissed because the 2-hour parking sign was moved recently, so both judge and prosecutor agreed to dismiss the case.

#2. Didn’t stop at the 4-way stop sign. It is sustained. // I don’t think the defendant prepared good solid evidence other than verbal argument.

#3. A ticket based on traffic camera picture. It was dismissed because the driving person is not the defendant, it is his brother.
#4. Before the defendant said anything, this case is withdrawn by the prosecutor. // this mean the defendant only needs to show up in the court room.

#5. (I didn’t remember the details because I was preparing for mine case). It was dismissed after the defendant shows the print-out map and explain why it is not a violation.

#6. My case. It was dismissed after I showed the judge the video captured by the police car.

In summary, based on my observation, the chance to win a case with your own effort on that day was 5/6= 83.3%! So go to the court room to give a try next time.

********************
***my 2nd mail***
********************

Dear Redmond Prosecuting Attorney xxx,
I, Zheng xxxxx, got a traffic ticket on 06/2x/2010 from an officer on the spot, because the officer said that I ran the red light. The IR No of the ticket is IR135xxx.

I filed a request for Contested Hearing. For the hearing, I filed the request a copy of the citing officer’s sworn statement and request for a copy of video or photographic evidence the prosecutor proposes to introduce at trial on 07/2x/2010.

However, I got a mail from you on 07/2x/2010, saying:
‘In accordance with IRLJ 3.1(b) Discovery, the City has responded to your discovery request by herein providing “a copy of the citing officer’s sworn statement with the names of any witnesses not identified in the citing officer’s sworn statement.” No other discovery is required under IRLJ 3.1(b) and therefore no additional discovery will be provided.’

I doubled checked the official IRLJ3.1, available at http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/adopted/IRLJ3.1.doc. It says:
‘(b) Discovery. Upon written demand of the defendant at least 14 days before a contested hearing, filed with the court and served on the office of the prosecuting authority assigned to the court in which the infraction is filed, the prosecuting attorney shall at least 7 days before the hearing provide the defendant or the defendant's lawyer with (1) a copy of the citing officer's sworn statement (2) a copy of video or photographic evidence the prosecutor proposes to introduce at trial, unless in reply to the discovery request the prosecutor provides the address to a website where such evidence is accessible to the defendant; and (3)…’

Therefore, I have the right to ask for IRLJ 3.1(b) (2) - a copy of video or photographic evidence the prosecutor proposes to introduce at trial, or an alternative web site showing the evidence. I asked this because on 06/2x/2010, after the officer xxxxx xxxxx stopped me, he told me that he had video evidence of my violation which I don’t agree with.

Best Regards,

Zheng xxxxx
On 07/2x/2010
P.S. I attached a copy of my request on 07/2x/2010, which included my request for video or photographic evidence.

We hired Horizon Landscaping to clean up our yard, spread weed blocker and gravels on pathway around the house.

The gravel pathway looked good and we were happy we didn't need to worry about weeds on the pathway anymore. Overall we were glad how the yard came out and agreed to take on their annual maintenance starting April.

However, they did not show up and did not reply to our email, so we eventually sent an email saying we would find someone else. They replied to that email immediately and explained they had a labor shortage and should be able to start in May. We sent an email to confirm at the beginning of May and were told they had arranged to work on our yards either Wednesdays or Thursdays. Well, three weeks later there was still no sign of them. They probably never meant to come.

We noticed some weeds came out in part of the pathway soon after they finished. We thought it might be by chance at the beginning. However as more and more weeds grew in surrounding area, we got curious and dug into the pathway. Sure enough there was no weed blocker under the weedy area. Roughly one third of the total pathway did not have weed blocker.

If you have to hire them, make sure you have a plan for their not showing up; make sure to write down what needs to be done in detail and make sure no corners were cut.

They tend to not keep their own words; they were dishonest.

Property management for rented condo.

We have rent our condo and Roya helped us. She can handle everything that needed for renting, e.g. taking photos, publish ads, take background check to tenant candidate, call handy man to fix stuff.
After the tenant moved in, there are electric outlets needs fix, she called handy man and got it fixed all of them with only small amount of cost.
She takes 1 month's rental fee for service fee, and no other fees. If the next year the tenant continues to rent it, there will be no service fee, otherwise she will take 1 month rental fee for searching for new tenant.

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Help me buying a condo

Mike is a very professional real estate agent.
He can understand our requirements and provide detailed suggestions. He is patient and never late in appointment, although we took 4+ months to make final decision he never pushed us.
With his help, everything went smoothly and we are satisfied with the condo we got.
Although real estate agent is Mike's "retire career", he is doing it great.

No refund points.

Lawn mowing, yard cleaning.

My yard has not been maintained for a long time, the grass and weeds are high like a jungle. Yean and his wife are working together, they took a look around our yard, and scheduled a whole day to work on it.
They have very professional tools, mowers and blowers, and cleaned my yard from 10AM to 3PM, they took away a truck of grasses. Now everything looks neat and clean.

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Real estate inspection

Thorough report, easy to read

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