Our (Not So) Fabulous Backyard Project

Cory and I have been talking about putting a patio in our backyard for about 2 years now. Our driveway is a fairly decent sized hill, and our street is really busy. I have major issues with letting the girls play out front on their bikes and trikes because of this. Now that I'm watching even more kids at our house on a fairly regular basis, I feel like now is the time to get this done. So, we got a couple of bids and took the plunge to finally get this patio project done.

We're having a party here next weekend for Cory's graduation (yay Cory!), and I really wanted to find a contractor that could promise me that they'd get it done by then. This perfect contractor came by and gave us a fabulous bid. He was recommended by a nestie so I thought this would be perfect. Boy was I wrong! This has been a serious nightmare.

I cannot even begin to go into what a joke this whole thing has been, but I'll try to give the shortened version. The crew finally shows almost 2 weeks after they were originally supposed to start and after countless phone calls that the "head honcho" managed to dodge from me. He says they'll try really hard to get it done last Friday. The crew finally rolls in around 10:30 Friday morning, they work off and on for 5 hours and get all of our old landscaping torn out. I was told this would take "maybe 30 minutes" to get this portion done. At 3:30 they called it a day and said they'd be back on Saturday to bring in dirt. Who wouldn't love to work a 5 hour day? Guess what? They never showed up Saturday.

Today they show up bright and early at 8:30, and I'm thinking, "OMG they might actually get this done today." After 3 hours they finally haul all of the dirt into the backyard, and it starts raining. They immediately pack up and head out. It rains for all of 20 minutes, but they never came back. I called "head honcho" because by now, I am absolutely furious. I've remained pretty calm and nice throughout this ordeal, but not anymore! He basically tells me that they really thought it would rain more and they took a gamble by not continuing to work, but that obviously their gamble didn't pay off. Seriously?? When you're working construction this time of year in Nebraska you have to know that weather can be a factor. "Head honcho" and I discussed this fact 3 weeks ago, and he assured me that they'd get it done well before my deadline so that weather wouldn't be a factor. Well, here we are 4 days before our party and our backyard is a mess. "Head honcho" is also well aware of the fact that we have more work to do back there after his guys are finished and before our party.

This is so not getting done by Saturday, and I am furious. So here's what our backyard looks like today.

This is the "tarp" that's covering only a small
portion of the dirt to avoid getting it wet. Oh, and
the broken water spicket that they will be replacing.

They have completely torn apart our yard, and
I'm having a hard time believing they will
be getting it looking nice like they claim they will.

They had to bring in A LOT of dirt. This has been
a much bigger project than the contractor realized.
He thought they'd need "2 buckets full". Haha!
2 dump trucks full so far, and they don't have enough yet.

Here's the disaster they've made in the side yard.
And the bushes that I'm sure they'll end up killing.

So, is anyone optimistic that this is all going to end well? Can my yard possibly look halfway decent before we have 30+ people in our backyard on Saturday? Especially after we get the rain we're supposed to get in the next couple of days. Please give me some encouragement!