Congratulations on building such a nice house. If I understand "closing" correctly, that means you want to sell? In that case, if your initial vision did not include any landscaping features, I would suggest you just do as you say - sod it over.

For information on how to prepare the ground, I suspect the sod supplier would be able to help, or else perhaps an internet search would generate some information.

KarinL

Closing means changing the construction loan to a fixed mortgage.

You might want to have the area graded and sodded with beds around the foundation mulched. Then do your landscaping after some study about what you like, what grows in your area etc. A retail gardening store in your area could give you some ideas.

That sounds reasonable. Thanks

I would first ask your builder (if you are not the one) if their pricing includes a final grade. This final grade should get you within 1" of the "finish grade" which is the final preparation stage before you seed or sod. You will want to lay out your landscape beds, decide which plantings are suitable for your site. Once the landscape is in then you can install the lawn. Sod is great because it is instant but if you do not have an automatic irrigation system I would not reccommend it. Seeding will give you a better lawn in the long run but it will take better than a year to become established if you have that much patience! The lawn will adapt to your site conditions versus sod where it is coming from a sod farm where it has the perfect conditions. Then you install it at your house where the conditions more than likely are not like the ones at the sod farm. Make sure you have at least 3" of good top soil first. Don't bother installing top soil unless you do at least the 3" because it will not make a difference. You can visit my website for some ideas at http://www.allterrascape.com

Here is a link that might be useful: All Terra Landscape Services LLC

Dear Allterra: by all means continue to visit the forums and contribute to the discussion. But please do not link to your website!