You'd be surprised!

So we are doing the landscaping, finally! We had several people come out and make bids and show us designs, etc. We decided to go with the guy, Mark, that was recommended by our pool guy, Brandon. So Mark puts the bid together and tells us to do the sprinklers in the backyard he estimates about $1600 - probably less. He put a cap on the job of $2000 - so if, by chance, it did cost more than $2000, he would cover the cost. Jeff & I both told him ok, but that it would probably be closer to $2000 and to put that in the bid so we could have an idea of how much it would be at the most expensive end, and if it was less, then we would be happy. Mark kept assuring us though this was not necessary - that we would be surprised at how much was still intact. Jeff & I exchanged looks and said, "OK.".....

So the landscapers started yesterday and the first thing they needed to do was to test a cut wire that led from the front yard to the back. They tested it, found the 5 zones in the front of the house that were still intact. - this wasn't a surprise since noone touched the sprinklers in the front. They then were going to "jump" it to the valve box on the other side of the backyard closest to the control box. This would show them what was working in the front yard .... So they found the valve box and dug it up - all three valves were busted. They dug on the other side of the box to find the wire - dead.... they dug a little more & found were it was severed....after an afternoon of digging, and finding this line severed in 6 different spots, they "jumped" to right outside the box. This is were I found them yesterday afternoon when I came home from running a few errands. Mark looked at me and said, "Your sprinkler system back here is a mess!" He told me about the job of finding the wire and how many times it had been cut. I said, "You know how you kept telling us that we would be surprised at how intact this all was, and we kept telling you that no, you'd be surprised!" Well, he was.