About 95% completed with this project. They just finished the retaining wall and the end facing out has some pretty rough cuts. If it were facing the backside I might not care that much but it's the first side you see. Am I nitpicking and I'll stop noticing after some time or is this sloppy work?
I'm in zone 7b. Running into an issue with a contractor. Originally asked for a paver patio, and then asked for walkway to be added after the fact (but before project had started). They did not come back out to measure and gave an estimate for an extra ~3k for the walkway. Their estimate didn't account for the need for a retaining wall for the walkway. To match the existing walls they are saying an extra 7k because they'd need to order a full pallet of the material.
An alternative cheaper suggestion they had was to use steel or concrete planter. This sounds suspect and I'm hesitant to go for it. Worried the steel may have shorter lifespan compared to the existing walls. Stucco was also floated as an idea but I think it would look bad.
This is the suggested planter https://www.allmodern.com/outdoor/pdp/veradek-corten-steel-series-span-planter-vrdk1021.html
Pavers are techo bloc. Somewhat annoyed because if they had come back out for another site visit, they could have done a different layout for the walkway to not butt out left and avoid the need for retaining wall.
Any idea if steel or concrete planter would work? Ideally I'd have the retaining wall match the existing materials but the cost seems too high and I doubt they would eat the cost.
Thanks for any suggestions
Additional images: https://ibb.co/twpJW7v1 https://ibb.co/SXHVdjmV