“When we first bought our house 13years ago, the first thing we needed to address was 90 feet of rotting railroad ties holding up an embankment. With reliable contractor friends in town, and a little bit of providence, I found this young kid named Luis Botello just starting to venture out onto his own. My wife and I interviewed him and decided to give him a try. Luis designed and replaced them with a stone retaining wall that made our home look like it belonged in Montecito. What we found out was that Luis is not just a guy who likes to build stuff; he is an artist too! Luis is disciplined enough to be able to follow an exact set of plans as a sub-contractor; or if you have not completely designed your new feature, he is able to help you create the vision as he works. My wife painted the vision and Luis built it better than we envisioned. Everyone that sees his work at our home asks who did the work. About every 2 years I call Luis to come back to add another living space to our yard. To date, we have (2) large patios, several walking paths, a new driveway/pedestrian way from the street, and elevated turf and putting areas that are trimmed with incredible stonework. All we have left to do is a water feature (to start this year), and a new chimney. After that, all that will be left is the friendship that we have built over the years. He can do this for you too! ”

— Kevin Reilly

“ Attached in the contact information on Luis Botello , a local stonemason , who with his team recently put in the flagstone patio and walkway for us in M 233 . I found him very easy and pleasant to work with . He was extremely knowledgeable about his craft , unfailingly polite , diligent , and reasonably priced . I would recommend him to anyone who needs stonework done at Casa Dorinda or elsewhere . And thanks again for the very helpful meeting yesterday . We have asked our gardeners to do as much of the perimeter planting as possible in pots , which we can easily remove when Casa upgrades the exterior of M Building in the near future.”

— Nancy Tylor