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 Welcome to the Jade and Steve Zoo!

Hi Steve and Jade!

Wow! Where do I start on this one?? These guys owned a large Pet Store in New York for decades, and sold it to retire to Florida. Well, sort of. They now have a Petting Zoo going on out there! Jade is an Animal Activist, and Steve too. These guys have rescued many animals over the years, and spent a pretty penny of their own money to do it. 
Pretty special people!
Bald Eagle or Vulture! They will do whatever they can do to save a life!
They brought a flock of PEACOCKS down here with them when they moved to Florida! It's a riot! 
These guys are right out there with us doing the paver job as you will see in the pictures below!
I've had few dogs supervise us, BUT NEVER A PEACOCK!!!!!!!
OK, let's get on with some pictures!

Before, During and After Pictures

Welcome to N.B.C. T.V.!
The picture below is the N.B.C. Peacock before the Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien fiasco!

And Below is what he looked liked when the RATINGS came in after the Jay Leno/ Conan Obrien fiasco!

See all that stone work on the house, those walls and columns? Steve did all that himself!
The work really looks great and the colors they chose for the driveway and sidewalks are just perfectly suited for the house and rock work!!

 

How We Got There Pictures

Below, you see the Peacocks are checking in the second delivery of pavers from Flagstone! 
I didn't know these things could count pallets of bricks!

Our friendly Flagstone driver, Mark got the thumbs up from the peacocks, so he unloaded the pavers for us!

Our good friends from Helen's Sun Coast Nursery brought us out around 25 Tons of Screened Base, and as always, Jamie did a great job of excavating the site, and spreading the base for us! Thanks Guys!

Day Two!

Got the base set in the main driveway area, but still need more base! There was a lot of sand fill put in front of the house, so it's taking a lot more base than normal to get the paver foundation compacted, and up to the grade we are trying to achieve. As you can see though, the Peacock is doing a nice job keeping Dennis and Russ hard at work!
When they slack off, the bird gives them a few sharp pecks in the BUTT!
The way these guys work, I figure they will both need some NEW JEANS, or BUTT Patches before this one is over!

Steve is going to build a nice size fish pond around that palm tree when we are done. In preparation for that and other water and electrical considerations, we ran a 4 inch pipe underground for Steve, and are installing a drain pipe to evacuate the pond for cleaning. It's all pretty well thought out. It will all be under the brick pavers, so there won't be any "UGLY"S! 
Nice going Steve!

Jade is pretty handy herself! 
She has been in and out of the garage staining and cutting new trim for the house!

Day 3!

It was a pretty good day for us. We got the sidewalk to the guest house all prepped, and compacted. We pretty much got the shape of the pond figured out, so tomorrow we can start cutting and laying the soldier course down around that. It's almost to the point where you can start to see what's going to happen! It's taking shape nicely, so check back tomorrow, and we should have some pretty sharp looking pictures. Here are a few from today!

End of Day 4!

Today was a really good day for us. Got a lot done! Mainly because we didn't have to wait till Ten O'clock to get our tools out of the garage!
OK, an inside joke! Jade was telling the boys yesterday that she was sleeping in today, {Jade doesn't care for our 7:30 to 8 AM Start time}, but STEVE would get up to open the garage up for us!
About that time Steve walked up with the Garage Door opener and handed it to Russ! Let yourself in tomorrow, OK? 
I won't repeat what Jade's response to Steve was on that! Well, Let's just say it had something to do with the female anatomy!
These guys are just too funny! What a great team they are!

Let's start with a few Pics from the Zoo Area of the property!

As I promised yesterday, ..today things started to take shape! 
Got the sidewalk to the guesthouse all soldiered up and cut in!

Got the Pond shape figured out, and all set to get cut in! Boy does it look SHARP! This whole project is coming together perfectly! 
GEEZ! You'd almost think somebody knew what they were doing here!
I always said I'd rather be LUCKY than GOOD! Actually, this is pretty close to what Jade had in mind all along, we just had to convince Steve that Hamster Race Track design he had laid out there wasn't the way to go!
Jade prevailed on this, so this is from Jade to Steve!
HMMM, isn't that way it always goes guys? Steve, I feel your pain!!

In the picture below, Wade is the 3 foot deep trench he dug out for Steve's pond drain. I wanted to make the pond shape myself, so I did that while Russ and Wade finished back filling the trenches.

The pond will be kidney shaped. We pavered a swimming pool deck this shape, and every since then, I thought, Man that would make an awesome looking Koi Pond! And I was RIGHT! It looks fabulous!!!!

After Pictures!

Finally, Huh? Good Grief, as Charlie Brown would say! What's up with the weather in Florida this year??? We caught 4 rain days off on this job, and almost every morning has been in the 30 degree range, with the high barely reaching the 50's! 
Yea, Yea, I know that probably doesn't sound all that bad to you northerners, but for us Floridians with thinned out blood,.... and used to working in 80 degrees plus, that's brutally cold!
We finally got the two days we needed to finish this job, and I'm here to tell you, this one should be in Better Homes and Garden! 
What a killer job this turned out to be! Totally awesome!!!!!!!!

Jade and Steve should get into the design biz! What great vision they had on this project!
That said, they left nothing to chance, and brought in Jade's Brother, Sheriff Jeff, (no, not Dawsey, and not really a Sheriff, per se}, and his wife Karen from Long Island, New York to ramrod the finale of the job!
So let's start there with the final pictures!

OK Boys! There's a new Sheriff in Town!

I was a little nervous at first, but when I asked him where his "Six Shooter" was, he said right over there in that cooler! 

I said" I LUV YOU MAN!", and Jeff replied, screw you,...you're not gettin my BUD LIGHT!
And below, you can see Sheriff Jeff hard at work!

Today was customer participation day! Jade and Steve were so nice to us, we decided to do a little landscaping for them before we left, so they pitched right in to help us. We even got the Sheriff to put down the beer for a while to help out too! Trust me folks, this is no easy thing to do! 
However, when we replaced the beer with a shovel, he started barking out out orders to everyone, so we quickly took him off the family participation program!

We felt the sidewalk needed some  special attention, so this was our "Pet" Project for Steve and Jade! Russell got 15 Azaleas, 5 Indian Hawthorns, and 3 yards of mulch from our buddies at Helen's Suncoast Nursery to bed out the sidewalk and mulch in Steve's rock beds across the front of the house.

Below, the Peacocks are coming in for the final inspection! 

What a fun job this has been for us at P.H.D.! Almost like going to work at a Zoo every day! The Steve and Jade Zoo!
We are so blessed to have all the wonderful, and diverse customers that we seem to get! We just love all you guys, and wish it could go on forever! Steve and Jade, we can't thank you enough for the opportunity to work for you guys! Thanks so much for all of your hospitality, and especially for the kindness you showed my guys out there! Believe me, they all appreciate it, and thanks are abound around here at the shop! 

Marrianne says thanks for the Champagne,.......what little bit I left her by the time I got home, that is!

In closing, I have three final pictures for you guys!

For any readers of this site, below is a picture of Bing, and then Bing's  Paw Prints. 

Bing is a very sweet old dog that Jade and Steve have. He lost one of his legs during his life.
He walked across our cement when we were cementing in the soldier course of pavers. Bing is 17 years old thanks to Steve and Jade. When Jade saw all three paw prints in the cement, she asked that we leave them there as a memory to Bing since he is probably not going to be with us for much longer.
While sad, I can assure you all, Bing has had a great life via Jade and Steve!
You guys are truly amazing, loving people!
God will reward you for taking care of his creatures!

Here's a picture of Bing!

And the last photo is a group photo! We tried to keep Jeff out of it, but he wasn't havin anything to do with that! Jeff, you missed your calling!!!
You should have been a comedian! Thanks for all the laughs, Sheriff!
By the way, We're sending a 55 Gallon Drum of TRANSMISSION FLUID up to Long Island for you and Karen!

That's Jade and Steve in the middle. 
That's Jeff's wife, the lovely Karen on the left. 
Yep, Karen is in a foot cast from trying to kick some sense into Jeff!
Good Luck with that Karen! 
We've already ordered a foot cast for your right foot!
Just a suggestion,..., try a 2x4 next time around!

Wade, John and Russ are on the right side. Another great job fellas!
Thanks again to everyone on this project!

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