When Steve Gary came over for a first consultation, we gave him a scale drawing of what we wanted and showed him our neighbor's patio to demonstrate the look we wanted. We were going for a simple, modern look with clean, straight lines. He seemed to understand, and he gave us the lowest quote of any of the contractors we consulted. We brought him out for a second consultation at which time we talked about the stone, the border, the drainage, the waterfall design and the mulch. He again assured us that he understood our vision and confirmed that everything was included in the cost of the quote. Then the work started, and everything went downhill form there. Although we told him we wanted the patio set in stone dust and although that was written into the contract, Steve's foreman Edwin Romero apparently decided it would be easier for him to lay a concrete foundation and proceeded to do so. He then began to lay the flagstones crooked. I alerted Steve to this problem, and he told me it was due to the dimensions of the yard. Our yard is perfectly square, and in any case, the dimensions of the yard have nothing to do with whether the stones are laid square with each other or veer off at an angle. Edwin assured us we wouldn't be able to see the crooked lines when he was done. To hide the fact the patio was laid at an angle, he put a cheap plastic border on top of the stones and squared it with the fence. Leaving aside the fact that this was an unacceptable, cheap-looking, makeshift solution, it still didn't hide the fact that the stones were laid crooked. On top of that, he laid the stones with wide, sloppy grout lines that looked more like a country path than the clean modern effect we wanted. What's worse, despite all of Steve's talk about drainage, Edwin built the patio with a concave center that collects water and doesn't drain. Edwin made no provision for a filter or a pump in the pond, without which the pond is not functional. So much for everything being included. The waterfall looked nice, but when I put a hose over the top of it to see how it would work (in the absence of a pump), we discovered that the water did not flow into the pond but rather flowed off the back, into the garden. Meanwhile, Edwin had not put a stone border on the patio as Steve had promised us he would from the first visit. We reminded Steve we wanted this, and he told us it would cost extra. Finally, frustrated with the poor workmanship and failure to deliver what we asked for, we told Steve we wanted him to redo the stones, redo the waterfall and install the border as we had discussed. We even made it clear that we were willing to pay more to have it done the way we wanted. He responded with an email saying that he had given us a garden worth $14,000, that we were taking advantage of his generosity and "Please feel free to discuss your project with another contractor." Despite countless efforts to reach Steve by phone and email since then, we've received no response. At the end of the day, he's right that it'll be a $14,000 garden because we've had to pay someone else to come in and rip out all of his work and do it properly. In all my dealings with contractors, I've never seen anyone behave so unprofessionally.