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Outdoor Impressions Plans Patio Design Expo

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By LAURA FRAZIER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 12, 2008

VALRICO - Carol Forsberg recently decided to take the plunge and have her 14-year-old pool resurfaced. While she was at it, she thought it might also be time to redo her lanai, pool deck and concrete walkways. Updated outdoor lighting and a new water feature would be nice, too.

Forsberg, of Valrico, faced a myriad of choices for project designs, materials and contractors. Because she had little expertise or free time, the task seemed overwhelming, she said.

She was relieved to find the help she needed at Outdoor Impressions, also in Valrico.

Jason Smith and Justin Stabler, who have worked together for eight years, opened the showroom on Bloomingdale Avenue about a year ago. Paver stone projects form the foundation of their business, but they also help design and coordinate other types of outdoor improvements through their network of friends and business associates.

Most of their patio resurfacing clients, Smith said, also are in the market for improvements such as landscaping upgrades, fencing or outdoor kitchens. The partners said they have developed relationships with a handful of other local companies that offer patio and yard products or services. The businesses refer clients to one another, and Smith and Stabler help coordinate the jobs.

"We do it because we enjoy doing total backyard transformations," Smith said. "It's strictly a group of friends with reputable and trustworthy businesses that all work well together."

Many of those businesses will come together when Outdoor Impressions hosts a free patio design expo April 19 at the showroom. Smith and Stabler will feature their paver products and completed project samples. Other vendors will showcase outdoor kitchens, fencing and gates, landscape lighting, bug misting and cooling systems and more.

The expo will kick off at 9 a.m., when HGTV personality Gary Alan, host of the show "Landscaper's Challenge," will offer free landscape design tips until noon.

"People can bring their surveys or site plans, and Gary will give them ideas and sketch out a design," Smith said. "We're going to have a barbeque, and when the sun goes down, we'll light the fire pits and turn on the landscape lighting."

Smith coordinated jobs completed by four contractors who worked on Forsberg's project, which included landscaping the front yard, resurfacing the pool and deck, adding light and water features to the pool, rescreening the pool cage, installing fence post lighting in the backyard and laying travertine tile on the lanai and front walkways and in the backyard.

Forsberg said she would have paid more for the "above and beyond" services Smith and Stabler provided, but she didn't have to.

"It was almost like I had hired a consultant," she said. "They acted as designers, job coordinators and contracting oversight and did it all within their very competitive costs."

PATIO DESIGN EXPO

WHAT: Patio and outdoor improvement expo featuring a free barbecue lunch and vendor displays of paver products, pool renovations, vinyl fencing and gates, landscape lighting and design, concrete curbing and landscape edging, outdoor kitchens and bug misting and cooling systems. HGTV personality Gary Alan will offer free landscape tips from 9 a.m. to noon.

WHERE: Outdoor Impressions, 2224 E. Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. April 19

COST: Free

INFO: (813) 684-6817 or www.outdoorimpressions.com

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at lfrazier@tampatrib.com or (813) 657-4523.

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