When talking about our backyard the first thing most people have asked is, "Oh are you putting in a pool?" I generally refrain from my first reaction of, "Oh God, No!", and instead patiently explain why a pool is not a reasonable thing for us. There are numerious reasons for not having a pool from safety issues with small children, to expense issues with maintenance and heating, to the general practicality of carving out a large hole in our rock slab - err, backyard. To further dissuade us, less than two miles from the house is...
- a lake
- a river
- a community pool
For us, a pool is not particularly practical. That being said, they do add a beautiful focal point to a yard, so many contractors looked at our design and said, "where's your water feature?"
The short answer is we really don't have one. I'm not sure when in the course of the last twenty years we've cross from a simple lawn in the backyard to "outdoor living spaces" complete with terminology like "water feature", but I blame the DIY and HG channels. When we first started thinking about the backyard I wanted shade, a lawn, and a small vegetable garden to perform my ritual plant killing.
It grew from this simple idea to include more ridiculous elements partly because we had the space, and partly because at some point our backyard became a dream. A fabulous dream which never really seemed real or possible. Something that was on the "someday" list in the same way you always want to visit exotic locations but can't really imagine getting to the point in your life where you have the money or time. Being this unrealistic dream we just started adding exotic things to it because the entire concept seemed just as far fetched.
Imagine it this way: You really want to go to the moon, and so you decide when you get to the moon, you'd like to try to golf, so you start trying to figure out what the rules for space golf should be and designing the perfect space clubs. Its very unlikely that you'll get to the moon, but on the off chance you do, you might as well get to play space golf.
Our backyard is the moon and space golf is the fire pit, spa, and putting green. Mind you, none of our space golf features are in phase one, but they have the potential to be realized at a later date.
It grew from this simple idea to include more ridiculous elements partly because we had the space, and partly because at some point our backyard became a dream. A fabulous dream which never really seemed real or possible. Something that was on the "someday" list in the same way you always want to visit exotic locations but can't really imagine getting to the point in your life where you have the money or time. Being this unrealistic dream we just started adding exotic things to it because the entire concept seemed just as far fetched.
Imagine it this way: You really want to go to the moon, and so you decide when you get to the moon, you'd like to try to golf, so you start trying to figure out what the rules for space golf should be and designing the perfect space clubs. Its very unlikely that you'll get to the moon, but on the off chance you do, you might as well get to play space golf.
Our backyard is the moon and space golf is the fire pit, spa, and putting green. Mind you, none of our space golf features are in phase one, but they have the potential to be realized at a later date.
But wait! Isn't a spa a water feature?
Apparently not if it is above ground and will be covered. Go figure.
We had our first unexpected additional cost today, but it wasn't in the backyard. Apparently one of the irrigation pipes under our driveway has been leaking for awhile and, more recently, the water now drains out of a small crack in the driveway when the sprinklers run.
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| Am I a water feature? |
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