A Unique Outdoor Landscape- A Pool Built in an Old Stone Barn Foundation.

I am a designer.

Nothing boring ever happens.  Ever.

Well, one exception: Excel spread sheets.  B*O*R*I*N*G

However, in design, so many things are EXCITING !!!

I like to jump outside the box a little.

CASE IN POINT :

Our pool

When we moved into our home many moons ago, we had an old stone barn foundation literally sitting in our backyard space.

Old stone barn foundation = garbage pit.

AKA scary~ville.

The barn had burned down in the 1950′s and every single thing possible hand landed in that foundation since.  Old rusty bicycles, bottles, farm equipment, snakes ( holy mother of &*^…yes, snakes!).

I would rather bungy jump off the side of a mountain than see a snake.

 I had two ideas for the space.

* A GARDEN:  I quickly gave up on that idea.  I envisioned myself pulling weeds for the rest of my life, and losing my wine glass in the overgrown weed festival.

* A POOL:  I envisioned myself with my family and friends, with a nice glass of wine on the poolside bar.

So, that is where it all began.  We had the entire foundation area excavated to the original floor level of the barn, and tried to salvage as much of the stone foundation as possible.
It was a family affair.  Actually, it was the work of our family and what felt like a small army.

 With the dig, parts of the wall gave way and fell in…we saved all the stone so we could rebuild it.  Well, of course we(ME) had to also jump in front of large equipment to save interesting barn bits that I wanted to reclaim and put back into the walls.

Ge’ez, Louise there is always one NUT in every crowd who is willing to risk life and limb for a rusted piece of barn~funky~ness.  Busted.

Who could resist such finds ?  I was looking for some funky character.  The world is full of boring pool spaces.

~ Sorry people with boring pool spaces ~

 I truly believe

You can make almost any space DIFFERENT AND EXCITING with some imagination and thinking outside the ordinary boring box of cookie cutter ideas.

Let’s all live a little (it’s really fun).

Now, I am not so bold as to think that everyone has a stone barn foundation hanging around in their backyard.

 But everyone DOES have access to things that are old, reclaimed, recycled….

I, like many of you, find inspiration all around me.  Travels, life, home, friends backyards, my own backyard !  I found this SINK in our field !  If someone tells me they left it here and they want it back, I have it covered !  They won’t recognize their own stuff.  Haha.  I covered it in mosaic (my kids mostly did this one, to tell you the truth)

I found a local artist who creates decorative “rusted flowers” (meant for a garden), and I asked my dear friends, Dan and Amy Duquette at DUKE IRON to create this pool shower head for me.

This weekend, is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada.  I am stuffed with turkey, and thrilled to be surrounded by my family.  So….I am off to bake ANOTHER APPLE PIE.

 Seriously, do all diets start on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving ?!!!

I bought these crazy stools in Bali and I plan on putting one or two at the pool bar.  I will need them to sit my big turkey butt in ! :) AND I love a good conversational piece in design.

Like the tree house, it may take a few trillion posts to really share all the details of creating an outdoor funky space.

Until then…

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!!