About 15 years ago I was hired to design and install this garden (pictured below) located in Napa Valley.
The property had some really wonderful old redwoods, a few big pines and a gorgeous huge Tulip tree and not much else.
We cleared out the scrubby under brush, installed a lime stone border and flagstone patio and planted a woodland wonderland of Rhodo’s, lots of dogwoods, Philadelphus, Azaleas, Japanese Maples, Enkianthus, Kalmia, Weigelia, A Dove tree and lots of other woodland type perennials and a sod lawn.
Fifteen years later the garden is quite mature and now that the kids are all grown up , the parents decided it was time for a swimming pool.
The clients and I collaborated for almost a year to formulate a design that would work within their budget.
Originally the homeowners desired to have a flagstone patio and various levels of raised stone terraces, wrought iron railings, and an overhead arbor/ pool house , but after reviewing the various installation bids we scaled back.... way back.
The pool remained as did the main patio and one upper terrace but they were no longer veneered in flagstone. Instead we are opting for a colored concrete surface with diagonal score lines.
The pool house is gone but we are installing the underground piers for its future installation.
This is how the property looked in April of 07 , just before we started digging for the pool
and another view of the first rhodie in the border to bloom in early April.
The hole for the swimming pool along with the piping. This is going to be a chlorine free pool. The filtration system will be with salt water.
In this photo the pool has now been gunited .
Notice the three small pipes sticking out at the far end of the pool, they are in the 14 inch raised wall at the end of the pool.
These three pipes are the water feed lines that will service three fountain head spouts.
To get an idea of what that area will look like here is a quick sketch of this upper terrace with the pool fountain spouts.
The pool fountain tile band is blue glass tiles set on the diagonal . The spouts are hand carved ceramic tiles from a shop called Sonoma Tile.
The terrace furniture is from Summer Classics and the pots are coming from Nichols Brothers , they are colored hand cast concrete.
more to come later.
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2 comments:
Interesting design on the terrace, I especially like the presentation on the drawing.
Looks like a good project.
The quick color drawing is a conceptional perspective sketch that is done to visually assist the client in seeing the potential of the design intent.
I find that most people respond to a quick hand colored perspective sketch than to the more laborous construction documents when discussing the aesthetics of the project.
Michelle
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