Wow! You are quite an artist. I love so many of your pieces. I wish I could see them close up. I expect you spend a lot of time on the arts and crafts forums. DH would have a hissy if I started working that form. A new application for the Dremel? Old toilets? What a great source of material! Lots of color from the fifties and sixties. And there are lots of flat areas. I did a quick search for bottom drains and there were over 5,000 entries. Didn't limit it to the pond forum which would reduce it but it still is a huge number. It would be worth your while to skim for a time. At the least it would show you the basic theory and how differently each person does it. Some are fairly simple and others are very complex. I am not the one to advise you on this but lots of other posters would be happy to show you what they have done. A multi holed spitter sounds good but I can see lots of problems with clogs. Think that one through. It won't be any where near adequate for a pond the size you will have. A pump the size of the one you have now would blow it apart in short order. It is not necessary to have the whole pond 4 feet deep. You may want to have several levels to make shallow areas for plant containers. I like the idea of a trellis. The raccoons and herons may still come but it can solve a lot of other problems. I have the frame of a six sided gazebo over my pond and I really like it. I have used only the top with the stubs that usually go into the legs inserted into PVC pipes so it is very short, easily removable and looks more interesting than just four sides. I can attach netting to it or hang wind chimes or let vining plants climb on it. I never keep the same ideas for long. Everything changes. The ornamental part can be added anytime, so for now, concentrate on the basic pond structure, but keep the ornament part in mind. You know how that can change. Sandy

Not sure why, but sometimes when I try to post photos I don't get the "optional link url" box until I hit 'preview message', then it shows up on the next screen. See if that works.

Putting a stucco type layer over liner is a tricky deal, but not really very difficult. I normally mortar rock over the liner which is easier, cheaper, different look. For a stucco layer...there is no standard building practice for this, it's more art. Two basic ways, mesh or no mesh. For mesh you need something that won't rust. Stainless steel mesh is best but plastic is OK. There's no such thing as plastic mesh for concrete so you have to use fence, or netting. For the SS you have to be very careful with sharp edges, turn them all up. With mesh is once the mortar is on the mesh if you vibrate the mesh very much the previous stuck mortar slides off. So as you put on the mortar the stuff you already added slides off. Very frustrating. The trick is to light flick some mortar onto the mesh. Cover as much as you can, but back off if previous mortar falls off. Your goal is to get some mortar behind the mesh in places so the mesh lifts up off the liner a bit, about 1/4", but a little less is OK. Let that cure for a day. Now the mesh will be much more rigid. You should now be able to skim a layer of mortar on with a trowel. Nothing fancy, a thin coat. Let that cure for a day. Now you have a nice firm base. Now you can apply your finish coat. Easier to do the walls first and come back on do the floor. The no mesh way is easier but you use a lot more stucco. Pour the floor first. Say about 1" thick. It will crack but because it's the floor it really shouldn't go too far. By pour I don't mean pour like water. Mix the stucco so like mashed potatoes. Put it in the pond and tamp it down until about 1" thick. Because the stucco is thick you can get this initial "pour" to go up the sides a bit, do that. Let this cure a couple of weeks if you need to stand inside the pond to do the walls. If you can hang over the walls you only need to wait a day for curing, or really even just a few hours. The floor now acts to hold up the stucco you're about to add. You go around the pond adding stucco maybe a 6" course at a time, or whatever works for you. Let each course cure for at least a few hours so it can support the next course. When done you can now add a final finish coat. I would say 3/4" thickness with no mesh would be the minimum. There's a fiberglass reinforcement for stucco you can use in the base coat. It can stick out of the stucco so not good for the final coat. I've said stucco but you can use mortar, same basic thing these days. You can use a synthetic stucco for the final coat but to me not worth the cost. You can add color to the final coat if you like. If you age the final coat just do what's above the water line. Just no point doing below the water line and the acid removes cement that you want. There are lots of people who say cement in a pond should be acid washed to keep the pH down in the pond later. Bad myth. It does nothing but expose new fresh cement. Cement carbonizes, kind of like rust, which seals the underlying cement from reacting with the water. This is why cured cement doesn't dissolve in water. The voids behind the stucco caused by folds will fill with water, the stucco structure is far from water tight. That equalizes pressure so the result is no pressure on the stucco.

Thanks, Gilroy! I wonder if anyone has success posting images from their libraries directly to gardenweb? We've gone back and forth--from making the pond into a firepit--which would mean somehow making it drain snow melt and rainwater, to reviving the pond, which means a bigger financial and time committment, plus lots more to learn (just trying to figure out the GPH and the lift and the head height and immersible vs external and direct drives vs mag drives...! Yikes!) We've also talked about making it a firepit surrounded by a pond or somehow making it into a hot tub or outdoor pizza oven. It's the focal point of our backyard and letting it fill up with algae and Mosquitos and weeds every summer just isn't working. Our neighbor put in a swimming pool and all the noisy equipment sits atop the hill just above the pond's retaining wall and behind a hideous chain link fence. We're hoping to cover up the noise with the waterfall sounds and eventually put up our own wooden fence to hide the chain link. But, wow, what a lot of work and expense. I love old houses and am glad you're trying to stay true to the design of your home's era. Have you posted any photos of your home and where the pond is sited in relation to the house? Good luck!