Your yard is absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for sharing! :)
The pond is beautiful and I like how you blended it with the deck and the pool. Very, very nice.:)

What an amazing niche pond! The flow of the deck coupled with the natural textures of the rocks and the well-designed plantings really makes for a serene little spot of heaven on your patio. I think you should be extremely proud of yourself. Enjoy that pond for years to come!

OMG!!!! I am full of POND ENVY!!! What a wonderful design and execution. Your DH is very talented!! Thanks for sharing. I love to see beautiful pond pictures. Yours takes the cake!!
Anne

Julie,

Really incredible!

You said: "I don't know if you can tell but he did a stone facing about 18" down on the sides of the pond."

Can you tell us how he secured the stone facing? I am intrigued by that. Also can you post a shot of where the pond adjoins the deck? I am curious to see how you handled that.

Thanks in advance.

-Al

I'm drooling! What a wonderful place to relax! Your hubby gets a gold star! I'm sure you contributed quite a bit too!
Its great!
(Maybe some time your hubby could show mine how to screw in a light bulb - LOL!)

Al, I'll post a few pictures of when he was working on it. He built a shallow "shelf" and used just mortar. I'm almost sure it was regular mortar but I'll ask him tonight to make sure.

In the first couple of pictures it was the day he tore out the old preform pond inserts. If you look towards the middle of the pond you can see that he actually used two preform pond liners. He hooked them together using fiberglass to "glue" the two together after cutting a hole in each one.

That same day we were having a new fence built (that isn't our dog). We got rid of the old pressure treated lumber on the deck and replaced it with cedar, these pictures were taken before the arbor (or what ever you call it) was built and the old pressure treated wood is still there.

He ended up making it quite a big deeper and made shallow area that wasn't there before for plants.

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If you look how it is dug out under the old deck you can see that the deck does actually hang over the pond a little. He just reinforced the deck framing so part of the deck could hang over the pond.

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Here he has started to lay the stone facing. The new cedar deck is laid (but not stained) and the arbor has been built. Don't look at the mess in the yard/pool. Our backyard was a friggen mess for months.

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Here are a few pictures of how deck slightly hangs over the pond. I tried to show how much the deck hung over the pond but the pictures don't show it realistically. We would have loved to make it bigger but we were constrained with the area we already had. I know in our next house we will plan the pond before anything else.

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What a beautiful looking yard!! I would never want to leave it. Your husband did a fantastic job!

I love your elephant ear plant in the pot. I can never get them to grow for me. All of your plants look very healthy.

Thanks textilejo. I love elephant ear plants as well. My husband built a few raised beds (he used chopped flag stone). I put a couple of elephant ears in the one he built below.

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Thank you everyone who gave me such great compliments. You all made my day. :-)

Lovely and pure perfection!!! And thanks for all the excellent wip(work in progress)pics! It's quite an inspiration!

I am impressed. Sandy

It all looks gorgeous. congratulations and enjoy.

Joann

Beautiful!
Do you ever worry about rain bringing the pond surface up so high that it overflows to under the deck? (Don't mean to be a party-pooper.....just a very curious person!).
What a water paradise! Do you have any plans for something growing over your arbor?
I'm afraid I'd never get any work done if I had a backyard like that! :)
Thanks for sharing it with us.

Catherinet,

My husband put an over flow thingy (I don't know the technical term) to keep that from happening. He even hooked the pump to a pipe that we can go out and manually let some water out.

Wow. What a man. :)

Would it be possible to see the mechanicals? Sandy

I was the picture taker Sandy and I didn't take any pictures of the mechanics. I didn't even think about it at the time.

The manual overflow pipe that my husband hooked to the pump has a valve you turn to direct the water out the pipe. It goes behind the waterfall to a planting bed.

I went outside and took a picture of it to show you where it is located. It was covered by rocks but I moved some to show you exactly where it is located. The filter is located just above the valved and is covered by the flagstone at the top of the waterfall.

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Here is a picture of the actual valve.

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The hose going from the pump to the filter runs along the side under the deck. If you look at the picture below you will see a white pvc sprinkler pipe. That is the general area the hose is (it wasn't in place in the picture). It goes all the way around the side of the deck and up the side of the pond to the waterfall.
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The pump is at the end of the pond. In the following picture it is directly under the waterfall you see in the picture. He stacked rock in front of the hole in the skimmer but left spaces between the rock (about an inch between each rock) to cover the hole but let water flow freely. You can't see it in the picture as it this area is under water.

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Julie
Absolutely spectacular. Love it. Love the whole backyard. Your DH is very talented. I really like your plants too. Great choices. You are a really good photographer too. You are right, Crepe Myrtles are messy. I've got one that blows into my small front ponds. The neighbor's box elder is worse though.

We do all of our pond edges similarly to that. We stack flatish rocks on a shelf and fold the liner back towards the pond so that if the water level ever drops you can't see the liner. The big fish pond is mortared but all the other ponds are not.

Thanks buyorsell. My husband worked very hard on the pond. All weekend...every weekend. Unless he was out of town for work. He cut each of the rocks he used to stack on the side of the pond individually (he rented a wet saw). He brought in every single rock in our backyard including the chopped stone for the beds all by himself. The rock that isn't flag stone we dug up all over our neighborhood in the empty lots before houses were built when we did the pond the first time around. That was a hard job I tell you.

I didn't do much to help. I was his gopher but I mostly just sat in the chair and watched him. There is just something about a man doing manual labor.....sigh. :-)

Man, I just reread the posts I made. I wish there was an edit feature on this site as I made a ton of mistakes.

Awesome seamless landscaping. I'll bet the garden ladies can't wait to get you on their next tour.

"Next house?" I can't believe you'd ever want to leave this one behind.

Julie......is hubby a landscaper or builds ponds for a profession? Sure seems like he should! Seems like he thought of everything. What's his next project?
Collecting those stones, I'm sure, was a whole project in itself. Rocks are heavy! That's cool that he cut alot of the stones himself. What did they look like before he cut them? Was cutting them a big job?
Your little bridge blends in so perfectly.
The whole thing is gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.

Riverspots: Before we decided to fix up the backyard we were seriously considering moving. We built the house in 2001 but at the time we didn't upgrade the counter tops. When we were considering moving we decided to just redo the counter tops for resale.

Well when my husband ripped out the old countertops he screwed up the old backsplash. So he put in a new backsplash. Our fridge was stainless steel but our other appliances were white so we decided to replace the old appliances with SS. We gave our old appliances to a charity because they were still in very good shape. So one thing led to another and we ended up spending a lot more than we had planned in the kitchen so we decided to stay awhile longer. Well if we were going to stay I told my husband I wanted to do a little in the backyard. Well just like the kitchen, when we decided to work on the backyard it went from just getting a new fence to redoing the deck and pond. THen building the arbor and then my bright idea of building raised beds.

We have put a ton of money in this house over the last year so I highly doubt we will move anytime soon. :p

I know you didn't ask but I'm going to show you the work my husband has done in the kitchen as I'm very proud of the work he does.

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Here is a close-up of the stone he used for the backsplash. I think he did a fabulous job, if I do say so myself.

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catherinet:

My husband is an industrial designer and works for a major toy company as VP of product development. He travels quite a lot (in fact he just left this morning for El Segundo ) and works what seems like morning noon and night. That is why it took him so long to finish the pond as he could only work on it during the weekend and even then some weekends he was out of town on business trips.

I swear he can literally do ANYTHING. He built his first piece of furniture soon after we moved into this house. A built in desk/wall unit in our study. It turned out really well. He has a project truck in our garage (1953 Chevy Pick-Up) that is in pieces. I suggested having someone else rebuild it but he said that it defeats the purpose of having a "project car".

He did agree to letting someone else built the arbor and build the new fence but at first he was bound and determined to do it himself. If I didn't talk him out of it the backyard wouldn't be finished until fall so I'm glad he listened to me this time.

That's beautiful julie,
I'd post a pic of our kitchen, but if the Board of Health saw it, they'd be out in a flash. haha
Wish I had a bit of your husband's thyroid! :)
He's definitely talented........and I'm sure you are too.

I'll trade you spouses anytime you like. Mine is an accountant who leaves the room if I get out my Dremel... and I hide anything breakable if he picks up a hammer. I also try to leave the room or even the house on that rare occasion. There has been a ladder set up in our front room for two weeks now, since he got halfway through replacing the ballast in the fluorescent lights and gave up.
I'm sure your DH has a lot of stress in his job and this is great therapy. I'm glad you are comfortable with it. If you can get involved somehow without messing up his train of thought, it can be a great partnership. Can you get interested in replacing the old seat upholstry in that truck or matching the paint? Sandy

Awesome House...Awesome Kitchen..Awesome Pond...Now Where Is The Beer Fridge? LOL

Sandy, he already has tried to talk me into doing the upholstry for his seats. I sew and also quilt (I have a longarm quilting machine) but if he wants leather I don't think I'd be able to do that.

I usually just get him what ever he needs, hold something in place if he needs me to or get him something to drink. I don't feel like I can go shopping or do something for myself when ever he is working so hard so I just sit out there and watch. ;) I do the planting but he sometimes digs the big holes. I must say I have the perfect husband. My friends are all jealous.

Delaney, the beer is in the garage fridge. LOL :p

...Heading to TEXAS where my Cowboy's (I'm a huge Dallas Cowboy's Fan)are Kings and Julie's Husband Rocks!...~Looks~ in his cooler...mmm...Wonder if he like's Landshark? LOL...I usually drink Natural Light...but after looking at that beautiful house...I can't bring that cheap stuff there LOL..You all are great...Two thumbs Up!...Here's a picture of my pond below...still in the works....take care!! Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: My Pond Today...Mainly the plants..

I thought my husband was handy but yours takes DIY to a whole 'nother level.

No way I'd be leaving that house......or that man and I agree about a man working with tools....sigh....

Hey buyorsell, my husband isn't bad to look at either. :p He would so kill me if he knew I posted this picture. LOL

This was taken when he took me for my 40th birthday to New York.

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Dave, I saw your pond in another thread. I wish my pond could be as big as yours. How many fish do you have in it?

LOL Julie...........my computer loads really slowly, and you said the pic was of your husband, and I saw those caricatures at the top of the pic and thought that was him.
He's much better than any of those drawings! :)

Beautiful pond good looking husband with pretty wife. Love the way the deck curves around the pond. You must have great jobs/income as from the pictures your house would be worth about $800,000 up here.

Okay, Okay,
I'll show you my house and the work my hubby has done on it. Should I put the pond off to the left, or to the right??
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jalal, I live in Texas where everything is big. :p The cost of living in the DFW area is actually pretty cheap. My house is no where near $800k. Oh and I don't work, well not in a "regular" job. I am just a stay at home mom who does laundry all day every day.

You make me laugh catherinet.

Hi Julie,
I was a stay-at-home mom too, and I worked harder at that than I did in any other job! I'm sure you do too.

Hey I think I posted the fish count in another thread..You and your husband make a great couple...let me see here...9 red comets..5 koi...2 largemouth bass..2 bluegill...1 channel catfish...and mmm I think I just dropped 2 suckers in there with the feeder fish for the bass today..we'll see if they make it...~grins~ evilly..Wait until you see my neighbors pond..his fish are huge...check out the link...I hope this takes...ENJOY!! Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: My Neighbor's Pond

Hi again,
Just an update on my hubby and the pond. He was out measuring the area for the pond near the porch, and attached his measuring tape to one of the porch posts, and well......as you can see, it wasn't good. So we'll have to postpone the pond for a little while, while we're fixing up the porch.

We're hoping we can get it to looking something like your's, Julie. :)
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*SNORT* :p

LOL Julie,
I hope I'm not bugging you! I'm in a silly mood I guess.
This is a house in our "hood". Apparently in its day, it was beautiful. No one has lived in it for about 20 years, and the farmer used the area to graze his cows. We drive down the road and see cows on the porch. We used to call it "the cow house".
Thanks for tolerating my silliness. :)

No, I love to laugh. Keep on being silly, I like it!

Julie..Thanks for the kind comments on the other threads...Hope I didn't scare you on the picture LOL..I added a few more..me..the kids..the wife..and a night out LOL...Have a wonderful weekend! Dave

Your pond is gorgeous, Julie. Great job!
Jill

Love the pond and landscaping, house and pool. Hubby is a doll also. Is that Caroline's comedy club in NY?

Thanks chickadee & Anne. Can either of you tell me if my pictures still show up because I tried to move them in my photobucket but some of them still show up. I even deleted the one of two of us and it is still showing up for me.

Not seeing any of the pictures....

I'm seeing all of the pictures still. I wonder if the mod has to remove them? (But I do wish you'd keep them in......just look at all the people who enjoyed them!)

Okay, they're gone now. :(

Hi Julie! I saw your pond pictures a couple of weeks ago and wanted to show my husband but they're gone! Any chance you can repost them or send a link? Thanks! I just love the work you and your husband have done. Great job!
Tammy

I bookmarked this page for reference too!! Any way to get the photos back?