Annie = I know you are giving up on the idea but I want to clarify a couple of things. the fountain kit I was suggesting remains hidden. My husband & I used one to create a fountain out of a redesigned, hypertufa leaf platter (think water dripping down the edges to the leaves - into a terracotta bowl. - it runs on electricity, but it at least conserves water. It's not that fake looking fountain at all. An example can be seen by following the link below: the antiquity fountain you describe - like the ones in ROME were powered by the aquaduct system. No electricitiy for certain but it required a huge engineering undertaking to channel water down from mountain springs into a reservoir which is normally in a valley setting and by the force of the water rushing it, it was able to push water outward and upwards through a narrow channel into the various water pipes the Romans have built. The steeper the incline of the downward flow, the more powerful the water going up into the aquaducts. A better picture is to use a a small container as an example. The container has only 2 openings. One for an intake hose and the other, an outtake hose. Fill that container with water, now push water in via the intake hose. See how the water will spurt out the other hose. This was how the Romans managed to channel water from the mountains over rough hills into the cities below. This means, the water flow was continues and never stopped flowing. I was thinking about how wasteful this was but that was the way it is for the ancients. This was the water for their drinking, their saunas, and also their communal potty (and this is truly interesting. there was no such thing as privacy when sitting on those chamber pots.) OH -- they lined their canals, pipes with lead. So in the long term, they managed to poison themselves. RE: "Thanks for your input, too. Good ideas, but I don't want one of those faux fountains kits made of resin. I'm a "naturalist, hippie-type girl:". I would rather do without one than have resin or fiberglass or...gag....plastic. No offense to those of you who like them just fine, but that's not me. The other problem is running electricity out there. That would be a MAJOR undertaking for me. I ain't a young chickadee anymore. So...how did they do it BEFORE there was electricity? The old ones didn't use electricity. I know there is a way.! Obviously, the people in antiquity built fountains that pumped the water around and around. What was their system? Even if I don't do it, I just want to know.. Don't you? " Here is a link that might be useful: fountain kit

There's really not much to it if you're handy. Buy an insert, and design a hood around it. In our case, I bought a scratch-n-dent insert on ebay, and built a simple wooden hood around it. I made the front panel removable, as code requires access if it's a plug-in hood fan. Mine isn't finished yet, but you get the idea:

I recently sold all my rental property, and then more recently bought more. I believe that the success or failure of income property is determined by the owner. First, and most importantly, despite what the IRS says, being a landlord is not passive income. Owning rental property is about turning your extra time or your skills into income. These skills can be something as simple as persistent attention to detail, or hard skills like being a licensed contractor, or they can be a lot of extra time. Second, it is tempting to look at income properties as cash flows, that is not a good idea. Rental property should not be an effort to collect money in excess of payments + taxes + insurance + maintenance. You should always keep an eye on your net position, if it helps you can think of this as the excess rental payments plus equity increases. My general attitude on tenants is to be the best landlord possible and good renters will find their way to you. On a couple of occasions I have rented to friends for one reason or another. I will not collect money from friends ever, so I contracted out to a property management company on those occasions. While I too am generally against mixing friends and money, if you end up going through with this idea, protect your friendship and your investment by considering all the ways it can go bad and counter as many of them as possible in the beginning. Every ambiguity is a potential problem so eliminate them all before you start.

@Ray Austin, Maybe you could be retrained as a computer networking specialist or a cyber-security expert. Then you wouldn't need to work in the uncomfortable conditions of your current service profession. I can so see you doing battle with evil electrons in air conditioned comfort (for truth, justice and the Raymerican way...) and, if the air conditioning goes on the fritz, telling 'em how to fix it while berating the technicians doing so. Or you might consider opening a branch office in a different climate zone and commuting between the two based on weather. Then again, you've got your videography and narration abilities. So many possibilities.