The house is mostly a blank slate when it comes to fixing up the landscaping, well, except for the spring time weed “lawn” that shall be pulverized. Though the plan is to do everything in stages as budget and weather and will power permit, I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed by the scale of the project. This will be a massive undertaking requiring oodles of hardcore filthy labor and serious cash. My brain refuses to acknowledge how long this project will drag out (years, likely) or how many new skills are needing learning or that the future holds face to face dealings with nests of earwigs, feral cat crap and other horrifying surprises lurking in the dirt.

Thankfully, I’ve been working with the talented and soothing (and award winning) Ryan Prange of Falling Waters Landscape fame to help quell my anxiety and give the low down on drought tolerant low maintenance landscaping. We’ve whittled out my landscape needs (cheap, low maintenance, desert modern, neighborhood appropriate, water friendly) and he’s been pulling together some design recommendations for plantings.

In response to the layouts and ideas Ryan’s been sending over, I’ve been screwing around with SketchUp to flesh out the landscape.

Admittedly, the free version of SketchUp’s plant selection sucks. The program also goes wacky with the 2-D face me plants which wander out of place as the viewing angle shifts – not just a little out of place, but jumping 10 plus feet out of their plant “zone”.

These renderings are supposed to include a bunch more feather grass or rush or grassy bush type things to help fill out the blanker areas. Putting the right amount of plants in the model causes it to start resembling very sloppy and confusing photoshopping. The pared down renderings do illustrate basic layout of the major plantings and hardscape elements which are still getting fiddled around with and finalized.

In terms of making this stuff physically happen (without hiring contractors and workers) I need to learn some new skills like pouring and finishing concrete. Initially, concrete seems messy and hard and fits neatly in my frustrating projects that I suck at category. I also want to figure out how to install drip irrigation and exterior lighting. Sexy and thrilling projects like those will need some in-depth research, which is is fantastic, since there is nothing more exhilarating than researching piping or timers or whatever.

The neglected side yard needs some attention and extreme weed annihilation. The more obvious question though – who the hell installs a spigot like that? Extend that sucker over one foot to the right and out one foot please. Perfect. Logical. Extra functional.

We picked up the ridiculous blue spa cover at the local thrift store for a couple of dollars.  The cover is a few feet wider than required, so it’s rocking a stylish droop and devil may care attitude whilst keeping leaves out of the empty tank. Trust that I know it’s looking kind of ghetto.

Still working out the plan of attack in the side yard, but the idea is to keep it simple and add an eating area. We need to rip out the brick planter and install hot rolled steel edging, pour some concrete pavers, plumb the pool, build a deck, stain the fence, grade the yard, throw decomposed granite everywhere, plant many plants, build a table, install lighting and then done? Maybe? This is going to take years.

Above are a few of the design options Ryan has been sending my way. I’ve been picking and choosing ideas and incorporating a little of each into the finalized plan, which shocker, might ultimately change as we dive into the nitty gritty of finances and skill levels and what stuff actually looks in real life.

Landscaping. You soul crushing monster.

The big sale will hopefully raise funds to help get us going on some projects. I can’t wait for the exterior to shape up a bit and be usable.

Also, if you have a landscaping project in need of some help, design, project management or otherwise, give Ryan & Falling Waters Landscape a shout. He’s good people, with a great eye and super easy to work with personality. I might know, because admittedly, I’m a demanding she-beast with a highly specific design sensibility who worries that it’s not as easy to switch out trees as it is sofas. Then again, I don’t have to sit on trees and constantly look at and criticize them.

Should be fine, right? Right?! RIGHT. We are nowhere near ready to plant trees.

The breezeway between our side yard, the house and the garage has this funky little pony wall that was cut down at some point. The original layout of the breezeway is a bit of a mystery, but I believe the entire area used to be enclosed.

See? Someone just hacked it down. I’ve considered various options for making this area useful and have come to one conclusion.

Bar time. Hello.

Yeah, this is looking like a party house now.

My idea is to source a ten foot slab and then secure it to a frame bolted to the brick pony wall with a steel pipe installed in the right corner for support. I am slab crazy. Have a problem? Throw a slab at it.

Easy enough, right? Maybe…

If it all goes horribly awry, I’ll probably just make a top with some long redwood slats in a frame of 1×2′s or get super nuts and weld up a metal top.

After we rehabbed the side yard fence I started to consider what could be done about the ugly broken down fences in the front yard. Unfortunately, these are not salvageable and whatever design is chosen it needs to be sympathetic to the slatted redwood screen, provide privacy, be easily DIY’d and be cheap.

While perusing RO/LU’s landscaping projects I stumbled on a fence idea that I enjoyed very much. It appears that they used 6×6″ posts that are held in place by 3/4″ steel rods with a spacer between. The things I love about this?

-No ugly side.
-Steel doesn’t rot.
-Easy to build. (I think).

This idea sort of fits all my criteria and could be adapted for the 16′ run on the side of the house, as well as a division between the cat neighbor and us. Hooray. Problem solved? Right?

Um. NO.

So, 6×6″ redwood is not what I would call standard in any way. I called around and got a quote for $126 for ONE ten footer. YIKES. Seeing as I needed 22, that’s almost 3K in just wood for one section of fence. No thanks.

Here are my three fence design ideas. Floating in spaaaacccceeee.

6×6″ option. I love you. You will not happen, unless someone has a clever idea about where to get 6×6″ redwood for cheap.

4×4″ option. Hmmmm. I am not loving you. I think you are too busy and I like the beefy of the 6×6″. You need 32 4×4″ posts plus 1/2″ spacers. You will cost something like $300.

1×12″ option. You were my very first idea. I liked you, I just did not like that you had an ugly side.

You need five 4×4″ posts to keep you in place and then they are all naked for the world to see. I got some quotes on you and you will be about $300 in materials.

What do you guys think? Remember, from our backyard we will see this:

Plus you will be really close to the fence while lounging in the stock tank pool. Also, we need privacy for swim time.

And the front will be important since it dictates the little side fence and will be the backdrop for our minimal landscaping and we got to show off that sexy sail.

Modern fences. Why must you be so complicated?

Check out the SketchUp model of the sail below.

Very nice if I do say so. I updated it a bit to reflect some changes to the fence and bar area. I cannot wait to landscape…

The heavy duty brackets that attach to the cement brick of the house were custom fabricated at Shade Industries. Basically, they are steel plates that have been powder-coated white with a large steel eyelet that serves as the attachment point for the turnbuckle. The brackets need to be incredibly strong in order to hold the tension on the sail and withstand our nutty desert wind.

Patrick pre-drilled holes with a hard core hammer drill outfitted with a cement drill bit and then inserted big bolts to hold the mounting plates on the wall.

Here they are mounted and ready for installation. Of course I picked white so that the brackets would blend in with the exterior paint.

We dug out two 3′ deep by about 2′ wide holes that would be used to install the steel poles on the opposite side of the yard. Look at all the luscious grass – it has really been a wet fall, creating lots of weedy problems.

Digging holes sucks, but really anyone can do it. Installing the poles turned out to be surprisingly easy as well.

Patrick has an awesome method for mixing small batches of Quikrete. Use one big blue tarp, a bucket of water and two manly dudes to mix it up.

Take the tarp and shake it back and forth. Totally works and makes perfect cement really quickly. I’m much more excited to pour cement after we did this and found it to be super effective.

Then just dump your mixed Quikrete in the pole hole. Fill it up so that thing won’t ever move.

Instead of going perfectly plumb with the poles, you want to lean the poles back slightly to counteract the tension of the shade.

Once all the brackets and poles were installed, Patrick measured out the dimensions for the shade. Measuring on site, after all the mounting hardware is up, alleviates any nagging worries and assures that the shade will be a perfect custom fit.

About a week or so later, the shade was all sewed up and ready to be installed. It only took about an hour to put up and is a fairly simple process. There are four turnbuckles that hook on to a steel ring at each corner as well as steel cable that runs around the edge of the shade.

Start installing the shade by attaching one corner and then work your way around. Easy peasy.

Sad shade. Happy shade.

Once the shade is attached at all four corners the turnbuckles get evenly tightened and the steel edge cable is pulled taught. After it is completely stretched that thing is tighter than a drum. You really need to make sure your mounting areas are rock solid!

DONE.

This version is a little less laborious (in terms of installation) compared to the lace-on version, but the parts are much more custom and a tad more difficult to source. Installing four poles in the ground would be a fairly simple DIY project, just make sure they are heavy duty galvanized steel. You wouldn’t want them to collapse and bend in the middle after a big wind. I would probably source these type of heavy gauge poles at a local metal supply. We bought our hot rolled steel for the fire pit at a local industrial metal supply and found it to be a really  amazing place as well as very affordable – plus there is so much cool stuff to look at…I need to go back.

It turned out so perfectly and is a million times better than I ever hoped for. I LOVE IT. Love love love. Overflowing with love and appreciation and happiness. Patrick is the shade sail whisperer for sure.

Too bad the landscaping is less than lovely right now, but all in due time I guess. I feel like Patrick’s incredible shade sail handiwork is lessened by the ghetto grass and fence. Must amend that very soon, 2010 is coming to an end…

I’m also super embarrassed of the unfinished porch, in my defense it has been less than ideal painting weather. Really, this sail needs to be shown off from the front of the house to illustrate its super dramatic curvy sexiness. These new dark sails really take the exterior up a big notch, making me rethink the rest of the landscape design. I mean it really needs to be amazing to match how cool these turned out. The big swooping bad boy definitely causes me to stare every time I drive by. I drool and then immediately curse the fence, unfinished porch and lack of landscape.

If you have any questions about shade sails, have an idea you might like to discuss, or need a quote – go ahead and contact Patrick Howe directly via email or Shade Industries.

Thank you Patrick, you are the best!

Patrick Howe, whose currently with Shade Industries, emailed some suggestions and tips about how to get the most out of a shade sail and offered to help design and build a couple of versions that would not only be customizable, but also a project that most home owners can tackle on their own. To start, I sent him an old SketchUp model I made of the landscape design for the side yard and told him what my crazy plans were.

There are two areas that I was interested in shading:

1: The weird nook between the garage and house, protecting what will be a bar/eating area.
2: Above the stock tank pool at the front of the side yard.

Patrick sent back a SketchUp design with his thoughts and ideas about how to do it and I was ecstatic. It was everything I wanted, but so much better.

Each sail has a very different installation approach, so first, how about we focus on the nook area installation nearest the fire pit.

The shade sail is laced to a structure of basic galvanized piping attached to the fascia of the house and made tight by a combination of the lacing and a pair of turnbuckles at each corner. Patrick had the black shade sail customized to fit the area and arc in towards the garage, giving a wide clearance to the fire pit below. Whats great about this type of installation is that you can buy all the fittings and supplies at your local Home Depot, or any home supply store, and with a few basic measurements Patrick’s company can have a shade sail custom made to fit your area. Installing it yourself creates a custom look at a much more cost friendly price.

We installed this bad boy in one day, in pretty much just a few slightly rainy and damp hours. Patrick really did most of it…I mean come on, someone had to take photos. Right?

First, be cool like Patrick and find your studs. Then pre-drill the attachment points in the fascia.

Testing out the first attachment point. Hey, it works.

The galvanized pipe is also drilled through to correspond with your pre-drilled fascia holes (usually about 16″ on center). The pipe is attached to the fascia with self tapping bolts with a washer/nut inserted between the fascia and pipe to act as a spacer for the shade sails woven cord to pass through.

A 90° elbow attaches the pipes together. From there, the same installation procedure applies to the entire galvanized support structure. Find your studs, use a spacer and bolt into place. Once installed that thing is solid as a rock. It seems that galvanized pipes are crazy useful for all sorts of DIY adventures.

To begin lacing the sail in place, first just casually secure the corners in place with a few bits of cord.

Once it is loosely hung in place the long process of wrapping the cord through the grommets and around the pipe begins. It’s like lacing the longest shoe in the world.

The initial cord wrapping is left a bit loose in order to later evenly pull the shade sail taught with the turnbuckles and cord.

Once the cord is loosely installed, it is time to attach the turnbuckles at the end of the sail.

Again, you want to find a stud and pre-drill a hole to install your eyelet screw. This point will have a ton of tension on it, so make sure its solidly secured.

The turnbuckle attaches to the eyelet screw and a ring at the end of the sail. Slowly, all of the cord and the turnbuckles are pulled tighter and tighter to make the sail taught, like a giant drum.

Patrick goes back through a second time and pulls out any slack in the cord. Tedious, but totally worthwhile.

Here is a closeup of the tightened cord as well as the spacers and elbow connector.

Finish installation by tying the loose cord off, cutting it to length and singing off the end of the cord. The shade sail fabric is exterior rated to last about ten years and will withstand the harsh weather all year round.

Shazamm. DONE.

The little bar/eating pony wall area is ready to be built out is already cooled off and protected. Loving it!

We’ve had the shade installed for about a month and already have had crazy windstorms, rain, heat and harsh temperature changes and this thing is performing like a champ.  It’s made a big difference in the temperature of our laundry room, back patio, the breezeway and the garage and we’ve had four or five fires in our steel fire pit without any issues whatsoever. In the pictures I know that the shade tends to look super close to the fire pit, but trust me, there is plenty of clearance space.

All in all I feel like this could be a pretty awesome DIY project for anyone willing to tackle it. Once we got started the whole thing was fairly simple to build with really easily sourced hardware. The super talented and savvy Patrick is currently building a DIY shade sail website and will be offering video instructions, design and installation advice, hardware kits, custom shade sails as well as design services in 2011. I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted when it launches.

For now you can contact Patrick directly via email or contact Shade Industries with any questions or if you have a shade sail project you’d like to tackle.

Get ready, get set, because shade number two is on the agenda for tomorrow. I’ll can’t wait to show you how we built the most dramatic addition to The Brick House yet.

Now is the era of consulting in depth.

Welcome to Brick House Design – Modern design for frugal folks. (just like yyyyyyyoooooouuuuu)

For the next few weeks I’m going to roll out some projects I’ve been working on with some super cool folks. Lets ease into this whole BHD transition; should be fun times. Okay, lets get cracking!

Britt and Ryan from Cucumbersome recently moved into a very contemporary live/work space and are a bit bewildered by the modern elements and are not sure how to address the platformed bedroom to make it warm, homey and comfortable. They love vintage, they like modern and they aren’t afraid to use color. Check out the office:

Love that dark wall and over sized photo!

For a a little more context here is the living room:

Nice sofa, great pouf, snazzy art and a fun rug. Getting a feel for their style (love the floors, I’m all about modern modern modern floors)

Let’s discuss the area in need. Welcome to the bedroom:

Like most of us, they don’t have a gazillion dollars to spend on tricking out the bedroom. They wanted some design solutions for addressing this small space, keeping it affordable and having it be cohesive with the rest of the apartment.

On the list of things to keep:

-Dark Brown Malm Bedframe
-Dwell Studio Draper Stripe Ash Duvet Set

On the list of things to address:

-Lighting
-Nightstands
-Storage
-Privacy
-Room darkening

The Floor Plan:

It’s a tight squeeze.

Above is the finalized mood board (BTW, I hate the term mood board, lets figure out a better word. Oh, also blog.)

1 | Custom built night stands. 4x4x4” wood blocks stack in three row grid. White painted top for finish
2 | CB2 Hinge Sconce (Pair)
3 | Ikea Aspvik Wall Unit
4 | “Deep Space” Benjamin Moore 2125-20 (same as office)
5 | Light grey wool army blanket
6 | Dwell Studio Draper Stripe Ash Duvet Set
7 | Ikea Flokati Rug, 6 ‘ 7 ” x 4 ‘ 7 “
8 | Custom 1/2” galvanized plumbing conduit curtain rod, two flanges, matte black paint
9 | Ikea Merete bleached curtain pair
10 | Vintage Herati Rug, 5’ x 8’
11 | Vintage PH Snowball / Poul Henningsen inspired Danish ceiling light
12 | Ikea Enje Roller Shade, Dark Gray

These are the elements I recommend to add to the space to pull the look together. In order for Britt and Ryan to better visualize how the final look will come together I created a sketchup model using the dimensions and images they provided.

They already have curtains installed to close off the bedroom and give a little privacy from the rest of the apartment. I recommended they build a custom curtain rod and use the heavier bleached Merete curtains from Ikea to create an extra wall for privacy or pushed back unobtrusively when they don’t.

I kept what they have with the Malm bedframe and DwellStudio bedding and added a Flokati throw on the end of the bed for that comfy and warm texture. I also added a 5′ x 8′ Herati Rug to the floor to warm it up, bring in a bit of eclectic flair and help break up the wooden floors. The main colors for the rug should be red, navy blue or black, some cream and maybe a bit of yellow. You can find rugs like these in a number of places at reasonable prices. Check Ebay, Craigslist, Overstock.com, Consignment stores, Import stores, even Ikea.

For the wall behind the bed I brought over the dark gray office wall color (Deep Space – Benjamin Moore 2125-20). They had leftover paint and bringing the color to the hidden bedroom wall would establish continuity with the rest of the apartment and help darken the room for those bright mornings (when a little sleeping in would be nice). I also added a dark gray Enje roller shade to also address the room darkening they asked for, for just such occasions.

The Ikea Aspvik wall unit is normally used for offces, but it is shallow enough and the width small enough that it can fit nicely in the tight space at the end of the bed. The wall unit allows for some extra storage as well as a nice place to lean some more art or vignette up some collectibles. Because the doors slide instead of open outward that feature helps with the space saving. Keeping it white against the white wall will allow the space to still feel open and since it is floating without legs that keeps things nice and airy. It’s a great little wall unit and not outrageously expensive.

I included a painting by Joshua Abelow on top of the Aspvik. Why? Well, I just really like his work and think Britt and Ryan have a nice art collection going and could add something super interesting in that area.

They have a hardwired ceiling light connection (that is not currently in use) in the back left corner of the room. I recommended they find a vintage light inspired by Poul Henningsen’s PH Snowball. Snowball lights are crazy expensive, but you can invest a little, find something similar, go a little different, or maybe a lot different. Round, angular and white. Keep your eyes peeled because that’s the thing with vintage – you might have to do some footwork and be patient, but there is stuff out there. Flea Markets, Thrift stores, Vintage stores (I got a similar light HERE), or Ebay if you get desperate.

For the tight space next to the bed I recommended the CB2 Hinge Sconce. Keeping them dark gray like the wall makes things monochromatic, which in a small tight space like this can help with the feeling of openness that is difficult to achieve. They are also plug-ins, and since there is no hardwired spots next to the bed, they would be super easy to install.

There are three major DIY projects to get the look and keep costs down:

-Upholstering the Malm headboard with a light grey wool. Check out THIS for inspiration
-Building the wood block nightstand. THIS was the image that inspired that idea.
-Installing the custom curtain rod. I love plumbing pipe, and am doing a similar project right now.

I’ve discussed with them how to do these three projects if they choose. They aren’t super complicated and can be done easily with supplies from the local Home Depot type store if you are willing to get a little DIY. Sometimes getting creative and reusing items you have in new ways is more cost effective and unique than buying everything brand new.

You can check out the final PDF that outlines the plan and is the culmination of working back and forth with Britt and Ryan, in order to address their needs and budget. Thank you guys, I had a ton of fun! Check out the great projects at Cucumbersome. Very nice.

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Did you get through it? That was a lot of words and ideas, much more than a typical Brick House post. Whew. We made it.

Designing is obviously complicated.

If you have a space, big or small and need some design consultation and advice please email me at contact@the-brick-house.com to discuss solutions for all your decor dilemmas. Depending on your budget and the scope of your project, a quote for services ranging from 3-D rendering, mood boarding, product sourcing, or actual physical shopping can be arranged.

Brick House Design is a next step, folks. Can you smell it? The excitement? I’m excited.

xoxoxo

Morgan

With all our new found sale cash The Boy and I have been discussing how best to spend it. One HUGE item that is in desperate need of a fix up is the back bathroom/laundry room. It’s the last big interior project at the house and I’m hoping with a little over $3,000 and a lot of kindness and help from our friends/family (who remodel bathrooms for a living) we can whip this thing into less ugly and more functional shape.

Wonder what it looks like right now? Brace yourself. Check it out HERE.

One potential hurtle is the laundry hook-ups and current plumbing. In order to keep costs down, we want to keep everything installed as closely to the current plumbing as possible. So that means…

-The shower needs to stay in that area for the drain and fixtures.

-The dryer needs to go as close to that weird exterior door as possible to reach the 220vlt (which will need to be shortened and dropped down through the attic and INSIDE the house instead of how it’s run through the door frame now). We also need to figure out a way to vent the dryer…

-The electrical, drain and two sets of hot and cold facets are located underneath the window. The sink and washing machine therefore need to be installed in that area.

-The electrical panel needs to be flipped into the toilet “poopicle” closet.

Another way for us to keep costs down is to keep our current dryer and buy a new washer (our vintage washing monster from the 80′s is getting GROSS). Squeezing both the washer and dryer in that area doesn’t leave a lot of room for a sink (remember – it’s already plumbed for a sink in that space) so we need to build a custom cabinet and install a tiny bar sink. I love this simple Lagan one from Ikea, and at only $26.98 it seems to fit in the space and the budget. Combine it with a simple modern faucet and you got a sink to fit in an impossibly small area! I’ve been going a little crazy trying to wedge everything in that space, but I have all my measurements figured out correctly (finally) and it looks like it will fit.

Underneath the sink we would need to build a simple custom cabinet to hide all the plumbing and store cleaning supplies, extra toilet paper, soap and other ugly laundry room stuff.

Oh, and another way to keep costs down is to stick with the VCT floors that are already there instead of replacing them with something else.

For the shower we would need to completely gut the original corner shower structure and storage closet next to it to expand the space and make it functional (since it totally isn’t now). This is where the bulk of the budget would go…

I want to build a little half wall to divide the shower fixtures from the sink and then install a glass door to help stop water spray and leakage on the VCT floor. A glass door would also help let some light into that dark shower corner. I think it would also be great to have a little bench so that – for once – I could shave my legs in comfort.

Hopefully we could do a simple rain shower head with a simple/modern shower control. The drain wouldn’t have to be moved, which is a plus, but we would have to slightly adjust the plumbing for the shower head and control.

The shower and back splash behind the sink / laundry would get tiled in super simple white ceramic subway tile in either a vertical pattern or stacked in a grid (instead of the offset pattern in this sketch-up version). I would probably just go with that cheapo white subway Daltile or American Olean from Lowes in order to save some $$$. Hopefully we could install a little inset shelf area on the wall to put shampoo, soap and other shower things.

We would also need to buy an exterior door, but I guess that could wait if we totally run out of funds.

The big thing for us to watch out for (and if you came out to the house for the sale, you saw it first hand) is that we CANNOT over improve for our neighborhood. In reality, we already have – but – trying to make this laundry/bathroom actually functional and aesthetically pleasing on a tiny budget is going to be a huge challenge. We can’t just gut and redo everything, so we need to be smart with our cash, work with what is already there and keep it simple enough to fit with the style of the rest of the house. My dream would be to totally gut it and lay it out better than than this, but this project is going to be a compromise from the start. I want to be able to do laundry in that room without being a gymnast and take a shower without having to duck down the whole time and be frightened of the flesh eating disease I might be contracting from the disgusting beige tile that won’t get clean.

The old cinder block fire pit did not work. Whoops! (That’s why I never posted a true DIY). Good thing it was dirt cheap to build.

When we visited T.K. and Jill’s house in Joshua Tree, T.K. gave us a little introduction tutorial class in welding. Now we are putting that new skill to use to rebuild our crappy fire pit. We will build it better, stronger, more metal-y than before.

We bought four 40″ x 20″ sheets of 12 gauge hot rolled steel from Riverside Industrial Metal Supply.

Our new fancy magnets were very useful for holding together the two pieces of steel in order to get them tack welded at a 90 degree angle. Best tool ever.

The first half got spotted in place and it started to look like something…

The metal fire pit will be sunk into the ground with eight cold rolled steel rod supports to hold it square and add strength.

It’s a big metal square!

We added foot long cold rolled steel rods to the corners and in the middle of each panel. They aren’t pretty but they are getting installed underground – so they don’t really need to be.

Installing the larger metal pit where the old cinder block fire pit died it’s horrible death was kind of a pain. Everything got ripped out and a larger, deeper hole had to be dug out. A sledge hammer and plank of wood helped sink it level into the soft soil. In the end we left about 14″ of steel above ground.

BAM! DONE. Indestructible fire pit. I want it to rust up a bit to match the sketch up version:

I think for our first welding project that it turned out really great! It was about $100 for all the material and took us three or so days to put it together with a bit of a learning curve. The Boy ended up doing most of it after falling deeply in love with welding and telling me my welds suck. Good thing, because we have a lot more metal to slap on this house and I’m going to put him to work.

Ready to go for fire! Much, much better.

With my new found welding powers I am psyched to start welding up a fire pit, edging, shade structure and a planter for the side yard. Ambitious yes. Impossible? Maybe. I’m going to start with the fire pit and go from there.

Unfortunately the summer heat that has finally hit Hemet and with it I’ve started to wonder how we can add a small cheap pool to The Brick House. A tiny pool, just big enough to get wet and cool down in but not ambitious enough to need to meet codes and require professional installation. My sister suggested this puffy thing, but while we were in Joshua Tree last week I saw a really amazing DIY galvanized livestock tank pool. A similar version can be seen here at Waldorf Modern.

I was never really happy with what we had going on in the landscaping of the side yard, so I redesigned around the idea of installing a little DIY livestock tank pool.

I visited my local livestock supply and found that they had a 10′ and an 8′ version of the round tank.

The 8′ version is $374 and the 10′ is $560. Ouch, pricey. Delivery is only $10 though! Our house is literally right around the corner from this place and yeah, it can be a little rural around these parts. When I called the other 15 or so livestock supplies in a 50 mile radius I found that this local place was the only one that stocked a 10′ version, and surprisingly, had the best price.

Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics.

I also went to the local pool supply place to check out pumps/filters. I found this small one for about $50, but it seems like a pretty temporary solution and the filters would need to be changed every two weeks. At $10 a pop, that seems like some pricey maintenance. This Hayward unit is $269 and the filter needs to be changed yearly. This more expensive unit seems like a bit of overkill for the size of the pool. I want something in the middle, something to filter 750 gallons easily and that can be installed on a pretty permanent bases. I was also thinking of doing this whole pool with salt water instead of worrying about chemicals and such.

Needless to say the pool store workers though I was a fucking idiot. I felt like one. I’m not sure how to solve the filtration / salt water / pump situation.

If this pool idea somehow works out then we would adjust the rest of the landscape. I want to throw down pea gravel in a big L shape over a base of decomposed granite. I also want to add a Palo Verde tree with a hot rolled steel ring around the base to echo the pool shape and a big cactus in the back. Then we would use railroad ties as a stepping pathway to the pool. I found this great image of a railroad tie driveway that inspired the idea but have totally lost it. Damn you internet!

This is what it would look like when you are floating comfortably in the pool. We could get a couple of loungers to relax and sun bath nude on. No tan lines! Horrified neighbors!

We would still have a sun shade over the pool to keep it all cool and shady and the masonry wall for privacy.

I think a small pool would be really great and usable thing to have out here in the desert. It’s hot like 75% of the year and we’ve been just so desperate to take a cool dip for the last few years. So for $500 – $700 we could probably build this thing. Is it worth it? Or do we go the ugly doughboy route?

Here are some tank pool images I found over the week. I totally didn’t keep track of where I found them at because I’m a terrible blogger. I haven’t been able to track down a whole lot if info around on how to build one of these things…

That green one looks horrifying. But its got a slide!

Stupid idea or brilliant? I can’t tell yet. There is a whole lot of potential for failure.

Yeah. They are gross.

I’m seriously considering replacing the warped and rotted doors with commercial steel roll up doors. I like that they are cheap, take up a small amount of space and have a linear horizontal pattern. It’s a thought, but nothing has been decided. It’s an idea for “The Future”. I think for now we will paint them black and figure out the next step later.

I’ve continued thinking about the back patio since the last post. I’m kind of sold on eventually installing a tankless water heater so that we can at least free up that tight corner.

The other thing I was wavering about was continuing the slats on the back patio. I’ve been trying to figure out how we could get rid of at least one of the three stupid doors and not do any major masonry cutting and rearranging. We always try to create the most impact for the least amount of money and skill required. Any MAJOR rearranging of exterior exits of the house is not an option. Every opening in the house is lined with custom bull-nosed cement bricks from 1950 and they don’t make that shit to patch things up with anymore. Plus we don’t know how to do it and we can’t afford it and I’m not convinced that the investment will pay off in the long run in our neighborhood.

So…my idea is to make a solid redwood wall that intersects with the open slats that will essentially “cover” the weird third exterior door. On the inside of the bathroom we can just rip down molding stick some insulation in and drywall over the door. *POOF* Door gone. It would not a huge investment, it creates more interior space in the bathroom and we are totally DIY capable of doing it.

Afterwards we can throw a butterfly chair and a small table in that new alcove. Then the little useless back porch area becomes a sitting destination, or smoking area since that seems to be what most visitors use it for.

BTW – one of my dream pieces of furniture is a Richard Schultz petal table. Drool…

My favorite part of the front porch slat screen is the area that wraps around the side of the house. I think it would be nice to mimic that on the back porch and create an architectural division of the various exterior areas into more manageable rectangles.

Also, check it out! I fixed those pesky fake shade sails to look more accurate. I think I’m kind of sold on them. They are pretty cheap, but make a giant statement whilst keeping the hottest (most sun exposed) side of the house a bit cooler.

Apologies for the gratuitous sketchup posts. I know…boring ideas for the future…less talk more action! But now that we are moving along with the exterior I want to make sure to really plan everything out so that we use our money wisely by really thinking through the entire design and hopefully keeping it all cohesive. Plus, your guys tips and experience with things like water heaters, plants, shade sails, paint, ect. have really helped us figure out the potential cost/problems/solutions that we might encounter. It’s amazingly helpful.