{"id":778,"date":"2017-08-25T12:15:44","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T19:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blowingawayoutwest.com\/?p=778"},"modified":"2017-11-10T13:50:52","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T20:50:52","slug":"fail-fountain-things-consider-building-water-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blowingawayoutwest.com\/staging\/fail-fountain-things-consider-building-water-feature\/","title":{"rendered":"From Fail to Fountain: Things to Consider when Building a Water Feature"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From Fail to Fountain: Things to Consider when Building a Water Feature<\/h1>\n

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This is the story of our fail and how we turned it into a water feature. This isn\u2019t the sort of story I wanted to have to write.\u00a0 I hate fails.\u00a0 Let me back up.\u00a0 I love reading about funny Pinterest fails\u2014they crack me up.\u00a0 But when it\u2019s your fail, when you\u2019re personally involved, there\u2019s this moment when hope is dashed and you cry.\u00a0 Only after, can you laugh and pull on your waders because, we may get dirty, but we get it done.<\/p>\n

\"Amazing<\/p>\n

Our front yard was suddenly not symmetrical.\u00a0 On either side of the driveway was a cinderblock wall framing a cascading wall of large rocks.\u00a0 Where there was dirt, we planted shrubs and hoped for the best.\u00a0 About three years after planting, we began to notice that the plants on the left side of the house were growing bigger in one area.\u00a0 Perplexing, but not concerning, until we also noticed an unpleasant smell emanating from the plants.<\/p>\n

I remember telling Kevin, \u201cI think that the plant roots are rotten or something because it stinks in the front yard.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was skeptical.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of rotting roots,\u201d he said, smirking.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s it smell like?\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought for a minute.\u00a0 \u201cPoop.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he frowned and said, \u201cwhich side of the yard, the left?\u201d I knew we were in trouble.<\/p>\n

I nodded, \u201cWhy, is that a problem?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure, but the sewer pipe runs from the street up the left side yard.\u201d<\/p>\n

We both looked at each other in silence.\u00a0 We had been through the pooper with a septic-pipe-problem years before, in Wyoming.\u00a0 Our new house had settled, the foundation pulling the septic tank pipe away from the house, sending all the septic waste back into the house.\u00a0 I discovered it while doing the laundry.\u00a0 When the washer drained, the soapy water came spewing up out of the toilet.\u00a0 That fix required digging out a huge chunk of our yard and disposing of all the contaminated dirt. We had to wait for the next summer for the yard to completely dry out and stop smelling.<\/p>\n

This couldn\u2019t happen to us twice\u2014right?\u00a0 Wrong.\u00a0 We were two-time losers.\u00a0 Upon investigation, the sewer pipe had broken off where it attached to the main.\u00a0 The difference is that this time, the waste had been pouring into the ground for a while, but we hadn\u2019t noticed it because there was a lot of real estate under our yard for the sludge to dump into.\u00a0\"Excavator\"Fountain<\/p>\n

Enter the excavator and Kevin\u2019s helpful friends.\u00a0 As they started digging, the stench began to rise, followed by the toilet jokes.\u00a0 It was bad.\u00a0 We were going to be pulling out a huge load of contaminated dirt again.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where the saying, \u201cDirt Cheap\u201d comes from but fill dirt ain\u2019t cheap.\u00a0 Know what else isn\u2019t cheap?\u00a0 Replacing part of your driveway.\u00a0 Arrgghh!\u00a0 The joys of home ownership.\"Concrete<\/p>\n

I had to post this picture of Kevin, in his waders, digging with a shovel in a huge hole that had contained poop filled dirt.\u00a0 Imagine the smell.\u00a0 He swore that it was impossible to wash off.\u00a0 This is the kind of digging required to re-attach the pipe.\u00a0 Actually, a foot-long piece of pipe was completely missing.\u00a0 Did the poop eat it?\u00a0 I have my suspicions.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t re-attach until we added new pipe.\"fountain<\/p>\n

After the repair, I remember standing in the street looking at the hole where our front yard used to be.\u00a0 We could have filled in the hole with some new dirt, replanted and restacked our block retaining wall, but where would the fun be in that?\u00a0 We\u2019ve never been comfortable with the status quo.<\/p>\n

The idea for a cascading water feature came to me in a dream.\u00a0 Just kidding.\u00a0 The idea came because we had always wanted a rushing waterfall, but didn\u2019t want to dig up the yard to get it.\u00a0 Now that the yard had been demolished, we were ready for the water feature.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”There are design trade-offs when you do it yourself.” username=”@BlowingAwayWest”]<\/p>\n

The water feature build was a lot of trial and error.\u00a0 That\u2019s the trade-off that comes with being a do-it-yourself couple.\u00a0 I loved that it looks like it could almost have been a natural runoff, but some people didn\u2019t. We made sure that the pump and drop created a loud, rushing river sound\u2014some people liked that and some didn\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible to please everyone\u2014including yourself.\u00a0 I\u2019m famous for wishing I had been a better designer after the project is complete.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

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For all the things I love about the water feature, there are things we would have done differently, and issues that we couldn\u2019t see ahead of time.\u00a0 If you\u2019re considering building your own water feature, here are some things to think about.<\/p>\n

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[bctt tweet=”Here’s what you need to know before building a water feature.” username=”@BlowingAwayWest”]<\/p>\n

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE BUILDING A WATER FEATURE<\/p>\n