One plus for having such a unique home is the sky's the limit for turning our domes and yard into giant art projects! There were a few eye sores when we first saw it but tried to picture our ideas. My three favorite types of architecture are domes, old barns, and cord wood homes. And we were lucky enough to encompass all three on our property.
The worse major eyesore was the little area the previous owners built to hold the water pump. By the time we saw it with years of neglect, it was covered in mold and had animal eaten plywood sides. The before picture I have I had already "cleaned" it so imagine it 10 times worse and you have a good idea.
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| Pump house before |
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| Cord wood pump house |
And here we have the finished cord-wood pump-house. It took Jim and my son-in-law Kevin months to complete but it's awesome! The roof is called a "French skirt", that was Kevin's idea and yes he is French. The top on the roof is a flying squirrel home but Rocky still prefers the barn. There is probably a lizard living in it. The numerous lizards around here are under the mistaken impression we do everything for "them".
The second eyesore to be tackled was the barn. Which was such a mess we at one time thought of tearing it down. But with tons of elbow grease, sweat equity and a little innovation we turned it into something much more acceptable. To make it more barn-like I picked a smoky blue/gray paint and hung my primitives on the outside wall. I had been dragging those primitives around with me for decades and never had a place to put them. They finally found a good home. The triangle next to the barn/shed was from our house, must have been an extra. So I placed it foam down, painted it and now it's my moment of Zen.
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| Barn/shed before |
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| Barn after |
The third eyesore was the "pond". The Realtor described it as a fully stocked fish pond. Realtors-LOL
It turned out to be a tiny mud hole, stocked with overgrown pond lilies. If there were ever "fish" in it
they became Raccoon fodder long ago.
Again we over looked the issues, yes it's a mess but it is wired and has a working waterfall, that's a start. Over a year later with the addition of tons of North Carolina river rock, two more ponds, a working handmade waterwheel, handmade walking bridge, creek bed, and moved waterfall it now looks like this.
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| Mudhole before |
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| Back of pond |
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| view from pool |
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| pebble walk |
It is teeming with life, mud minnows, goldfish, and our resident Frog-Kermit. Several types of snails were tried including the baseball sized Florida Apple Snail but unfortunately they all ended up being the Raccoon version of escargot. We were completely satisfied with our finished pond until we saw our neighbor Ray's pond! OMG!! It is life sized with a bridge spanning it 10 times the size of ours, filled with carp and other exotics and even features a full sized pirate ship! Oh and dare I forget to mention loads of rock and mountain formations that looks like it came from the hands of the finest Disney Imagineers! Wow, truly impressive. You have no idea what is going on behind the electric gates of these rural homes!!
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