A new homeowner of a beautiful Mediterranean style home requested a pool combining a variety of outdoor living amenities. The request included an infinity edge pool and spa that would accommodate an area for a volleyball net, bar top, and fire pit all within a natural environment; and of course, a budget. Needless to say, it was a challenging process combining all of these requests and blending them into a space dedicated for a pool that led us to the aquatic environment seen in these images. The project resulted in building a large free form pool with strong classical lines, shapes, and symmetry. The shape allows the pool to blend within the natural environment as well as continue to be a strong architectural element that compliments the beauty of the Mediterranean home. The infinity edge spa includes 14 waterway jets with the nearest possible equipment location that is more than 100’ away. The pool was not only an aesthetic design challenge but also required mutual respect for the project’s complex hydraulic and construction details. In the process of construction, the homeowner decided the infinity edge basin should also be designed to function as a secondary spa. This secondary basin/spa can be used in large entertaining situations or if the family wants to take advantage of the fire pit while soaking. The glass tile was selected to magnify the beauty of the infinity edge spa and the overall design. The vessel was carefully cleaned and sealed to minimize efflorescence and staining that typically occurs over time. The decorative pedestals and urns seen around the pool edge are equipped for irrigation and drainage to allow for ease of year around maintenance and combine the elegance of the landscape with the hardscape. This Mediterranean inspired project blends some of the best materials available today and is the focal point of the home owner’s new property. Photography: Daniel Driensky

Years ago, Exterior Worlds was contacted by a couple by the names of Rick and Susan Ashcroft. They asked if we could do something about the lagoon-style swimming pool that had been built behind their house in the late1940s. This style had been very popular at that time, and it is still a favored by some of the world’s more lavish resorts. However, ever since the day they had purchased their home, the Ashcroft’s had always been agitated by the ostentatiousness of the whole thing, and had finally decided to have it redesigned as a natural swimming pool. They wanted their back yard to retain the feeling of a tropical locale, but lose the touristic element in favor of that of a cozier, more private corner of paradise. We agreed with their sentiments wholeheartedly. Just a cursory glance at the property confirmed that a natural swimming pool design was a much better fit for the grade of the landscape and the surrounding opportunities for vegetation and lighting. The Ashcroft residence was located on the side of a hill that sloped down toward a ravine, and the house itself house was built 40 feet back from the road. The steep grade of the land posed construction challenges to any type of water feature, but there was a way to build a natural swimming pool here that would achieve the aesthetic the Ashcroft’s were seeking and create a lasting element that required only limited and very intermittent periods of maintenance. We began by stripping the pool down to its shell and building a retaining wall that offset the grade of the land. We shaped the surrounding earth around it into a much deeper basin that would allow water to collect naturally like it does at the base of a cliff. A series of interlocking pavers was laid around the perimeter to create a flat surface that extended from the back of the home to the retaining wall. This is a standard aesthetic used in most natural swimming pools, but it also served a special, practical purpose in this instance. Since this area was subject to heavy land erosion from runoff rainwater, pavers provided a very efficient way of reconstructing key elements of the structure every 5-10 years. The natural swimming pool now appeared as an inviting portal into a remote hill country getaway, just a stone’s throw away from the back of the house. We made it easier to reach by building two series of stone steps that led down to either side of the water’s edge. We were careful to avoid making them look too much like stairs. Instead, we designed them to closely mimic the layers of rock that often jut from the sides of mountains and dormant volcanoes on islands all over the Pacific. To further develop this theme, we placed a large flat stone to serve as a diving area, and we created a waterfall on either side of it by laying down stones in a manner that created varying speeds of water. Our construction methods here were very unique in comparison to those of our competitors. We took almost a month to consciously and deliberately lay each stone by hand. While this may seem painstakingly detailed to some, the rewards were astonishing, because our natural swimming pool mimicked Nature in such a way that it lacked almost all evidence of human engineering, and looked virtually identical to something you would stumble upon in the jungle of a tropical paradise. If you are interested in any high-quality landscape services, Exterior Worlds has been providing the high-end residential landscape services and garden design services discussed above for the Houston and the surrounding areas including memorial villages (Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village), Tanglewood, River Oaks, West University and the greater Houston (Hou), area since 1987. Contact us at 713-827-2255 For more the 20 years Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's fine neighborhoods.

Outdoor eating and lounging by the pool Photos by David Duncan Livingston

A view of the swim up bar, grotto kitchen and pirate chandelier in this massive 2,500 sq.ft. grotto. Design and Construction by Caviness Landscape Design, Inc. Photography by KO Rinearson PhotoArt Studios

Lea Frederick

Qualified Remodeler Room Remodel of the Year & Outdoor Living 2015 NAHB Best in American Living Awards Best in Region -Middle Atlantic 2015 NAHB Best in American Living Awards Platinum Winner Residential Addition over $100,000 2015 NAHB Best in American Living Awards Platinum Winner Outdoor Living

We designed & constructed a beautiful outdoor space for our client. The project features a custom pool with tiered spa, swim shelf with bubblers, water & fire features, fire pit, pergola built on site, covered patio with bathhouse & outdoor kitchen. The landscape features a blend of palms, Holly eagleston trees with sunshine ligustrum.

Open deck

Pool house

Solar shelf offers swimmers a shallow area to cool off and lounge in pool.

outside living area

A Memorial area family commissioned us to create a natural swimming pool in their back yard. The family already had a standard pool on premises, but it was isolated in an area of the yard not particularly suited to seating guests or hosting get-togethers. What they wanted was a second, natural swimming pool built that would serve as the hub of a new home outdoor entertainment area consisting of a new stone patio, comfortable outdoor seating, and a fire pit. They wanted to create something unique that would preserve as much of the natural features of the landscape as possible, but that would also be completely safe and fully functional as a swimming pool. We decided to design this new landscaping plan around a pre-existent waterfall that was already on the property. This feature was too attractive to ignore, and provided the ideal anchor point for a new gathering area. The fountain had been designed to mimic a natural waterfall, with stones laid on top of one another in such a way as to look like a mountain cliff where water spontaneously springs from the top and cascades down the rocks. At first glance, many would miss the opportunity that such a structure provides; assuming that a fountain designed like a cliff would have to be completely replaced to install a natural swimming pool. Our landscaping designers, however, came up with a landscape plan to transform one archetypal form into the other by simply adding to what was already there. At the base of the rocks we dug a basin. This basin was oblong in shape and varied in degrees of depth ranging from a few inches on the end to five feet in the middle. We directed the flow of the water toward one end of the basin, so that it flowed into the depression and created a swimming pool at the base of the rocks. This was easy to accomplish because the fountain lay parallel to the top of a natural ravine located toward the back of the property, so water flow was maintained by gravity. This had the secondary effect of creating a new natural aesthetic. The addition of the basin transformed the fountain’s appearance to look more like a cliff you would see in a river, where the elevation suddenly drops, and water rushes over a series of rocks into a deeper pool below. Children and guests swimming in this new structure could actually imagine themselves in a Rocky Mountain River. We then heated the swimming pool so it could be enjoyed in the winter as well as the summer, and we also lit the pool using two types of luminaries for complimentary effects. For vegetation, we used mercury vapor down lights to backlight surrounding trees and to bring out the green color of foliage in and around the top of the rocks. For the brown color of the rocks themselves, and to create a sparkling luminance rising up and out of the water, we installed incandescent, underwater up lights. The lights were GFIC protected to make the natural swimming pool shock proof and safe for human use.

This outdoor living space includes; a rectangular swimming pool, putting green, and Hot Springs spa. The patio is Techo-Bloc Blu pavers with natural fieldstone walls. Landscaping and boulders complement the space and a wood burning fire pit serves as a focal point. A Fiberon Ipe spa deck, next to the outdoor grille station and buffet stone counter for entertaining and relaxing. Photo by: George Brown Photography

South Tampa Pool Home, modern, bohemian, beautiful and functional space.