Garden Stone Creations & Cascading Creations Blog: June 2011

My wife wrote this today. You can see this post and many more at...

My Take On Life

Jun

Outdoor Bathtub Suite ~ Vision Complete

Do you remember that old Moen Faucet commercial, where the couple goes to a architect with a kitchen sink faucet and tells him to design a house around it?

Well that is kind of what happen here. I have had this beautiful cast iron claw foot tub for about a year now. On Memorial Day, while enjoying the day outside with Monte and the kids decorating our vintage tents. I made a comment to Monte on how great it would be to have a outdoor bathtub set up by our tent.

Instantly, I heard the gears grinding in Monte’s head…

We tossed a couple of ideas back and fourth, then Monte jumped into the skid and broke ground next to our Hirsch-Weis vintage tent.

What happened over the next 5 days it simply stunning. Keep in mind that we did ALL the work ourselves a couple hours in the evening after work and a full days effort yesterday to complete the project.

For those of you who may not know, my husband Monte is a “Hardscape Landscape Contractor”. Which basically means, he is a “Rock Guy”. So, of coarse his vision of the space included a stone floor, boulders and lots of rock. He laid in a beautiful Eagle Mt. Flagstone floor and surrounded it with Woodstone (which is a gorgeous bark replacement stone product).

He built a boulder retaining wall with stone steps, so you actually step down into the space. This was Monte’s vision to make the space more intimate.

Look how pretty that is. This picture is somewhat deceiving. The Flagstone slab in front of the tub is 5 feet across and about 3 feet wide.

Monte installed a vintage farm house door in the entry way. Again, this was purely a vision thing. The space does not have permanent walls, only curtains. So a door was not needed, but it added so much to the overall look and feel.

I had been hanging onto a old farm house sink that I wanted to build a base under to use as a potting bench. Well, I got my base and now it has become a vanity in my new outdoor bathtub suite.

Monte installed a propane burner under my tub, so I can enjoy a relaxing warm bath anytime of the year.

Now that all the chore pieces are in place, it was time to start on the finishing details to make the space intimate, relaxing and private. We live out in the country on 6 beautiful acres. Are neighbors are not in our backyard so to speak, but we do have a road that is about 75 yards away that leads down to the lake. Even with as outdoorsy as I am, I did not want to worry about flashing my neighbors or there company while enjoying my space.

The solution: I made curtains using chocolate brown and tan burlap. I added a contrasting ruffle to the panels. With Monte’s help, I put grommets in all the panels, so I could tie them with pink fabric to the cable Monte installed. This way I can just slide open the panels I want to enjoy the view and still have privacy. See what I meant by the door, not a necessary item, but it adds so much to the space.

I just love how it fits in with all our vintage tents. The two tents in the background our the kids outdoor bedrooms. Tony and Colby share the green 9′ x 11′ and Madison has the cute little 9′ x9′ all to herself.

Now when it comes to the decorating, I had a vision. Adding touches of vintage and a dash of pink to make this space truly inviting to me.

This great little vintage chair is perfect, burlap flower pillow and my signature “K”.

Pink Gerber Daisies, lavender soap and a candle are all must have’s in a space like this. They scream girly-girl and just make me happy.

Look how pretty it is all pulled together. I will be adding some other finishing touches, such as a couple of hanging flower baskets from the poles Monte added across the top, yet another vision of his to make the space cozy. I also will add plants to the lovely vintage planter box by the sink base and tuck in some chicken & hens into the boulder retaining wall.