ARTICLES Archives - Page 138 of 317

A Pool-Lighting Primer

In far too many cases, lighting in and around backyard swimming pools is an afterthought – and sometimes I get the impression that there’s not much thought involved at all. As I see it, our clients deserve better than an easy, one-size-fits-all approach, and that’s the main reason I developed the brief video presentation linked below: I wanted to give homeowners a bit of information that would help them understand both the importance of good lighting and get them ready to discuss a variety of available design solutions. As I suggest in the video, the old-style, under-the-diving-board placement of a 500-watt incandescent bulb should never

Test Your Knowledge #59

What Was Esther Williams' Off-Screen MGM Nickname?

Ripples #70

Super Submarine Yacht Boasts Swimming Pool

Sliding into Backyard Waterparks

How do you tear kids away from the Internet or video games on a nice summer day and get them outside to play? These days, more and more families are answering that question by creating small-scale waterparks in their own backyards. The great thing is, these micro-waterparks don’t have to be as garish or visually aggressive as their full-scale commercial counterparts. In fact, these spaces can be as easy on the eye as the watershapes at luxury resorts and hotels: Indeed, those are just the

Into the Wild

In just a few days, my wife and I will be heading out on a road trip that will take us to Yosemite and then on to the eastern slope of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. It’s been a while since we took a trip like this one. Last time, we had a great camping spot reserved in a meadow high above Yosemite Valley. When we arrived in the middle of that June, however, the campsite was still under about 14 feet of snow, so we had to make do in what was, because so many higher-elevation sites were

Special Ponds, Special Purpose

We at The Pond Digger Waterscape Design & Construction do a lot of our business locally, and we’ve always found value and satisfaction in giving back to the communities we serve. Back in 2002, we started Ponds for Schools, a curriculum-based program in which we work with administrators, teachers and students to set up “outdoor waterscape classrooms” for use throughout the year. This enables teachers to expand their lesson plans into the great outdoors, and we’ve heard about