A beautiful 75 acre farm located along the eastern Pennsylvania Delaware River basin was the perfect setting for this large private pool and spa designed and under construction by Liquidscapes and several other professionals.  We were retained to install the granite pool and spa decks.

Our company has been caring for this property for over a decade!  Our original client referred the new owner to us.  The new owner wanted to renovate the terrace, pool, and create a backyard oasis.  Drainage, stone selection, maintaining site lines, and concerns about bees were a few of the challenges and requests that we had to take into consideration while developing the design concept.

Due to the large footprint and elevation of the existing pool we had a significant amount of storm water to mitigate.  To avoid using surface drains we designed island planting beds with sub surface NDS EZ-Flow drainage to absorb surface water and move it underground away from the home, pool, and landscape.

Our client considered nearly 20 different materials for his project before choosing one!  It was a process.  We visited and researched stone manufacturers, brick makers, and quarries in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Canada to find the perfect match.

The north side of the property looks onto a 5-acre meadow and the south side looks out over a farm field.  We had to be conscious of plant and branch height to preserve the panoramic views.

One of our client’s dogs is allergic to bees and the property is adjacent to a honey farm.  We used minimal flowering perennials for the project to reduce the risk of the dog being stung.  Where we felt color was necessary, we strategically encapsulated the flowering species in the center of the planting beds away from walkways, pathways, and pool deck edges.  We relied heavily on perennial grasses to add color, texture, and motion to the landscape.

The project included an outdoor kitchen and bar with a large granite countertop, walkways, plantings, Kichler landscape lighting, NDS EZ-Flow drainage system, a new spa, waterfall wall, poolside dining, poolside pavilion, and a sunken fire pit with built-in seating.

We asked our client what he enjoyed most about his new backyard oasis: “Roasting marshmallows around the fire with my family.”

Our client grew up in Utah and is an avid golfer and skier.  During our first meeting he expressed his love for the outdoors and was adamant that we use fine natural stone materials to build his project.  His home overlooks the 15th hole of a golf course and the Sourland mountain range.  A large honey locust dominates the area where he and his wife wanted us to design and build a new outdoor kitchen, bar, and fire feature.  The design concept needed to respect the footprint of the mature tree. We also needed to create a new step layout that functioned seamlessly with the backdoor, existing raised porch and the new outdoor gourmet kitchen.  We designed triangular Brazilian Walnut (Ipe) steps to overlook the 26′ long serpentine bar and gourmet kitchen crafted from 2″ thick soapstone with a beveled edge and natural veneer stone.  The terrace is constructed of mixed natural cleft bluestone.  On the other side of the dining terrace a large natural stone fire table with seating invites family and guests to gather and enjoy cocktails, surrounding perennial plantings, golf course views, and beautiful sunsets over the Sourland mountain range!

The gourmet outdoor kitchen features Alfresco and Lynx stainless steel appliances including a sink/beverage center, garbage and recycling compartments, refrigerator, weather sealed pantry, grill, side burner, Kichler lighting and a transformer cabinet.

In the front of the property the design had to solve entryway drainage problems, increase parking capacity, and add access to golf cart storage.  We redesigned the driveway into an expanded formal parking court to allow for additional parking spots for their kids’ vehicles.  We lined the driveway with a bluestone soldier course and bluestone super tread curbing to help guide vehicles and water for proper drainage.  We added a bluestone driveway/walkway to a private bay for our client’s golf cart.  Plantings and landscape lighting compliment and soften the bold bluestone accents.

We received a text message and a picture from our client on a Friday evening while he was enjoying some red wine and his new fire feature: “You did good my friends.  Thx.”  We had the privilege of having some fine beverages with our client fireside one evening and he told us: “You know what I like most about my new outdoor space?  It is a quality space that brings my family together!”