The Pond is... Done? And a Studio Build Update!
The complete process of building my pond and waterfall
Much progress has been made on the pond! And while we have not yet broken ground on building my new studio, things are finally happening, and I have an update on the build process at the end of this post.
First, a quick note: All my online painting and drawing lessons are currently on sale for Black Friday Week. Please visit my website at sadievaleriatelier.com to take advantage of the discounted prices.
The first time my husband Nowell and I walked on this property in April 2023, we started planning a spot to build my art studio. I turned around to see what the view from the north-facing windows would be, and spotted the outline of this old rectangular pond under the ivy and spring clover:
We were already in love with the property, but that was the moment I knew we’d found our future home. It was much later that we discovered the pond’s original purpose…
Most of the first year we lived here the pond remained just a faint depression. It had clearly been neglected for decades and filled knee-deep with debris, so the first step was to get it excavated and waterproofed.
While I knew I could build the waterfall, I was a bit daunted by hauling out the muck and debris and then repairing the cement, so I started looking for someone to hire to get the pond excavated and waterproofed. One pond specialist quoted me $40-$50,000! A landscaper-builder took one look and told me “You don’t want a pond, it’s a big hassle.” Needless to say, I didn’t hire either of them!
I ended up researching what exactly was needed, and hiring workers and just directing them to do what I hoped would work. After they cleared out the debris and dug back the embankments to show the original walls, they applied a layer of new cement to the interior, laid a new pipe to bring unfiltered water from our well and install a hose bib, and then a few weeks later, coated the interior with a layer of black pond liner epoxy to waterproof it.
In the meantime, my husband Nowell and I went to buy the stone!
I’m pretty sure it’s the first time a little Smart car has pulled up to the stone supply yard and loaded up a bunch of flagstones! Once we unloaded all the stones and stacked them around the edge, I stood inside the pond and started arranging the waterfall, checking how the water would flow with a garden hose. I was thrilled to see the pond with water finally flowing, but this was just the “first draft”.
Next step was to fill the pond and set up the pump and filter. The pump lies at the bottom, and forces water through thick tubing out to the filter, which sits outside the pond. The filter in this picture is just sitting there temporarily, later we would set it down lower to the left and hide it with rocks and plants: