Leave no stone unturned...

On my street, only a few of us "new builds" still have not yet dealt with our driveways. Everyone else around us has a concrete driveway, and although they look nice and clean and structured, I don't think I want one. The sheer cost of having one poured is exhorbitant, and I don't really relish the idea of conforming to the norm just to blend in with the other homes on the street.

I love stone. The more natural and imperfect, the better and I have incorporated it into each of my homes in some way. I love the natural beauty it brings and the fact that not everybody has it. I would love to do a driveway using it, or at least, use those templates that give the impression of stone in concrete. At present, we have crushed rock (a stone of sorts, I guess!) in our driveway until we decide what we want, what we can afford, and what we can do ourselves that will look nice.

My friend, Krissy, has the most talented brother ever. He owns a business in North Carolina called Celtic Masonry ( www.celticmasonry.com ). I checked out his website and the work he and his crew do is amazing!! From outdoor stone or brick patios, to stone walls, outdoor grills, you name it. He (Frankie Dolaher) is a true artist and I wish he was related to me! Masonry is truly a craft for the patient and talented and he does wonderful work. Check out his website and get ready to drool!!

If you are in the deck building mode, I found a great Canadian website (www.gardenstructure.com )to inspire you and your handyman!! I am definitely getting some ideas for our new deck from it and I'm sure you will find inspiration there, too. Get building before summer hits hard and we all feel too hot and lazy to do more than snooze in the sun on our very own patios and decks!!

Backyard Showers

I have never taken a shower outdoors, but I can only imagine how great it would be! The first outdoor shower I ever saw was on television, in an Irish Spring commercial, and aside from the big, dopey guy in the ad (with the bad fake accent) , I thought that shower was the most amazing thing ever! I still dream of having one, but my reasons have changed.

We are in the process of putting in a backyard (above-ground) pool and in my wish list of pool accessories is a great outdoor shower. I picture it on my deck, with a door that has that proverbial outhouse symbol, the crescent moon, carved in it (above peeking level of course!!) I would hang nautical themed towels from fun hooks and wire baskets would hold a nice bottle of shampoo, shower gel, and a sea sponge. Visiting kids (and my own) could rinse the chlorine out of their hair and dirty feet making tracks on my hardwood would be no more. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

Then reality throws just enough water in my face. My "middle child" has an issue with water... He is usually in the shower for up to 20 minutes (to wash a small body, no less) before we notice that the water coming from the taps is unusually cold and he is not in his room getting settled for bed as we had presumed. This is our obstacle to a poolside shower. We can just picture him (and to be fair, his little sister) hopping in and out of the pool to "warm up" under the hot shower. We are purposely not getting a pool heater due to the high cost of it, so the amount of hot water we'd go through in a day with a shower would defeat this cost saving measure!

My only hope is that my husband will come through on his promise to come up with a creative solution to heat the water naturally (think modified rain barrell) and rig something up so that I can achieve my girlhood fantasy of standing under a shower in the great outdoors while the birds chirp and the kids splash in the pool nearby. On second thought, maybe I had better rethink that moon-shaped cut-out...I don't want any little pranksters traumatizing me (and themselves) while I'm trying to fulfill a dream!!!