Unique Retreats: Manhattan Beach, La Jolla and Utah (102)On
Breathing Room, homeowners show how they've created their ideal home environments, where backyards aren't just for swing sets and gardens anymore. Visit California homes in Manhattan Beach and La Jolla before travelling to Utah to look at an unusual garden.
The first stop is Manhattan Beach, Calif., to meet a couple who needed more room for their five children. They remodeled their home to accommodate their own breathing room, which is a pool that straddles both inside and outside. Using natural materials like limestone for the pool area, the windows, glass and water make for a soothing setting.
The second story features a pint-sized playhouse in La Jolla, Calif. Children need a place to relax, so Mom and Dad designed a space comfortable enough for kids of all ages. Also, meet their two little girls, whose playhouse is their breathing room.
Finally, travel to Utah to meet a man with a passion for his garden. He created a cottage decorated in Louis XVI style that rests behind a restored 19th-century farmhouse.
Macaluso House Facts:
- Manhattan Beach is one of the most popular surfing destinations in the world.
- Among the natural materials used in the home are limestone for the pool area and granite for the kitchen counter tops.
- It took three months to renovate the home.
Resources:
New American Swimming Pool: Innovations in Design and Construction (40 Case Studies)
by James Trulove (Editor)
Spectacular Pools
by Francisco Asensio Cerver
Children's Playhouse Facts:
- The cost of the playhouse is $18,000.
- The furniture in this playhouse is designed to be big enough so that the girls won't immediately out grow it, and it is comfortable enough for adults to use.
- The family collects art for the walls of their main house.
- The first house on this site had an Olympic-sized swimming pool out front, which was removed when the house was rebuilt.
Garden Cottage Facts:
- This little house is patterned after a building at a local cemetery.
- Friends helped the homeowner lay 30,000 square feet of sod in the yard.
- The Greek Revival-style house was originally built by farmers in the 1880s.
- The home is made of coral oolite limestone from a local quarry.
- The restoration of this home won the Utah Heritage Foundation's Heritage Award.
Resources:
Waterfalls, Fountains, Pools & Streams: Designing & Building Water Features for Your Garden
by Helen Nash, Eamonn Hughes
Dream Pools & Gardens
by Francisco Asensio Cerver
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