Finally, my fountain!

 

I have been looking for a deal on a fountain for the front yard for years, literally YEARS. I kept telling myself that there's no other way for someone who is downsizing to get rid of a heavy fountain than to sell it on Craigslist and that eventually one that met my specifications would turn up. Well, finally it did!

 

My goal with the fountain was to add some sculptural structure and a year round focal point to the front yard. That's a tall order (literally) since I can only think of one shapely, evergreen that's around 4-feet tall and can grow in dry shade. Sago palm is all I could come up with, but I wanted something that was a little narrower. (Do you know of anything?) With those challenges, I turned to an inanimate garden accent, and began my search for a fountain.

Over the course of my patient search, twice I showed up at the buyer's property with some cash and muscle prepared to haul my treasure home, but it wasn't meant to be. The first time, the fountain looked convincingly like concrete in the online photos and was priced accordingly, but it turned out to be resin. I'm dubious about the durability of plastic in the yard so I passed. It was hard to walk away because I reasoned that I could have used that fountain as a placeholder while I continued my search, but it didn't feel right and I apologized for taking the seller's time and not clarifying the material in advance.

The second fountain I almost bought was A-MAZING. It was from Massarelli, beautifully cast with a classic shape and only $100! The photos in the ad were of the fountain disassembled so I could see why other would-be buyers would have passed it over. The trouble was, when we went to look at it, it was gigantic, at least 10-feet tall and 5-feet wide! It was a fountain for a grand estate or for the circular driveway of a hotel. There wasn't anything else in the online photos to provide scale so it was a reasonable mistake. Still, it was an incredible deal on a fountain that should have cost thousands, and I thought about buying it, taking proper pictures and reselling it for what it was really worth. But it would have taken a lot of muscle, and I'd probably have had to wait a while to find the perfect buyer. I've thought about that fountain many times since, but I know I made the right decision.

 

In the last year, I expanded my search to other resale apps, and that's where my fountain finally popped up. It was not a second hand purchase as I had expected, but rather it was hand made by a guy who probably makes one or two concrete pieces a week and sells them to earn some extra money. He wanted $200 and that included delivery, set up and the base so I went for it.

The style is more ornate than I'd prefer but still somewhat classic, especially in San Antonio where you can see these fountains in a fair number of yards on the south side of town. I made a few modifications like staining it with a concrete stain and removing one of the bowls that was more ornate than the others and made the fountain just a bit too tall for the scale I wanted, and now I'm happy with it. My next goal to troubleshoot my low voltage landscape lights and illuminate the fountain at night.