Mark and Leslie have always loved being outdoors. They had a pool at their previous home, but it was limited on space and had no extra amenities like a pool house or covered seating area. Leslie daydreamed about her ideal swimming pool and outdoor living area as she mopped up the water her two children tracked in and out of her house. When the family took the plunge and built their dream home, they knew it wouldn’t be complete without the perfect outdoor space.
“We had a long wish list we’d been working on for five years,” Mark explains. “We knew we wanted to incorporate a Mediterranean or Tuscan style.”
The couple turned to Bob Rhoads of Rhoads Estate Homes to help bring Italy to Fox Ridge Estates. One of the most notably Tuscan elements of the outdoor space is the stonework and tile roofing on the pool house and outdoor pizza oven.
Traditional stone buildings in Tuscany were constructed over centuries with many different kinds of stone, which gave the façade a patchwork look. Rhoads recreated the effect seamlessly in Mark and Leslie’s project.
Another traditional building practice in Tuscany is the repurposing of old materials from crumbling structures. Rhoads used timbers and metal siding from an old barn to construct the pitched ceiling of Mark and Leslie’s covered porch. Leslie loves this area with its comfortable furniture, television and fireplace. “We use it all the time.”
The pool house was on the top of Leslie’s must-have list. At their previous home, Leslie would place beach towels on her kitchen floor to try to protect the hardwood when their two children would run in and out to go to the bathroom or get snacks and drinks. “I hated all the running in and out,” Leslie remembers. “Now we have a full bathroom in the pool house…we even have urinals, which all the guys get a kick out of when they see it the first time.”
Natural light enters the bathroom through a window that has been adorned with Tuscan-style shutters and a window box.
The pool house is complete with a covered bar area and a storage closet that houses a commercial-grade refrigerator large enough to hold four kegs of beer that are tapped out to the bar. “We like craft beers, but we’re not connoisseurs,” Mark explains. “The beer is mostly seasonal because the water is shut off at the end of the season to winterize the pool house,” Leslie adds.
Mark and Leslie say they are having a wonderful time learning to bake pizza the old fashioned way over an open fire in their outdoor pizza oven. “We’re still mastering the techniques,” Mark says. “We’ve had a couple of dud pizzas, but we’ve gotten better.
“It gives you satisfaction to know you’re making something the way it was meant to be made.”
Mark explains that when using an open flame, you have to build your fire and then allow at least an hour to let the oven heat up. “It has to be very, very hot.”
All of the amazing amenities found in Mark and Leslie’s outdoor living area rotate around their pool, which is the heart of the space.
The couple worked with Buckeye Pools at their previous home, so it was a no-brainer that they would contact them for this project. The couple opted for a 20×48-foot rectangular design, which is a traditional Tuscan style in its simplicity. The pool utilizes saltwater technology, which pulls the chlorine from the salt. Chris Durbin, president of Buckeye Pools, explains that swimmers can’t see, taste or smell the salt. “This technology eliminates the need for up to ninety percent of chemicals traditionally needed to clean a pool.”
Leslie wanted a sun shelf where she could lay out while still enjoying the water. She also wanted a fountain feature.
Mark and Leslie took Rhoads’ advice when selecting Doug Rhinehart, of Grandma’s Garden Center, as their landscape designer. “Our builder works with them, and I’m so glad we found them too,” Leslie remembers.
“Doug took our input and ran with it,” Mark adds.
And run with it, he did.
Rhinehart was very meticulous in his plant selection when trying to bring Tuscany to Dayton.
“Bringing the Tuscan look to Ohio can be very challenging,” Rhinehart explains of the varying climates.
Rhinehart has only visited Tuscany once, but he remembers fields of lavender and sunflower…and geraniums everywhere. He used Walker’s Low Catmint to replicate the lavender, and Black-eyed Susans were used in place of sunflowers.
Degroot trees were planted to replicate the Italian Cypress found in Tuscany. Green Gem boxwoods and Grafted Catalpa trees were used to add symmetry and shape to the space. “I love trees with heart-shaped leaves,” Rhinehart adds. “They sort of feel Tuscan to me.”
One of the most unusual requests was the palm trees Leslie wanted. “She almost said it jokingly…like she knew it would never happen,” Rhinehart remembers. “But I have a distributor who ships them up from Florida, and they are relatively inexpensive.”
Each May Rhinehart’s team plants new palm trees in the massive planters surrounding the swimming pool, and each fall they come and take them away.
Mark and Leslie have nothing but positive things to say about their first experience building a new home, and they attribute that to the team working together to make everything run smoothly.
“Everyone worked so well together,” Mark says. “They are a small-knit group of people, and that made it a pain-free process.”
Rhinehart feels the same, adding, “We’re kind of like family. We work together and communicate, which makes the job seamless.”
“Everything is exactly how I always imagined it could be,” Leslie says.
Resources: Builder: Rhoads Estate Homes; Landscaping and hardscapes: Grandma’s Gardens; Irrigation: Ground Water Ltd.; Lighting: Outdoor Lighting Perspectives; Pool: Buckeye Pools; Audio/video: Total Network Technologies; Fence: Cedar Grove Fence, LLC.; Furniture: Watson’s; Cabinetry: CK Kitchen & Bath Design, LLC.; Appliances: Sub-Zero and Wolf, Custom Distributors