Alot of people are also alergic to the pressed and formed composite decking like trex.

No lawn but just trading one type of maintenance for another. I had a 6' by 14' pond for 10 years at my old house and I figure it only takes about 2 minutes a week to mow that size of grass compared to the time it took to clean filters, net debris and clean out sludge that builds up over the years on the bottom. Of course the beauty of a pond is worth the effort. My neighbors loved going to sleep to the sound of the water falls and I had people from all over the neighborhood sneeking into my backyard to take a look at the pond. My favorite visitor was the pelican that ate all my fish that I had been growing for 3 years! I just moved into a new house but the yard isn't as big and is more sloped so I'm going with an above ground formal pond and waterfall this time around.

We've had our front yard pond for 6 years now so I know what kind of maintenance is involved. It's only about a 7 x 8 pond with a long stream bed, but the maintenance has been pretty minimal. I haven't opened up the skimmer once this season. Although there's a Heron in our area that ate all of our fish 8" or less :(. We're going to get one of those motion sensing hidden scarecrow things next season.

I was think of getting something similar as well. There's a number of motion sensor activated items for keeping cats out of flower beds so I'll have to look into these when the time comes.

The pond is looking great and it's great to see the kids involved with it!Getting someone else to do the digging and rock hauling is the way to go. I used up a whole month of evenings the summer I did my pond. Lucky for me it was a new area so I didn't have far to go to dump the dirt and I used some of it to build up the waterfall area. But did I ever learn the hard way that a whole heavy wheel barrow full of clay equates to a very small area of excavation. I actually planned on a large oval sized pond but went with a peanut shape just because I was sick of digging and hauling.

I think they are on the 14th trailer full of dirt hauled away already!!!! I remember hand digging my pond 6 summers ago. Everyday I'd come home from work and get the rubber boots on and go dig (mostly it was raining). I'd dig until well after dark. People would always come by and ask what I was doing digging in the dark. I found out a quick way to cut chit chat was simply say "I need to bury a body." It was worth digging it by myself and all of the rock I found by driving by new subdivisions and looking for freshly excavated basements and there was usually a pile of unwanted rocks that was dug up. However, with the scale of project that I'm doing now, even if I had lots of help, there would be no way I'd be able to move a 3 foot boulder. I'm quite happy with the progress so far.

Framed out the deck today so it gives a much better visual of what it'll look like.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/photo-12.jpg

Racoons are definitely the biggest pain in the butt with our pond. The herons and kingfishers are bad enough, but at least they only get the fish and don't cause damage like the coons do.

Looking AWESOME! Your yard looks bigger with the framing put in...gives better size perception. That pond is going to be rad.

I'm sorry if I have missed it but how much do you think it costs to do this kinda thing and what do you expect to pay in utility costs running this thing? Thanks.

Holy smokes Dez!! Looks AMAZING!!! My yard next pal! lol I'll be putting in a huge diy led set up though... with a full snorkel pool! I wish.