In the second part of our series on coolest home design ideas suggested by our clients, we're going to talk about muddy dogs and kids.
For many of our clients, building a custom home on their land provides an opportunity to create both indoor and outdoor living spaces for the entire family. And that includes the four-legged family members. But what happens when the kids or the dogs head outside for an afternoon of fun and get dirty in the process?
How do you combat the mud?
One Oklahoma family we worked with uses a garden hose on their back patio to knock off most of the dirt and mud before the kids or dogs come back inside. Some days, it's no big deal for the patio to stay a little muddy until it dries and can easily be swept off. But other days, like when they're hosting another family for a cookout that evening, they want to rinse the mud off the kids, the dogs, and the patio.
What's the problem with that?
Well, all that water ends up draining off the patio into the surrounding yard, which means more mud. Then you're limited on ability to enjoy the yard while having guests over because of all that mud.
Their innovative idea to solve this problem?
Put a floor drain in the middle of the patio and run a pipe from that drain out to a little drainage area. We filled the drainage area with rocks and located it about 50 feet from the patio.
Now when the family needs to hose off the dogs or the kids, all the water and mud runs down the drain. The area right around the patio stays dry, and the water that drains off soaks in under the rocks so there's no mud in the yard. For a bonus, you can even run a hot and cold spigot so there's warm water available in cooler weather.
We've built plenty of houses with mud rooms or multi-functional laundry rooms with wash stations, but this is truly an innovative idea to keep the mud and dirt outside.
