Anyone who knows me is familiar with the phrase “Start on paper”. I think any good design requires planning, and paper and pencil is a great way to capture that design. In keeping with that tradition, and building on my initial prototype, I captured the following design notes for the first version of the fountain.

As you can see, the design looks like an H, which would provide stability and spacing for the lighting to properly light up the fountain. The electrical boxes would need to be waterproof (IP68) and I would need some way to secure the pump to the float. I was also taking a guess that pool noodles would provide sufficient floatation, but that didn’t turn out to be as durable and lasting as I wanted. The design still accommodated introducing a new float material without modification to the wood structure. I also took extra steps to prepare the wood to be waterproof and colored so as to blend into the water.