When a repeat maintenance client in Aldie, Va., called Rock Water Farm Landscapes & Hardscapes about “a patio and a place to cook,” owner-builder Todd Thomasson quickly realized the brief was bigger. The family had just moved in and wanted a true outdoor living environment, one that would handle weekday dinners, school gatherings and summer pool season without sending everyone back to the house every five minutes.
If you know Rock Water Farm, the scope makes sense. The Northern Virginia firm is a design/build and maintenance company led by Thomasson, founded in 2005 and based in Aldie. The team is known for natural-stone work, custom pools and full-property care — a single shop that can design it, build it and then maintain it for years.
TWO PHASES, ONE PLAN
Phase one attached directly to the home: a dining terrace with an outdoor kitchen under a pergola, scaled for everyday life. About a year later, phase two pushed farther into the yard, adding the pool, a timber-frame pavilion with a second kitchen, and a generous lounging space. The separation creates two distinct zones — an “any-day” porch kitchen and a resort-style pool terrace — so the family can use the yard in colder seasons and still have a turnkey entertainment hub when the pool is open.
The clients gave Thomasson unusual latitude. “They literally told me, just do your thing,” he says. The built project is essentially the initial concept, with only minor tweaks.
For furnishings, Todd Thomasson partnered with his wife, Alicia, principal designer of Alicia Thomasson Interiors. They layered in outdoor couches, loungers, bar seating and more to make the space inviting and comfortable.
SITE FIRST
The excavation process uncovered a surprise: fractured bedrock across most of the dig and a dense, unblasted bluestone mass exactly where the deep end was planned. Instead of spending roughly $30,000 hammering it out, the team slid the entire pool 10 feet, putting the rock under the shallow end where digging was minimal. The move preserved the design intent while protecting the budget.
From there, sequencing was driven by utilities and drainage. This isn’t a “single-pump, single-heater” backyard. With a vanishing-edge pool and spa, deck jets, bubblers, an array of lights and multiple fire features, the yard needed serious amperage and BTUs — and a plan that accounted for where the service originates, how far it runs and what neighbors already pull from shared utilities. “On projects like this, 40 to 60 amps won’t cut it. You may be looking at a dedicated 200-amp service,” Thomasson says. Drainage was treated with the same rigor: catch points, routes and elevations were finalized before concrete and masonry went in, so no one is trying to add a drain after the fact.
Equipment landed in a recessed “cove” by the home’s basement walkout — out of the soundstage and out of sight — so the entertainment spaces stay quiet even when multiple pumps are moving water.
Phase one, shown here, connects seamlessly to the home: a dining terrace and outdoor kitchen under a pergola, designed for everyday family life.
MATERIALS WITH A MISSION
Rock Water Farm pairs marble paving around the pool — chosen for its cool underfoot temperature — with Pennsylvania flagstone in complementary areas, tying new work back to the home and pavilion. The company prefers natural stone whenever the site and budget allow; it wears well, anchors the composition and resists the “concrete parking lot” look Thomasson tries to avoid. (They’re vocal about that preference in their public guidance, favoring natural stone and function-first layouts over maxed-out, unused square footage.)
The slide, which can easily become an eyesore, was instead handled like an architectural element. Thomasson encased the base in stone, shaping a sculptural wedge that reads as part of the pool wall. It becomes a feature, not an add-on.
After dark, fire and water come alive: glowing edges, sparkling jets, fire bowls and more create a backyard built for drama and enjoyment.
WATER + FIRE, CHOREOGRAPHED
At night, the project is pure theater: a vanishing-edge pool, a vanishing-edge spa, sweeping deck-jet arcs and LED-lit bubblers on the tanning ledge. Granite fire bowls at the corners add counterpoints to the water. The spa sits higher, a small “crow’s nest” with sightlines across the yard, perfect for keeping an eye on kids launching down the slide while enjoying the spillway running visually “through” to the pool.
A tricky detail is invisible: integrating an automatic pool cover into a design that also features vanishing edges on both the pool and spa. Geometry drives everything — clearances, guides and lid locations — so the team shaped the spa almost like a “Pac-Man,” a playful form that keeps the cover path and the vanishing-edge weirs happy at the same time.
SAFETY, ENGINEERED AND TAUGHT
Beyond the auto cover, the fire bowls require a keyed valve to light — no accidental starts from a switch — keeping open flame intentional. Thomasson is blunt about the rest: no device replaces supervision and swim ability. He urges families to schedule in-home swim lessons early so kids (and visiting friends) are water-safe the moment the pool opens.
PLANTING MAKES IT A PLACE
The build quality is obvious in the stone and water, but what softens the space is the planting. Layered beds wrap the hardscape and steps, make transitions feel natural and scale the wide terraces so they read as rooms, not runways. “I haven’t met many stone walls that are cozy,” Thomasson jokes. “The plants bring the emotion.” It’s a design choice and a budget strategy: by editing out “dead” paving, the team could invest in better stone and more thoughtful details without inflating the footprint.
That landscape bench strength is also part of the company’s model. Rock Water Farm designs and builds complex backyards and maintains them — one reason many of its pools start as maintenance relationships and grow into long-term partnerships.
BUILD TIME AND TAKEAWAYS
Design development and pricing took six to eight weeks. The main construction phase ran about eight months, with minor add-ons trailing behind. The big lesson? Planning. With overlapping systems — power, gas, water, drainage and automation — front-loaded coordination prevents costly rework later. Thomasson’s advice for builders stepping up in scale: If you haven’t executed this kind of integration before, phone a friend who has. Expensive mistakes happen fast.
ONE-OF-ONE DESIGN
Not long after completion, a neighbor with the same model home asked Rock Water Farm to copy the project. The answer was “no.” The firm won’t duplicate work. Each yard, architecture and family are different, and the design should be, too. It’s also a matter of client respect. “When you commission a custom environment, you shouldn’t see a clone down the street,” says Thomasson.
THE RESULT
What began as a humble request for a patio became a highly functional, family-first compound. Two kitchens (one everyday, one poolside) keep the action outdoors. A vanishing-edge pool and spa run like a single water feature. The pavilion and timber frame make room for a crowd; the planting makes it comfortable. And the details — stone-clad slide, tucked-away equipment, smart utilities — mean the yard works as good as it looks.
As Thomasson likes to say, every job is the first time. You just figure it out, then build it right. And it’s projects like this one that reflect the company’s ethos: craftsmanship, problem-solving, and a landscape that’s meant to be used.
This article first appeared in the October 2025 issue of AQUA Magazine — the top resource for retailers, builders and service pros in the pool and spa industry. Subscriptions to the print magazine are free to all industry professionals. Click here to subscribe.
