Backyard retreat

Dean Jones and Larissa Holtmyer Jones designed their pool house to make the most of its backyard setting.

Writer: Michael Morain
Photographer: Duane Tinkey

Dean Jones set up an office in his pool house and often finds himself gazing outside.

“I put my desk right next to the window,” he said, “so I can look up into the trees and out over everything” — the pool, the little gazebo for outdoor meals, the leafy backyard and the main house he shares with his wife, Larissa, in a quiet old neighborhood in central Ames.

It’s quite a view, and he owes at least part of it to carpenter ants.

When the Joneses bought the property in 2002, a simple shed stood at the south end of the pool. It didn’t house much more than a shower, a bathroom and a sauna. The family eventually decided to expand it, until they discovered the damage from the ants.

So Dean, who works in commercial roofing, went back to the drawing board and gradually sketched out a plan for the lofty, sunlit pool house the family now enjoys year-round.

There were some constraints. Due to neighboring easements, the new building couldn’t extend any wider than the old one, about 14 feet, and it faced north, away from the sun.

“I did some 3D drawings myself, and it got cramped,” Dean said. “And without a solid wall of windows, it was never going to be bright.”

After he had a rough plan, he enlisted an architect to draft blueprints for a 945-square-foot building with a lofty 12-foot vaulted ceiling, two sliding doors and 10 big windows that let in lots of light.

The next challenges were legal. Jones took a deep dive into the building code and eventually persuaded the city to classify the new building as a pool house rather than a secondary dwelling. According to the fine print, secondary dwellings have four basic criteria: a bathroom and dedicated spaces for sleeping, dining and meal preparation. But if there’s no stove, then the building isn’t technically a dwelling.

That was just fine with the Joneses. They could still use the building to host gatherings and overnight guests, who could sleep on the Murphy bed. And if those guests wanted to cook anything more than microwave popcorn, they could just trot over to the main house.

The family hired designer Tom Rosenfeldt, who lives east of Des Moines, to help choose the flooring, paint color, kitchen tiles and countertops, and other touches that unify the whole interior. He’d worked on some previous projects in the main house and already knew what the family liked. For the pool house, he found some botanical prints and helped Dean surprise Larissa with some framed photos she’d taken of the garden.

“I really wanted to create a connection between the indoor space and outdoor space,” Rosendfeldt said.

He and the Joneses hustled to finish the project in time for Carsen Jones’ high school graduation two years ago, when family and friends came in from out of town. They put the new space to good use and still do now, two years later.

“In the evening, it’s so beautiful when the lights are on,” Rosenfeldt said. “Looking in from the outside, it’s just a really cool space.”

The Joneses, including Larissa, Dean and Ellian, enjoy their backyard year round.

In the new pool house, Dean used wood from the previous building’s sauna to make the mantel, shelves and coffee table. The hardwood floor, botanical prints and natural palette emphasize the room’s connection to the outdoors.