So Jeff, how many Tutti-Fruiti Dolphins will fit in your acrylic river basement?
Well… Since you asked here was my plan.
This plan wouldn’t have worked at my Howell house since I had a walk out basement but would work on a house with a full basement.
Okay here was the design. Dig a moat 10’ wide and 12’ deep around the perimeter of the house. The exterior wall and floor of the moat will be poured concrete treated to be water proof. The interior wall will be formed by placing concrete columns every 20’ around the perimeter of the basement wall with a steel beam spanning the opening to support the house and be its new foundation. Each 20’ opening in the foundation of the basement will be filled in with an acrylic panel 10’ high with the remainder of the overall height taken up by a concrete sill and header. The moat will then be topped off with a retractable arched roof made of acrylic panels – this will allow light to come in without having to subject the dolphins to Michigan weather. Unless of course it is a nice summer day in which you retract the roof and allow them access to open weather.
Obviously the overall size of the moat will depend on the size of the house, but a guesstimate would be around 180,000 gallons. Given this size how many dolphins could be accommodated??? It might not be big enough for one. But you could try like 2 and see how it works out.
If I’m still bored and still avoiding doing actual work I may do some drawings detailing the design. If I do, I’ll post them.
