After our annual beach vacation in Sanibel, Florida a few weeks ago, Jo and I really wanted to keep the beach vibe around as long as possible. We pondered ideas for making a permanent sandcastle that wouldn't wash away, and realized that concrete was a great medium for just that. To let our concrete sandcastle really shine, we built it into a bird bath with water fountain, and it's a perfect reminder of our fun in the sun. And the whole project only cost about $50 to complete!

Concrete would be the star of this project, since it resembles sand so perfectly. We didn't want to build a bird bath completely from scratch, though, so we started with an inexpensive plastic bird bath. To cast the sandcastle, we searched high and low and finally found the perfect detailed sandcastle mold buckets.

The first thing we tackled was the base. Since this was to be a fountain as well as a birdbath, we needed a place to put a tiny little submersible fountain pump without it being completely covered by concrete. So we used cardboard to build a square frame with a hole in the middle for the pump, and a channel for the cord. We secured the cardboard to the base with packing tape so that the concrete wouldn't leak out from underneath.

We dry fitted to make sure that the outside wall was wider than the sandcastle mold, and the inner opening was smaller than the mold. That way the sandcastle would fit perfectly on top later.

To make a channel for the fountain tube later on, we needed a piece of stiff tubing to go down the middle of the sandcastle. I had a scrap of leftover PEX (plumbing pipe) that was perfect.

We drilled a hole in the top of the mold, large enough to accommodate the pipe, then put the pipe in, sticking out a little from the top. We used more packing tape to seal the gap and hold it in place.

Next it was time to get dirty and mix up some concrete! We got a bag of Quikrete High Strength Concrete Mix and an old bucket, and laid everything out on a covered work surface.

After mixing the Quikrete to a wet sandy consistency (not drippy or sloppy) we scooped it into the waiting sandcastle mold. We tamped it down into the crevices as best we could, and filled it to the tip top. Similarly, we filled the concrete frame, but only about halfway full, just high enough to clear the top of the pump.

Then we left everything to dry for a couple of days. The square base lifted off the rounded bird bath basin easily, and the cardboard peeled away with no problem.

The sandcastle, however, was a different story! The concrete and plastic were already separating at the very edges, so we thought it would be easy to remove.

But when it came to the spires, bricks, and finer points, it was really stuck. We used a knife and screwdriver to chip away at it, breaking off pieces of the mold as we went, finally revealing the perfectly imperfect sandcastle inside.

When the castle was free, we used a sharp blade to trim off the extra PEX at the top and bottom.

Next we spray painted the white plastic bird bath — both the basin and the stand — with gray spray paint. We did this for two reasons. First, we hoped that it would give the surface a little more "tooth" so that concrete would stick to it better in the next step. Second, we wanted it to be the color of concrete in case any of our coating chipped off later.

When the paint was dry, we put the pump in the middle of the basin and attached some tubing.

We laid the square concrete base on top, then added the sandcastle on top of that, feeding the pump tubing through the PEX and out the top.

Next we planned to add the finishing concrete to the basin and coat the bird bath. But we knew that the rocks that come in typical concrete would make it way too coarse for the look we wanted. So we just grabbed an old colander and sifted out the pebbles, leaving just the fine cement behind.

We mixed up the sifted concrete, a little wetter this time, and started scooping it into the basin.

We pushed the concrete up onto the square basin and over the edges, but did not touch the sandcastle, which we wanted to remain removable for easy pump access. We created gradual slopes along the edges of the basin, covering the sides as well. (We made sure not to put any concrete near the channel where the pump cord comes out.)

Similarly, we coated the pedestal portion of the bird bath, filling in the grooves a bit. We applied two coats here to get good coverage.

After sitting overnight to dry, we were delighted to see how much our concrete sandcastle looked like real sand!

The last step was to trim the pump tubing with a pair of scissors.

Then we put the two pieces together and set it near the pool.

We filled it with water, turned the pump on, and gasped with delight when we saw the water gurgle out and cascade down over the sandcastle!

This sandcastle fountain came out even better than we imagined, and we love seeing it as a reminder of our fun at the beach. Hmm, how many days is it until next year's vacation?