WILLIAMS POOL

January 2009

2009-01-16T09:41:00.004-05:00

We took a few pictures around New Year's Day so we could see if the shrubs looked any bigger than they were in the fall when we planted them. They have grown!

Swimming in December

2009-01-16T09:06:00.008-05:00

After Christmas, we heated up the pool for a few days and the boys swam in it a good bit. Jay and I enjoyed the hot tub but went in the pool a bit, too. Jay actually got in the pool for several hours working on cleaning off the tile. The calcium deposits from the stone grow on the tiles and have to be scraped off with muriatic acid and a scraper. Jay was probably in the pool more than anyone!

Leaves are falling!

2008-11-07T10:36:00.003-05:00

Leaves are falling and it keeps us busy scooping them out, cleaning out the skimmers but the vacuum runs around 24/7 doing the best job! The pool is too cold to swim in but the hot tub is amazing! We are in it several times a week and love it! Even with the leaves falling, we love it and it is not as hard as we thought it would be to maintain.

Propane Heater

2008-10-13T14:08:00.005-04:00

This weekend Jay put together a propane heater for us to use in the cooler weather. This is going to be great to have right there near the hot tub.

Jay has been home this past week and finished planting the rest of the shrubs and put out almost all of the wood chips around the shrubs. We still have some more chips to spread but that can be done at our leisure.

Thank goodness we had rain one day this past week because it gave us a break from watering everyday. We had not had rain for 20 days!

Saturday and Sunday

2008-09-29T17:54:00.006-04:00

Jay put more shrubs out around the spa and up the hill to the waterfall. Then he planted a few shrubs by the steps leading down to the backyard and I planted a few under some of the basement windows. Then came the mulch and it looks so much better every time we plant. We have planted tea olives, lugustrum, frost proof gardenias and Indian Hawthorne. I love the way he used some of our leftover waterfall rocks to build up and line the planting beds.

More shrubs and more steps!

2008-09-27T16:18:00.007-04:00

This past week we have planted about 40 more shrubs around the pool, the waterfall and the pump/filter. Then we decided we might like to have steps going around to the top of the spa and Jay bought 4 of the huge rocks that were used to make our other steps, brought them home and somehow manhandled them enough to get them perfectly level and set! It is really looking so much better now even though we still have a lot of shrubs left to plant, mulch to put out and sod to put down.

The water in the pool is pretty cool now but the spa is awesome! It heats up to 105 degrees and we have been in it almost every day.

Sod and Salt

2008-09-16T22:33:00.006-04:00

Today Jay and I laid 50 rolls of sod which equals to about 1 1/2 pallets. This was all we could get from the sod company and it kept us busy for a while. It looks so much better everytime we put down more sod or more shrubs. During the sodding, the pool man came by to give us an orientation on how to operate the pool, the remote to the pool, how to test the ph and chlorine and all kinds of stuff. We actually videoed it so we could refer back to what he said. It is a lot to learn. Then he put several bags of salt into the pool and some acid. We are not using chlorine but somehow the salt system turns salt into chlorine. I don't get it but it is a good thing and we are on board with it.

After the sod was down, we got some nice rocks and outlined a future flower bed. Then we picked up sticks and rocks in the rest of the yard.

THEN....we showered and got in the hot tub!!! Savannah and Jordan also got in and it feels absolutely wonderful!! Jordan came in right after football practice and Savannah did a quick change and got in, too. It was 100 degrees and amazing!!

The first big day at the pool

2008-09-14T18:44:00.000-04:00

Wednesday night Jordan got in the pool after dinner. It was the first night this week that it hasn't been raining or storming all week. Savannah and I bought floats at the pool store yesterday and couldn't wait to use them. The water feels good even though it is not heated yet. I turned the lights on so we could swim at night and loved the way it looked so much that I left them on for a while. I am posting a picture of this but it didn't turn out that great.

Thursday the pool company came and installed the cleaner or vacuum that will just run around and vacuum all the time. I wish I had one of these inside my house. They also installed the jets in the hot tub and did a few other things I cannot even understand or explain. The pool is looking more blue since most of the calcium has been vacuumed out now. It will get to the darker blue we want as the calcium finally gets filtered out.

On Friday, the pool service came out and brushed it again, checked a few valves, added a few chemicals and check the filters. Next week they will start the salt system and check it to make sure the ph is at a good level. Savannah had some friends over and wanted the hot tub to warm up but there is something not quite right with a valve so they will fix that on Monday. When you want to warm up the hot tub, it drains a little so that the warm water doesn't spill over into the pool, but it would not stop draining so we had to stop trying to warm it. Savannah and her friends enjoyed sitting out by the pool Friday afternoon and night even without the hot tub working.

Saturday we went to a reunion in Knoxville and didn't get to swim but Savannah and her friends swam and hung out by the pool for a little while. It is good to have a place for them to congregate on the weekends.

Today (Sunday) we did a little more yard work, stepping stones and mulch but then enjoyed the pool when we got hot. We had a lot of friends come over and swim and I am going to post photos of how a pool is supposed to look. Full of people having a great time! Jay loves jumping off the diving wall as much as the kids!

The yard is coming along each day and we are getting more sod on Tuesday. I will be posting pictures to update every few days to show our progress.

Day 27 - Inspection

2008-09-09T15:56:00.002-04:00

Today I was outside brushing the pool with the long pool brush to get rid of the calcium in it. The county inspectors came in to do their inspection for the barrier (fence) and the electrical and to make sure everything was done according to their county code. Earlier in the process, our pool builders had to move the pump behind the waterfall so I told the electrical inspector (who is picky and reportedly likes to fail people) that it had been moved as he had asked. He asked me if they had moved it back far enough and I said, "Surely they did....why would they want to do it again? That would be a lot of trouble!" He said he didn't have a tape measure with him and I told him I could get him one out of the house and he said, "Nah...surely they measured before they moved it" so .....I think we passed. Our pool builder said that since construction has slowed down they will fail you over and over just to keep charging the builder $25 or $50 per visit. The barrier inspector did give me a sticker which looks to be a seal of approval which tells me that we did pass the fence inspection. I didn't have the locks on the fence gates or the alarms on the doors from the house but I told him we had bought the locks. He asked me if I was going to put them on and I told him that we most certainly are going to put them on and then he handed me the sticker. They were nice and didn't seem to worried so I guess I will wait until I hear from the builder to see if we really did pass inspection!

The pool color is looking much better with each brushing. The calcium is white or yellow and when I move it around with the brush, the filters get a good bit of it. So the color of the pool is beginning to look more dark blue as planned. Also, our filter baskets were full of pine straw after the storm yesterday afternoon so at least I know they are working!

No photos yet today. It is very overcast.

Day 26 - Waterfall and Filters

2008-09-08T20:56:00.004-04:00

Early this morning the pool company came to make sure the waterfall works and to turn on the filters and skimmers. A pool maintenance person was also here to brush the plaster of the pool to get some of the calcium from the stones and plaster moving for it to be filtered out of the water. I noticed right away how you could see the difference in color. The calcium is a yellowish white powder and makes the pool look green instead of dark blue. I could also see more of the quartz specks in the plaster once it was brushed, too. The specks are supposed to be more and more evident as the water clears each day. They also showed me how to turn the waterfall on and off as well as the lights in the control box. The remote control hasn't been programed yet but when it is, I can do that from inside the house. Jets for the spa/hot tub are ordered and will be in soon and installed as well as the salt for the whole system. It should all be together by Monday! I really enjoyed planting a few more shrubs this afternoon by the waterfall. I had Savannah and Bruiser to keep me company until it started raining, thundering and lightning. Can't complain because our sod and shrubs need every drop of water they can get!

Day 25 - Planting shrubs and stepping stones

2008-09-08T05:35:00.012-04:00

This afternoon we had 39 shrubs to plant and several planting beds to make with top soil and sand. We got four beds tilled and planted 28 shrubs! The beds are beside the patio and beside the pool. We also planted 7 azalea bushes in random places on the hill behind the pool as well as some taller legustrum behind the waterfall to hide the pump and gardenias beside the waterfall. Jordan hauled wagon loads of shrubs and dirt and sand to us and put them by each work place for hours and then placed all the stepping stones leading from the patio to the pool. In order to make the stones look good, he used a long planting knife and hammer and kind of traced around each stone to cut the sod underneath it. Then he pulled that piece of sod out and planted it somewhere else in the yard and put sand underneath the stone. They look awesome and it was long and tedious work. Bruiser ran out of the house and sat in Jordan's lap for a while to encourage him. He had the whole fenced in back yard but preferred to sit with Jordan for a long time.

It got hot today and Jordan jumped in the pool several times to get cool. The chemicals are not in the pool just yet but it is okay to jump in and swim around for a little while. Jay did the same thing when we got completely finished. The three of us are exhausted from working so hard two days in a row! Savannah came home last night and today she and Ryan ran to Home Depot for us to get more stepping stones and bags of mulch. We mulched all the planting beds when we got finished today. It looks great! Lots more to do but we will focus on that at a slower pace now that we accomplished so much this weekend.

Day 24 - Sod

2008-09-06T21:19:00.008-04:00

With the pool finished and the fence installed, all we had to do was fill the pool. We started filling it yesterday at 12:20pm and at 3:30am today I went outside to see how it was doing. It was almost up to the sitting ledge under the waterfall so I went back to sleep and got up at 7am and saw it was a few inches higher. We had three hoses going into the deep end so it helped to speed things up. Jay woke up when I did and we looked out the window from our room for a while and then decided to get our coffee and go outside and watch it finish filling. We took Bruiser with us and he had a blast running around inside the fence. As we were sitting there this morning, we got to thinking about how we had laid sod before at our last house and thought we would make a few phone calls today to see if we could find some zoysia sod to put between the house and the pool to make walking out to the pool less messy and muddy. We found a place that had two palates left! Jay went to borrow our neighbor's trailer, Jordan and I started picking up sticks and rocks. When Jay got back about an hour later he started raking the dirt and we started laying sod. The three of us worked so hard for hours putting this sod down but it looked so great and made such a difference we didn't mind. When we finished we got cleaned up and went to dinner then to Lowe's to buy some sand, topsoil and shrubs while we still had the trailer. We bought 32 shrubs, 10 bags of sand and a pallet of topsoil and an awesome yellow wagon! So we got that all loaded at the store and unloaded at home and are hoping that we can plant all of that tomorrow.

We can't swim in the pool yet because they put acid in it today to get rid of the calcium that leaks out from the plaster and the stone. It will be darker once the calcium is all filtered out of it.

Monday the pool company is coming out to get everything turned on and started up! It would have been great to jump in there today while we were working so hard!

Day 23 - Filling the pool and finishing the fence

2008-09-05T19:34:00.015-04:00

After the plaster was done, they put a hose in the hot tub and a hose in the deep end. They wrap towels around the end of the hose so the water doesn't come out in a stream but more in a gentle spray. The hot tub filled up quickly and when the water got to the bottom of the tile, we had to move that hose to the deep end, too. It will hold approximately 18,000 - 20,000 gallons of water so we have a way to go. The color of the pool looks great and we see it getting darker, like we want it, as it gets deeper. We even moved some of the furniture down to the decking tonight!

Day 23 - Plaster and Fence

2008-09-05T11:02:00.013-04:00

Early this morning the pool plaster company showed up and started mixing up the plaster and quartz for the interior of the pool. We chose plaster and quartz because of the smoothness of its finish. They spray the plaster onto the walls of the pool with a hose that is attached to a macine on a truck. The machine has two men adding water and plaster into a mixer that is connected to the hose. The actual spraying doesn't take long at all . The most time consuming part of this job is how they continually smooth it with trowels, sponges and all kinds of tools. It goes from looking very rough to perfectly smooth. The plaster was mixed with gray powder and then salt and pepper quartz flakes were added. When we will the pool the water is naturally blue so the end result is a dark blue pool which is what we have been striving for all along. There are hundreds of combinations we could have chosen but we knew what we wanted all along as far as color. Communicating that to the plaster company is difficult because we don't know what combinations create what color so we had to do a lot of running around to look at other pools. We met some nice people who allowed us to scrutinize their pool colors!

A little later this morning the fence company showed up to start installing the fencing. They were here a few days ago putting the black chain link fence in the back of the yard where the school's fence leaves a big opening. We closed this off because codes mandates that the whole area be fenced when you have a pool. This is also good to keep people from occasionally cutting through our back yard during school events. However, the fence going up today is the pretty black steel fence. We got the "puppy pickets" which are closer together since Bruiser is so little that he could possibly escape through the regular size pickets. It will also help keep other critters out of the yard. I think we have had deer nibbling on some of our shrubs in the past and I have heard coyotes in the middle of the night.

Day 22 - Odds and Ends

2008-09-04T16:51:00.005-04:00

Yesterday afternoon and today Jay and I have been running around to visit pools to find the color we want ours to be. We had this all picked out already but due to a manufacturer's problem with plaster dye, we had to pick out another way to get to the color we want it to be. We found our color today and are happy with our decision.

Meanwhile, back at home, the crew was installing something called mastic into the crevice between the coping and decking. It looks like a silicone caulk but they put several layers of it in the crevice then cover it with sand making it appear to be like grout. This is to keep water from seeping through to the decking from the coping. Who knew?

They also had to pump out the standing rain water that was still in the pool to get it ready to plaster tomorrow. A few more adjustments and we will be ready for plaster! You will notice that Jay likes to keep an eye on things down by the pool. I am so glad he does this, too!

Day 21 - Sealing and Grading

2008-09-03T19:24:00.011-04:00

Today three dump trucks of dirt were brought in to fill in a couple of areas but mostly for the other half of our backyard. This dirt was graded to smooth out the lumps and bumps from having stumps taken out of the yard, too. A long trench was made along the back of the yard to help with runoff water from rain. The cement decking was power washed today, then blown dry and sealed. It looks so good and you can really see the difference the sealing makes in the pictures. Even though it appears shiny, they mix sand in with the sealant to keep it from being slippery. Before they sealed it they cut expansion joints into the decking to make sure the cement doesn't crack after settling. If it has to expand or crack, the expansion joints will take the stress of that. We love the way the stamped concrete looks with the stone! It's also nice to see the yard graded and smoother!

*These pictures were taken at two different times of day, so the colors look different. I wish I had been at home when they were cutting the expansion joints because that was an intricate task.

Stamping the Concrete

2008-09-02T11:53:00.011-04:00

After the second color was thrown out and spread onto the damp concrete, they laid rubber mats face down with a design onto the surface and tamped them down with a special tool to put the design in the concrete which makes it look like rock. There are two types of mats. One is a large square mat and goes on the interior of the decking and the other is a smaller rectangular one that goes around the edge of the decking.

This is the final step for today. Tomorrow they will seal the finish.

Coloring the Concrete

2008-09-02T11:01:00.011-04:00

The second cement truck came and delivered the last bit of concrete for the section by the hot tub. Then the crew just smoothed all the concrete to a glass-like finish then took bags of color and threw handfuls of it on the wet concrete. This first color is the base color. Another color will be added later right before they put the rubber stamps on the concrete. I had no idea that to color the concrete you just get handfuls of colored powder and through it out on the surface. It looks great though so they must know what they are doing!

An hour later...cement truck arrives!

2008-09-02T10:02:00.010-04:00

The first truckload of cement is here and is being poured. Jay and I sat on the deck and watched them work. It is a fast and furious procedure! Another cement truck is on its way to finish up the concrete near the hot tub. Later today, it will be colored then stamped.

Day 20 - Pouring the Concrete Decking

2008-09-02T09:11:00.003-04:00

Early this morning the cement crew came out to build the foundation for the concrete. Here's a photo of the footings before the concrete was poured:

Day 19 - 17 Big Rocks = Steps

2008-08-30T18:22:00.004-04:00

Today they put in the rock steps leading to the backyard. These rocks are so big and heavy that each one had to be lifted with a forklift attachment on the Bobcat and put into place, then hand placed to get them even. There will be sand or dirt put between the rocks next week. We have needed steps for a long time and these are great. 17 big rocks!

Day 18 - Back at work after the rain

2008-08-29T14:43:00.001-04:00

After five days of rain and two days of sun, the ground was dry enough today to move some dirt around and start grading the back yard. They did a bit of grading then the cement man came and we spray painted the lines where the cement decking will be poured. This has been a hard decision to make but after a lot of spray paint, drawings and brain storming we made our decision. Once we got the orange spray paint down, they hammered stakes into the ground to see how to move the dirt to build up that area. A berm is also going to be built to direct any future rain run-off away from the pool area so dirt has to be moved in order to build that up and make it work. We decided to not put a sidewalk to the pool from the patio under the deck because in the future we want to rebuild the deck and possibly have the steps coming down on the pool side of the deck instead of the side of the deck.

Today we also decided where to put the steps coming down from the driveway to the backyard. For county codes, our fence gate will have to be installed to swing open away from the pool so we have to build a landing at that point. There will be several stone steps but we decided against a cement sidewalk leading to the pool from the steps and are going to use stepping stones instead.

The fence will be put up on Thursday, Sept 4! We are excited about that!

The plaster color for the inside of the pool is and has been one of our biggest concerns on this project. The color of the water is a huge visual effect and we want it dark but not too dark. This is our next hurdle to jump!

August 28

2008-08-28T16:41:00.001-04:00

The sun has been shining all day today so hopefully everything is drying up and some actual work can be done tomorrow on our backyard. We have had over 6 inches of rain since Sunday night.

Water In The Pool

2008-08-25T19:30:00.001-04:00

Since we have had a few inches of rain, that means we have a few inches of water in the pool. Jordan took this time to go fishing in his own backyard!

Monday, August 25....waiting

2008-08-25T09:29:00.000-04:00

We have hit a lull in our progress with all the rain that Hurricane Fay is supposed to bring us. We had a lot of rain yesterday and are supposed to have more in the next few days. Because of this the yard cannot be graded since it is so muddy. If they can't grade the yard, the footings for the concrete cannot be built and the concrete cannot be poured and colored and stamped. Right now it looks like the concrete will not be started until Friday. We were hoping to be in the pool by Labor Day which was a very fast paced deadline but it looks like that not happen. We also have to get the fence up before we fill the pool (county ordinance) but before that the pool has to be plastered.

I saw the county inspector come by this morning at 9am. He looked around the pool for a few minutes to make sure the wiring, electrical and gas lines are all up to code and then he left. Maybe that is a good sign. I would have never known he was here if Bruiser hadn't alerted me to him. That is another box to check off, passing inspection.

So to make a long story short: the rain needs to come and go, the backyard needs to be graded, the the cement footings built and the cement poured, colored and stamped, the fence has to go up and the pool has to be plastered and filled. Not a lot of things but ones that have to be done in the right kind of weather.

Saturday, August 23 - Picking out cement!

2008-08-25T09:14:00.000-04:00

Today is a very overcast day, looks like it could rain at any minute. Hurricane Fay is supposed to bring us some rain over the next couple of days so the work has stopped. The plaster for the pool and the concrete cannot be done or even started with rain in the forecast. The fence still has to go up, too. We picked that out yesterday and are happy with our choice.

We picked out our concrete color and design today and are going with a stamped concrete that is the color of our stone. After walking around in the mud spray painting where we think we want our decking to be poured, we still cannot make up our minds. We finally went out and sat in the spa to get a better feel for what we think we need. We came up with the idea that we really don't need sidewalks coming from the driveway to the pool or a sidewalk coming from the patio to the pool. One day we are going to redo the deck on the back of the house and may have steps pointing toward the pool and we would not want to cover up sidewalk if that is the case. We are going to do flagstones or some type of paver for a walk way to the pool. Another question is trying to figure out where we need the most decking. Is it at the shallow end? In the middle? Do we need any at the deep end? Just questions that we have to find an anser for in the next few days. We don't want to go over budget either!

Day 17 - Stone is finished! Waterfall is finished! Coping is finished!

2008-08-22T20:54:00.000-04:00

Today was a day for completing alot of things! The coping which was mortared down yesterday was finished today and grouted. The waterfall was completed with the smaller rocks and the coping is completely finished around the top of the wall, around the spa and around the pool. The steps were also finished today - they are actually huge rocks cut to form steps to go around the left edge that leads up to the top of the wall. There will be a concrete area up there for jumping into the pool.

There was a minor emergency today. One of the sprinkler system lines was cut and Jay and the crew had to run around and figure out where to turn the water off. This was cut when they were digging the trench to run the electrical lines. The gas line was also put in today for the pool and spa heater. Later the stump grinder came and ground up the remaining stumps, too. We have had a busy day in our back yard today!

They also grounded the electrical wires onto the wire around the pool on the ground. You have to have at least this much concrete decking around the pool. We are having more decking than this but for some reason, this is all the wire they had to put down today for the codes inspection.

Next week we are supposed to get some rain from Hurricane Fay and that was when our concrete decking was supposed to be poured and stamped. We will probably have to wait until Friday to get that done if the weather forecast is correct as we see it now.

These pictures are amazing to us considering that 16 days ago, our yard just had a few trees cut down.

Day 16 - Wall is finished, Spillway added to waterfall!

2008-08-21T20:26:00.000-04:00

Today they finished the wall and tomorrow the coping will be added to the top! The spillway was added to the waterfall where it will fall into the pool from the wall. The coping is all laid out around the pool and it is supposed to be finished tomorrow. Hopefully the stone will be all done tomorrow! Today these small completions made such a big difference! We also made a decision about our fencing today and we have to get that completed before we can fill up the pool.

**Sorry about the blurry photo of the waterfall. By the time I realized how bad it was, it was too dark outside to take another photo. I will redo it tomorrow!

Day 15 - Waterfall, steps, stone and coping

2008-08-20T16:20:00.000-04:00

Today has been very exciting because they started building the waterfall! It looks amazing and it is not even finished yet! The stone wall is farther along and looks beautiful. Some of the coping around the spa is being "glued" down today as well. It looks like the stone guys are also hammering and chipping up stones to put in the waterfall. They start building it first with a long rubber mat and then add the big stones and flat rocks. Later they will add smaller stones to it. Today the steps on the left side to go up to the jumping wall are being built. These are huge flat rocks that are cut and put into place. They started the steps but as they were turning into pie shaped steps, Jay had them change it to make the steps more rectangular and with a landing. Much safer!

Day 14 - Coping

2008-08-19T19:20:00.000-04:00

Today they started putting the coping around the hot tub first. They arrange it just like puzzle pieces, then they mark and measure and cut and place it around the edge. A lot of the coping around the hot tub/spa and the pool was pieced together today but is not "glued" down yet. It is just sitting on the edge and still being worked around like puzzle pieces.

They also made some progress with the stone wall, too. It is a slow process but interesting and amazing to watch! We can see it really coming together, too.

How It All Begin

2008-08-19T17:26:00.000-04:00

These are the computer designed drawings that we started the design process with at the builder's office. It was fun to see this on a screen first. You can add this, take away this and all with the click of a mouse. It helps to see it on a screen or on paper first.

Day 13 - Moving dirt, stumps and getting deliveries of big rocks!

2008-08-18T17:12:00.001-04:00

Today is Monday and the stone people didn't come out today. The pool builders are back to do some grading on the yard. You can see that they moved a lot of dirt back behind the back wall. They also pulled up some stumps and this really made the yard look different. We still have a few more stumps that will be ground up in a few days. Jay went to the Stone Forest today to show the stone guys and the pool guys what he wants the water fall to look like. When you look at these pictures you will see the two big rocks on the wall and that is where the water will fall into the pool off the wall and into the pool. The stream/waterfall will come down the hill at an angle so as you are looking at the pool from our house it will start on the left side of the hill and end up between the two big rocks on the pool wall. (You can also see the rubber ground cover that will go under the rocks, etc. The waterfall rocks were delivered today and they are beautiful and big! We have learned that these rocks come from all different parts of the U.S. The flat ones for the coping are from Oklahoma. The rocks on the wall and hot tub are called Tennessee Stack Stone.

Day 12 - More stonework

2008-08-18T16:10:00.001-04:00

Day 12 - We didn't get to see much work today because we took Josh to Knoxville to move into his dorm! We got home very late and went out to check it out but it was too dark for pictures. Here are 2 pictures that I took later of the progress of the day! You can see a little more stone up on the wall and around the hot tub. You can also see the spillover rock on the hot tub and some of the coping in place around the top of the hot tub.

Day 11 - Evening

2008-08-15T19:19:00.000-04:00

These pictures were taken at 7pm tonight. We are very happy with the results so far!!

Day 11 - Stone

2008-08-15T14:00:00.000-04:00

These photos were taken at 2pm. Putting the stone up is a slow and methodical task. They take each stone and hammer it to a certain size. It is very interesting to watch!

Day 10 - Evening of Tile Day

2008-08-14T18:33:00.000-04:00

After the tile was all done, they started putting the stone on the wall. It looks great! I cannot wait to see how much they get done it tomorrow. They just ran out of time today! The first of these pictures was taken at 5pm and the last one around 6:15pm.

Day 10 - Afternoon of Tile Day

2008-08-14T13:37:00.000-04:00

Around 1pm, our first load of stone was brought in and as some of the workers finished up the tile, cutting pieces of it to go around various drains and pipes, another worker started unloading the stone. Jay is out of town and I had to go over what color, size and shape with Noetis to make sure we didn't have too many little stones or too many big stones, too many dark ones, too many light ones and we don't dare want any pink or orange ones. I am on pins and needles because he is going to go ahead and start the wall. I hope I communicated well but in broken English, Noetis told me that if there is anything I don't like, he can fix it. So for the rest of the afternoon I will probably be looking out the window watching each stone go up making sure it is "just right".

A few more pictures....

Day 10 - Tile

2008-08-14T11:55:00.000-04:00

Today the tile is going on the pool! This is exciting because it is the first thing (other than the design) that we have picked out. The tile will be at the water level around the pool and hot tub.

Day 9 - A Day of Rest

2008-08-13T12:42:00.000-04:00

And on the 9th day, they rested. Seriously, it is too wet to put up tile today since we had some great rain last night. The slow part starts now...tile, stone, coping, building a wall and a waterfall, decking and moving dirt around. If you look inside the pool you can see the built in seat that will go from under the waterfall (middle part of back wall and to the right of that tall pipe standing straight up in the back) to the hot tub. Then you can see how the pool starts out shallow and has a large sloping shelf or step. From there, it has another step to get closer to the center of the pool. The first shelf will be a place where you can sit in a chair in the water or a great place for little kids to wade out into the water.

Here are the photos of how it looks today, sitting there all alone....just waiting on the next phase.

Day 8 - At then end of the day

2008-08-12T17:03:00.001-04:00

At 4pm it started sprinkling rain and gradually built up to a soft summer rain by 5pm. These are the pictures of how the pool looked at the end of the day on Gunite Day!

Day 8 - Gunite Day!

2008-08-12T12:38:00.001-04:00

This morning the concrete trucks rolled in and they started blowing gunite (some form of concrete mixture) into the dirt whole we so lovingly call "our pool". It is an interesting process and I took a few videos of it, along with photos. You can see the form of the pool taking place after they do some smoothing with their trowels and tools. I also took a video where you can see that I was filming the spraying of the wall, then I panned over to look at the hot tub and the cement coming out of the truck. While I was doing that, a portion of the wall fell and when I pan back to the wall you will see the part that fell. They let it dry for a while and then fixed it.

Day 7 - Back to work

2008-08-11T11:23:00.000-04:00

Back to work bright and early on Monday, our crew came in with the steel to install which I guess is something you do before you pour concrete. I cheated and started taking pictures early in the day today instead of at the end of the day, but Jay is out of town and I wanted him to see what was happening all day.

Day 6 - Plumbing

2008-08-09T22:15:00.000-04:00

Today was a slow day but a very important one. The pool company has been doing our plumbing all day long. They also built some kind of wall where our tall rock wall and waterfall will be located. Tomorrow is Sunday so there will not be any word done but next week the concrete will be poured. I am hoping for great weather!

Day 5 - Major changes!

2008-08-08T19:38:00.000-04:00

Today the pool builders made some major changes to our back yard. After using a couple of big machines and then some hand tools we can see the pool taking shape. It looks just like the pool design except it is total dirt. We enjoyed seeing this today and even ran around inside of it after dinner. Bruiser loves it! We all love it and Greg told us today that he hopes to have us in it by September 1. This afternoon Jay and I picked out the tile and then went to visit four pools to decide the color we want the coping, deck and interior of the pool. Lots of decisions but we knew exactly what we wanted when we saw it.

Day 4 - Trees gone, Pool builders start

2008-08-07T17:31:00.000-04:00

Finally on Thursday, 8-7-08, the tree job is coming to a close. They will still have to come back to grind the stumps but the trees are out of the way now. The pool builders brought their equipment to our yard last night so that they could get started today. Around 10am, the hole for the pool began to take shape but then it looks like they filled it back up. They pushed dirt around for a while and toward the end we could see that they have shaped the tall wall (what we call the "jumping in wall") and have put in wood stakes to mark it. Then they begin to measure and put a frame around the edge of the pool. Weather changed and we got some rain, thunder and lightning at 1:15pm and after a while the workers had to stop. To be in a level four drought, we get a lot of rain. Greg Randolph said this would settle the dust and they will be back tomorrow. Hopefully the stump grinders will be back soon to finish that part of the job, too. We are all so excited!!

Day 3 - Still taking down trees

2008-08-07T17:15:00.000-04:00

Day 2 of trees! We enjoyed watching this process. One man would climb the tree with a chainsaw, cut it in half, the others would direct where it fell. Then the bottom half would be cut down and the backhoe would pull the rope that was wrapped around the tree in the direction it should fall. The house almost shook from the weight of the trees hitting the ground.

Day 2 - Trees cleared

2008-08-07T17:04:00.001-04:00

We had to have 21 trees taken out of the back yard. These are the tallest pine trees we have ever seen. There was a storm last weekend that convinced us more than ever, that we need to get rid of these trees.

Day 1 - Spray painting the location of the pool

2008-08-07T16:52:00.000-04:00

Orange spray paint shows you where the pool will be located. We had to move it closer to the house due to a drainage easement on the back of our lot. The double orange circle is the hot tub/spa.