Deck Poured

After going through a string of bad storms (thankfully with minimal damage), things finally dried up enough for them to pour our deck and retaining wall footers. I'm very happy with the appearance of the Ozark hand seeded aggregate. We wanted something very low maintenance and durable, but like the slightly different appearance of the light Ozark stones compared to the rainbow aggregate that is pretty common today on pools.

Here's a picture of the decking before they washed off the top layer of concrete:




I've heard not getting enough deck is a big complaint among pool owners, but I think we ended up with the right amount while still having an area for grass, so the kids and Harley can play. Here's a video showing the deck from our back porch:

Once they exposed the aggregate, we ended up with a nice color/texture, which is quite a bit smoother than we expected from a hand seeded finish. I'm happy there is just enough color to tie in the stone, and am impressed with their attention to detail around the edges and joints!










So, after today we are about a month ahead of schedule (knock on wood), and just lack the following:

Retaining walls
Flagstone steps
Pebbletec plaster
Cleanup
Landscaping/dog run railing

Hopefully we'll have water in a couple weeks!

Location:Saratoga Downs Ct,Fort Worth,United States

Deck Forms

The deck crew showed up today, and did a great job leveling things out and forming up the deck and retaining wall footers. With deck forms comes payment for 95% of the pool, but it doesn't look like we're 95% complete!

Here's a picture of one of our downspouts along with a retaining wall drain they put in. I was happy to see them put the extra effort to get these drains installed, since it should help keep the deck and pool nice, and prevent our flower beds from filling up with water.




The overall layout looks exactly like we expected it, and should be plenty of deck space.




Here's a video that shows the layout a little better.

Our superintendent said we should have an inspection Monday, and decks poured early next week, so hopefully we're a couple weeks away from water!

Location:Grandstand Way,Fort Worth,United States

Equipment

Today wasn't as exciting as the previous days, but we reached an important milestone...we now have pool equipment! The electricians came out yesterday, so the plumbers showed up today and finished installing the equipment. Here are a few shots to show how everything is set-up.

From left to right, we have the heater (400,000 BTU), a Jandy blower, a Jandy DE filter, and a Jandy ePump. We're hopefull the DE filter will provide exceptional clarity (not to mention less maintenance cost), and the variable speed ePump is supposed to be significantly more efficient than 2 speed pumps. We also added a salt system, but it's not clearly shown in the picture.

Assuming we passed electrical inspection requirements today, tomorrow the deck crew should be out to level things and install forms. Day 11, and things are progressing well!

Coping, Stone, and Electrical

The tile and coping crew was back out again today to wrap up coping and the stone around the hotub. Their work really is amazing, and very labor intensive. The coping is now mortared in, and was all hand chiseled for appearance. They used stones with a decent amount of character, so I think it turned out great. Here are a few pictures to show how things have improved over the past few days.










The stone work around the spa, is cut from rectangular milsap, and the fronts are chiseled to give it some texture. It's pretty interesting to watch them cut and piece everything together to such perfection. The finished product looks like it was laser cut for a spa kit, but each piece required 5-10 min of work to make it look so clean.













It's hard to believe none of this existed 10 days ago. We're hopeful they keep up the pace!

Stonework and More Plumbing

The crew was back yesterday for day 2 of stone and tile. They have all of the coping cut and ready to be set, and finished the perimeter of the spa.







The tile was also grouted, and came out much better than expected (we weren't sure about the color).




It's hard to tell from this picture, but the crew spent a lot of time getting the little tile details right (the stone is just sitting there - it's not mortared in).




The plumbers showed up as well to run pipe from the jets and returns, so we should have equipment on Monday.

Tile and Coping

Today we were surprised to see the tile and coping crew out. The stone work is some of the best I've seen (and I'm pretty picky), so hopeful the same guys will do the retaining walls. It's amazing how much skill goes into dry stack appearance walls; really would be nice to have those skills!










A few more days of this, and it will start looking like a pool!

Gunite

Yesterday morning we started with a pool full of water, but our superintendent assured us it could be pumped out for gunite.




Sure enough, the gunite crew showed up, and did a great job!

We have to keep the shell watered down, but expect tile, coping, and equipment today!

Ready for Gunite

It's been a crazy few days (sprinkler repairs, foundation experts, and jury duty), but we have steel and plumbing ready for gunite! Grace asked when they were going to put water in, and ironically God helped with that today, but hopefully tomorrow we will officially have a pool shell!

Here are some pictures of the steel, which was put in Monday:







In case you're curious the steps aren't missing, they just don't get the same steel as the shell:




Tuesday they installed plumbing as well, and we should have passed inspection for that today, so we're making good progress:







The yard is a real mess, but the neighbor's sprinkler system is running again, so everyone is pretty happy today!




One other loss was our main flower bed, but that should be easy to repair:




We've almost made it through the first week of construction, so we're anxious to see how things progress over the next few weeks!

Excavation - This Time for Real

Day 2 of excavation was even more exciting than day 1. We had a flower bed bumped, and the neighbor's sprinkler system knocked out, but after setting up a temp watering system and bringing in a smaller backhoe they completed the dig!

Here are a few pictures showing the progression:

Staking and forms...



Initial digging...



The digging continues...



Ready for steel...



Weather permitting we should have a gunnite shell by Wednesday!

Excavation

"Take today's date, and mark a day 2 months out on your calendar. That's the worst case timeframe for pool construction..." -Robertson Pools

Today we marked our calendars for a July 6, 2011 pool completion date (we'll cross our fingers for July 4th), so we'll see if our pool contractor knows what he's talking about! We have been planning on getting a pool for 5 years, so as the excavation crew arrived this afternoon, it was hard to believe the planning was over. As much as I love construction projects, seeing our front yard getting trampled on, and reassuring our neighbor that their house wouldn't get taken out in the process was a challenge!

On to the fun part...pictures of our progress!

Here is a before and after comparison of the front yard (note the ruts and fence down in the second picture):

The backyard has been painted for a few days, but our big project last weekend was moving the swingset and playhouse out of the way (much thanks to Grandpa and Papa for helping get that done). I thought the backyard looked pretty bad before the crew came, but by the end of today, it was significantly worse!

Although the crew didn't get farther than taking down the fence and pre-grading a fairly level area for the decking, here are a couple shots that show the mess a bobcat and a few hours can make:

Since we don't have more to show yet, here's a rendering of what we expect the finished product to look like...we can hope :-)