Big thank you to TFP and fellow posters...it helped me so much this summer while we were designing the pool and picking materials. We've been in the house almost 6 years, and finally decided end of May to put in a pool and spa. We have a really small backyard with an 8 ft. easement from the back fence that we couldn't get changed because of utility lines, especially the 2" gas line that was placed 7 feet or a little more into the 8 ft. easement. Soooo..that meant a very small pool. BUT, we compromised and did a nice-size Ultimate Spa. After reviewing bids, we signed with CastleRock Pools in Katy, Tx. at the end of August. We wanted to wait until the worst of hurricane season in September was over to start the build, and luckily we did. Avoided cleaning up a pool mess after Hurricane Ike.

Our pool build has already started, so I'll have to catch up with one big post on the progress so far. We've been moving very quickly since the pool layout on Oct. 8, excavation on Oct. 9th, steel, plumbing, etc. Got the gunite on Oct. 14. Moving right along. Very happy so far with the work, the workers and the company. Our PB has been very easy to deal with, and made accomodations for some special glass tile (Oceanside Glasstile) and travertine moldings I wanted to use, and ordered separately from Materials Marketing. I'm also using tumbled natural stone 3x6" tiles on the raised bond beam, and shellstone on the coping. Aqua Blue PebbleSheen for the interior. Stamped concrete deck. The tile I ordered held us up just a little, but it's in now, and will be installed next week. It all came in much sooner than I thought it would. The travertine moldings in one week, and the Oceanside tile in less than two weeks.

The plan and drawing:





The columns on the raised bond beam are larger now. 30" x 30", with 12" waterfalls or Florida Falls at the top. The raised bond beam is 12" on either side of the columns, and 18" in the center with a pool bench between the columns. Natural gas fire bowls will sit on top of the columns. Yes, we are crazy. It's official. The fire bowls to be fitted with gas fire rings:



The mini-backyard (Why didn't I buy a house with a bigger back yard? My neighbor could literally build a baseball diamond in his) :



That yellow stripe on the pic below? Oh, yeah...that's the gas line, and a main one for the neighbors so no moving it. Hello, even smaller kiddie pool. Oh, well...at least it's not where we'll be putting plants.



Sooo....one weekend before Hurricane Ike hit on Sept. 12th-13th, my husband decides he wants the palm trees delivered. Good Call! Actually it worked out OK. The queen palms blew right over, but we had a couple neighbors help put them back up. They're fine now. These are all 'befores'.



My one 4ft. Medjool Date palm...the only one I could afford, but was determined to get. I joke that at a 4-inch a year trunk growth rate, it's going to look really great by the time I'm 70 or so.



Pygmy Dates:



Pool layout October 8th:





CastleRock helped us make use of every available inch of space, and still have some deck and small outdoor kitchen space for later.



Excavation October 9th:









Framing:





Saturday Oct. 11th: plumbing, electrical, equpment pad, etc:







Spa Pipe:





Sunday 12, Monday 13th, Steel:

Ooops...wrong steel. We contracted for 1/2 inch steel, and some of this was 3/8. They used what they had, and exchanged the smaller steel for more 1/2 inch.











Spa plumbing:







Equipment started:



Gunite done Tuesday Oct. 14:

Rained like crazy starting at about 4:30 am. Got a break in the weather and they did gunite from noon until about 4:00. Didn't get pics of them doing the gunite..I was at work. Modern Method Gunite did a really great job.





My big mudhole. Those poor guys tromped around and worked in this stuff for the last 2 weeks. It's almost dry now:



Spa Jets:



More equipment:



Some pipes in the spa were out of place. It's getting fixed next week before the tile. It's hard to tell here, but the spa spillover is a negative edge. There will be glass tile on the 6-inch spa waterline, and continuing over the spillover edge down to the waterline.



Mmmm...that beautiful algae-green color "come on in, the water's fine"




Sorry for the one big catch-up post...we'll start the tile next week. I'll take a picture of all the materials and post it later. I also have a diagram we drew up of how the materials go on the raised bond beam to post later. I'll also work on my signature to put in all the specs and equpment. Enjoy, guys!

Looks awesome!

Thank you! I'm so excited about this build, and the materials. I'm constantly looking at all the tiles and moldings spread out on the floor and put together. I'm a natural materials junkie...I love an Old World look.

Just wanted to qualify something I overlooked...the tile order delay was my fault, not Materials Marketing. Life, hurricanes, etc. got in the way. Doranne Frugoni at MM worked with me on the tile and travertine moldings, and was awesome. Highly recommend them. You walk in and it's tile, etc. heaven. I wanted to order some of everything there. Very glad I went to them for my tile and travertine orders. Trust me, my husband had to drag me out, reminding me that I was only there *for now* for the pool. Dang.

I knew that I wanted to use glass tile for part of the build..researched a lot before I finally decided. I looked at Lightstreams...they're such great people to work with, and it's beautiful tile. Art glass, truly. So unique. They sent me samples, and I hemmed and hawed. Decided in the end to go with more earth-tone colors in keeping with the house, so Oceanside was what I finally went with. It's also in the art glass category. You have to see it in person to believe it. It's called "Coppertone" and it's a 1" x 2" mosaic blend tile from their Tessera collection. I'll get a pic up next week. You have to see it installed, I think. I had put aside extra money for the tile and moldings, because using them was the most important thing to me. Didn't want to look back in a couple of years and be sorry I didn't budget this gorgeous stuff into the project. Oceanside's website: http://www.glasstile.com/default2.aspx? ... intro.html

Looks great so far! I can't wait to see it when it's done. The Artists conception looks great and I bet it will look even better in real life.

I'm just wondering how they are planning to correct the piping in the spillover? Looks like they will have to beak some of the Gunite on the spa.

Adam

Pisces,

It looks great. I'll be following your progress.

Hey Pisces,

I happy to finally get a look at your pool build . I love the design and ya'll did a great job getting it all squeezed in there. Did you have any trouble with the city and the 10' build line? They made my neighbor move his spa (after the steel was in) so the coping was 10' (even though the easement was 8') from the property line. They told us the water line had to be at 10'.

It looks like they are making great progress. You should be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner sitting in the ultimate spa.

Good luck and keep those pictures coming.

Hi Pisces,

Great progress!

I just can't wait to see those fire bowls fired up!

Keep the pix coming!

Launboy: Brent @ CastleRock has a nice design program. I knew what I basically wanted, told him and he came up with a drawing. He did an octagonal spa to go with the lines of the pool. And we have to talk to them today about repairing that place in the spa. I was surprised by that one and I know concrete has to cure before you put tile on it. So it may push our tile install back. I'm ok with that...I just want it done right. I know I can't swim until next May, so I'm not in a huge hurry to finish the details. It'll work out.

Landmark: Thanks! It's such a small area, it's about all we could get back there. Can't answer your question, just know we got the permit and they built it. I'll keep up with the pics, definitely.

Butterfly: LOL!! Oh, man...I can't decide if it's Las Vegas or Roman bacchanalia. Maybe a little of both! I'd love to do the remote control automatic lighters for the firebowls, but that kit is way expensive. Way. It'd be a really cool way to surprise people who didn't know they were fire bowls. *snicker*. I'm nuts.

Hi Eggman! I just realized I left you out...sorry! Lots going on around here today. Halloween stuff. I've enjoyed watching your pool build, too! Thanks!

Halloween pool picture: Mr. Scary Pumpkin...Scary, Jr. and their Evil Minions.



And now for something REALLY scary: EVIL POOL WATER...EWWWWWWW...Gah-ROSS!!



GAG!!!



HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY!!

Hey Pisces. Any progress on the pool? Hopefully the rain this week didn't set you back much.

Landmark, we've been a little stalled. Weather this week kept CR from fixing the spa...they have to move the hoses and repair the gunite on the spillover. Not sure exactly how that'll be done..I'm sure some of the gunite has to be chipped out. Our holdup has been the tile and moldings, etc. we're using. CastleRock recommended we use another tile company who's experienced with our materials, Pool Services Unlimited. OK by me! I definitely want it installed right instead of yesterday, ya know? They made a good judgement call on it, and we've been negotiating PSU's bid for the work thu the PB. Don't ever use glass tile, etc. unless you want to pay out the wazoo GEEZ. Oh, well...I knew that already and I wouldn't have been as happy without it. At this point, I could raise the extra funds by holding a mud-wrestling contest in the back yard.

Cisco with Pool Services also found us a better size coping, and brought it out yesterday for approval. That guy knows his materials. Master Tile didn't have the 12x18 size we needed, so we went with a different company. It's still a travertine coping, and actually it looks better than the "shellstone" at MT. That got ordered yesterday, and the tile guys want to start next week, probably Wednesday if the spa gets fixed. I'll put up some materials pics a little later.

We got started this week on the tile and coping...yay!! We're using Pool Services Unlimited for this...Cisco Velasco oversees their field operations...and gave us his best crew. I had originally picked out a shellstone coping, but they didn't have the size we needed, so Cisco found me a much prettier coping - Durango travertine. Thank you, Cisco! It's perfect. They're doing an awesome job...very precise and knowledgeable. I'm so impressed.

Our materials: Durango travertine coping, a double-glazed waterline tile from Master Tile (their Latina series), 3x6 natural stone quarry tiles, 7/8" pencil rail and 2" travertine chair rail moldings from Materials Marketing in "Carmel" Serpentino Classic, and Oceanside glass mosaic tile in "Coppertone" 1x2's. I used an enhancer/sealer on the travertine moldings to bring out the colors and give them a slight sheen. All the natural stone and grout will be sealed with Dry Treat Stain-Proof sealer. $$$ but worth it, especially with a salt water pool. The glass tile is irridescent, so it changes and flashes with varying light conditions. The cream and amber glass tiles in the mosaic are translucent.





I set up this little enhance project in my kitchen last Monday night:





Finished the pencil rail moldings around midnight, happy with the results:





Chair rail moldings done Tuesday night, getting ready for install:





Here is the raised bond beam diagram we drew up for the tile guys to go by:





I'll post some pics of the tile installation later today.....

Thursday 11/20/08: Started on waterline and coping....







Good match on the waterline and coping..I got lucky. I really wanted a slick, glazed tile for the waterline instead of stone - easier to scrub off any deposits.








Friday 21st...started raised bond beam and repaired the vanishing edge on the spa:









Saturday 11/22: More tile....









I'll take and upload more pics tomorrow...got dark on me. They got a lot more done today, and will be back on Monday.

Awesome colour on the tile Pisces. The whole pool looks to be something extra and I can't wait to see the finished product
Is there any reason why you put the tile without space in between the plates? Or is it common to do so with pool tiles.

Thank you, Henry! I was just looking at your pool build...wow! I'll post over there in a few minutes. I'll try to answer your question as best as I can (I don't know a lot about installing tile myself)...for aesthetic reasons the tiles are fairly close together, and will be grouted next week. Waiting for it to all dry. I think it looks better with this type of natural stone (not perfectly straight on an edge..rounded a bit). The tile guys are so excellent, I just let them go - they know how best to treat each type of stone or tile...I really like this look instead of larger grout areas. But yes, on some tiles I've seen larger grout lines. It varies a lot from pool to pool and installer to installer. These areas won't be constantly subjected to water...just splashing.

All the travertine and stone tile is up except the 2" chair rail that goes on top of the columns above the glass tile strip. The tile guys are floating that area for glass tile, as well as the inside of the spa and spillover to make it watertight and smooth, and to make the glass face level with the PebbleSheen underneath so one doesn't stick out farther than the other (in the spa). The spillover is being floated out again today to make all the angles correct. They'll put a preliminary white thinset (?) material on for the glass tile areas and let all that cure until next week. It's a real process to prep gunite for glass tile. They're doing it right, though, and that's what counts. Really enjoying watching this part of the build. Pics from yesterday:

Pisces,

I hope all is well. Do you have any pictures of the finished product? I can't wait for the temperature to stay warm long enough to warm the pool. Have ya'll been using the spa? We were until the water to cold to heat up quickly. It has been taking about 1-1/2 hours to reach 98.

We are looking for a landscaper now. The PB found a leak in the whirlpool jets that should be fixed this week.

Hi, Landmark. Hope you get your spa leak resolved quickly...I know you've enjoyed the spa...heating it in winter, tho..$$$!

Our tile and coping was finished by the Monday after Thanksgiving (should have posted the pics but got too busy)...nice job done by Pool Services Unlimited..very professional. Things slowed up a lot in December. InCrete of Houston will be doing our stamped concrete deck, and they formed the deck weeks ago. Holidays, weather, vacations and the inspection process has caused some delay in finishing up (normal for the holidays)... now we're beyond ready to get the deck poured on Friday. Been some dragging of feet lately, but hopefully we're back on track this week . At least it's middle of winter, and no inclination to swim. But yes, getting in a warm spa would have been nice! All is well...it'll happen soon enough and it's given the glass tile plenty of time to cure before we put water on it. Really happy with the look of the pool so far. Here are the tile pics...will post deck pics when we pour.


Hours of prep work to level and ready the columns, spa and negative edge for glass tile and coping











Completed tile work: