Spillmar - sounds like you've got it covered (pun intended). I watched our turf install and the prep work was the most intensive and longest part of the process - and of course the most important with proper packing and pitching of the DG. After that it kind of is like carpet - roll it out and nail it down on 4" square pattern. Ours was a bit easier though as we didn't have a lot of seams. I think the sand was a good choice for your application. It'll look great and function well for you I'm sure :thumbs up:

Thanks Carl. They begin the work today on the turf and should be done Monday. I will let you know.

Looking forward to the pics! I forgot to say that puffing the grass out from under the infill is a blast to watch - the spinning brush thing throws the infill everywhere.

Spillmar - any new pics?

So we got the volleyball court in. The dimension of the artificial grass court ended up at 56 ft x 27 ft. - a little smaller than tournament court, but fine for the recreational use intended.

For the net, I purchased some cheap in ground basketball sleeves and customized 3.5"x 3.5" steel posts with ratchets, pulleys and tie downs to make a height adjustable net for volleyball ball/tennis/badmiton which can be removed if needed. Anyway, it is starting to looking really nice back there as opposed to a dirt yard. My girls already found additional uses for the artificial grass area, including picnics and laying down and looking at the clouds. They love the fact that it does not itch and is warm and cozy. I'll try to post some pictures soon.

BTW - we found out unfortunately that rabbits can't tell the difference between real grass and artificial grass when it comes to nature's business. I went to a landscape store and they recommended a product called Rabbit Scram which is spread around the periphery. What I could not believe when reading the ingredients is that it is made of 65% dried rabbit blood. Aside from grossing me out and smelling horrible, it seems to work well.

This week we will finish the raised deck where the fountain is and the paver walkway connecting the courtyard to the pool. On Wed and Thursday the putting green goes in.

I also bought a lot of column/post lights which will be installed soon to give the area proper lighting.

Lastly, our new wrought iron gates to replace the cheap redwood gates put in by the builder arrive this week as well.

I'll try to post some pictures this week. All my best to the TFP community.

Here are a few pics of the work in progress as per my last post. I and a few laborers have done all the masonry work. The artficial grass was installed by a very nice chap specializing in such. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks again and best regards.

Here a couple more shots of the raised portion of the courtyard where a three tier fountain will go and a shot of the paver pathway to the pool deck. We install several iron side gates this week as well.

Looking great!

It's the NEVERENDING project. WOW!!!

Thanks Carl and XS.

It seems never ending but all the work had been planned for except for the raised courtyard. We originally had the courtyard at single elevation but the TFP community convinced me that was not attractive enough, too barren. The new design looks way better. So thanks to all for the great advice.

Yesterday we poured a stair to the pool from the paver path to the pool deck. I had planned to use some split face concrete step/riser blocks but it just stuck out like a sore thumb. Instead I bought some portland cement and mixed the color into the aggregate by hand and used the same foam for the coping so that it ties in well with the pool. If all goes well it should match the coping.

Today, I also will be working on the stairs to the sunken kitchen/grill area where the swim up bar is located. I decided to make a u entrance where you can enter from all sides and descend into the sunken kitchen/grill area. I'll be using the split face step/risers here since they are not in the same visual plane as the coping.

I am excited about today's scheduled work; the crew that installed the artificial grass is going to finish the install of my pitch and put golf hole. I had this insane idea which the installer loved. He actually is going to offer to his clients now. Since the putting green is near one of the pool fiber illuminators, I ran conduit to each of three golf cups and will run fiber to light up the cup and an acrylic rod serving as a flag stick. If it goes as planned we will have some cool evening parties with all the cups and flag sticks lit and changing colors. Let me know you thoughts.

Lastly today they deliver my column caps. I found a chiseled face 2.5" thick cap from El Dorado stone for about $50 delivered which matches very closely the chiseled face of the Belgard Belair retaining wall we installed. It is a flat cap that serves well post lights. I will just need to core out a small hole for the electrical wire to each post light. I purchased some very nice post lamps at Lowe's which have a spanish/med decorative design that should tie in nicely with the house's med/tuscan style and mathc the wall lanterns on the recently installed french door.


I'll post some pictures later. All the best.

Glowing golf holes...can't wait to see them!

The color concrete for the pool step from the courtyard path came out well. The color is very close.

We also finished the stairs going down to the sunken grill/swim up bar area. It was tough cutting the 4" step risers but all in all it looks really nice and solid. I added a side walkway connecting the pool deck to the sunken grill/bar tairs so that nobody will have to walk on dirt to get to grill area.

I hooked up the fountain today and found out the fountain pump that I purchased a year ago was bad. I went ahead and bought a new one because tomorrow I want to start her up. I also went ahead and purchased some underwater led fountain/pond lights. I decided to install these now rather than later since it would involve dismantling the fountain which weighs a total of 1100 lbs in order to add lights in the future. It took four of us to lift the first tier alone; ouch my back.

BTW it was fun seeing my two girls playing golf - in our backyard no less. It reminds me of why we are doing all of this work to make our backyard a special oasis from stress in the first place.

My house over the last few days has been like grand central station. Workers in and out. I forgot to mention that we had a water leak in the kitchen which spurred all the recent activity. Thanks to a faulty ice maker line we have been without a kitchen for more than a month. Today the cabinets and granite counters get put back in. The wifey has been beside herself and can't wait. Having no kitchen really is a pain.

When the leak happened water seeped into the walls and leeched upwards so they had to dry them out. Air did not work due to thick insulation in all walls which were saturated and the insurance company was worried about mold and of course future losses. At the end of the day they cut open all walls and removed insulation leaving me with tons of reassembly work. Nothing compared to the tragedies however going on in the southeast with the storms to whom we send our family's prayers.

Since we had so many people coming and going we decided to finish everything at once and get it out of the way, including the back yard and pool area.

Today we finished the ledger stone surrounding the back wall of the pool deck. It came out very "suave" as one of the crew said. Anyway over next two days we should finish all the remaining ledge stone work, about 140 sq ft. I now regret buying pieces. It goes up much easier and fasthands panels than having to piecemeal it. I will now be starting the glass backsplash soon in the grill area and pour a little serving shelf above the swim up counter. I plan to pour a small coping of 8 ft by 1 ft with the detail on both sides.

I also took delivery yesterday of our firepit and bowls which will sit on columns situated on either side of the waterfalls. The firepit is actually a 6 ft waterfall basin that had a crack in it which was useless to the fountain company but fine for my use as a firepit. I paid a very small sum and a little extra for staining and delivery. As I mentioned in another post I will build my own automated ignition and burner system. Let's hope I stay in one piece.

I hope all is well with the TFP community.

What about using your Summer Kitchen? We use ours about 5 times a week. Keep the pics coming

Thanks Brentr; not the most practical or convenient option since it's a good distance from the house. Besides we have not finished the grill area completely yet. Still have not plumbed sink or hooked up gas to grill. That should be done next week or so.

Today we finished all of the ledger stone work, finally !!!
The grill area and the outside face of the rear part of the raised portion of the pool deck looks much better with the concrete block covered.
I had to knock out holes with a chisel for conduit to carry speaker wire coming our of the grill area and connecting to the Bose in ground speakers which we are installing around the pool and sports court. For a while I felt like I was trying to break out of prison or a miner, with chisel in hand.
Tomorrow I will install the wrought iron entry gates we ordered that arrived today. New pictures coming soon.
Thanks again to all at TFP.

Your creativity amazes me! I was so impressed with your pool, but everytime I check back here you take it up a notch. Your family is going to enjoy the fool out of that backyard. Bravo!!

No problem, we can fix that problem. How about a couple of Golf Carts Or maybe we can move the house closer to the summer kitchen

We need pictures!