So it begins. This pool was originally installed in the early 80's I have polaroids of it. It was nice 80's country style just like the house. Well the lady's husband passed and she was not comfortable keeping up the pool so she had it filled and turned it into a beautiful garden. Well by the picture you can tell that my wife and I are not green thumbers to that extreme. Once we purchased the house it quickly turned into a garden of weeds. So after a couple of years of looking at the weed patch and dreaming of what it could look like, we decided to redo the pool. In order to do so I knew the first thing to do was get rid of the grass hills that led down to the pool, so I started designing the wall.
The next step was what material to make it out of. After a few months of planning 3/13 thru 6/13 it was time to put the plan into action. Having a long weekend on Labor Day it sounded like the perfect time to start. I spent June getting materials staged. Labor Day get's here and here we go. I spray painted lines on the grass and got approval by the PM (you know who) and started to dig .It's gotta get worse before it get's better!
Mini EX sitting on shallow end.
After a few weeks started working on the stairs
After a week started working on the 1st set of stairs.
About two weeks later work starts on the 2nd set of stairs.
Funny Story:
In the beginning of the project I wanted to extend the wall all the way past the existing wall I had built for the hot tub deck a few years earlier. PM said nope I want it to end here so after awhile I did what any good guy would do and said "yes dear". After about two weeks working on the second set of steps she comes out (inspecting/supervising) and says to me and I quote "You were right the wall needs to go all the way to the end". After I awoke I laid in the fetal position for about an hour shivering in the late October weather. So the next day I start making phone calls ordering more block, rock and renting another mini ex. By the end of the next weekend with the help from my 11 year old son and my 73 year old dad we started and finished the tail end of the wall. By this point winter is right around the corner.
This picture shows the deep ravine in my back yard that I fortunately had to put all the spoils for the wall and pool. This also ended up giving me a flat area in the back yard. With the wall mostly complete time to put down the landscape rock and start cutting and installing caps.
Thanksgiving-Phase 1 COMPLETE!!!
The following spring. April 2014. Start digging trench for electrical and future solar piping.
Finally the pool build is starting. Hang in there with me we're almost there!
Now I'm no genius and wanting to give professional courtesy I said to my pool builder "how is the liner going to fit over these stairs that you poured when the stairs are so unsymmetrical?" He responded that he had already ordered the liner and that it would "stretch".
Finally water! My youngest one just couldn't contain himself.
The Liner
There aren't words to describe how mad I was! Besides the liner not fitting when I got home from work he had added what ever you want to call it to the bottom of the steps. I called a great place to slip and break an ankle as soon as you enter the pool. And everyone did.
Time to keep moving forward and finish. Will deal with PB later.
Later that fall I gave the PB the opportunity to come back and fix it. He tried, he couldn't, he got fired!
Are you kidding me? At least we got to swim the rest of the season before he tried to repair it. NEXT!
Steel fabricated steps and correct measurement voila! Our new PB did an awesome job. Thank you!!!
WHEW!
Hope you all enjoy my story as much as I have enjoyed watching other peoples build.
Be Kind!
