New build, Houston (Cypress), Tx

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Thanks all! We are very very happy with it all and feel exceptionally blessed to have been fortunate enough to do it. That being said we would be exceptionally happy with any form of water in the back yard. We all love the water and will spend a lot of time in the pool.

Still a few things to do like decking overlay,sprinklers, sod repair and the first phase of landscaping but we have water so we're happy!!

Our pH has gone up (not surprising) so PB is coming by this morning to add acid (the startup is done by him).
 
According to pool school, the Ph is going to go up a lot over the next month as a part of the curing process for the plaster. The PB coming by once a day may not be enough to keep the Ph in the "zone" even for the first five days. You are going to be in charge of it in a few days anyway, so I would consider asking him if it is okay for you to "help" and set up a schedule where he checks it in the morning or mid day and you do it at night. This will double the efforts and would get the Ph under control more quickly.
 
Looks Great, We are about to begin the build process on Tuesday. I cant wait, it has been a long journey and I am now ready to get this thing going. What color on the stamping did you all decide to go with and when are they doing that? I havent picked a color yet and keep going back and forth
 

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Huskers16 said:
Looks Great, We are about to begin the build process on Tuesday. I cant wait, it has been a long journey and I am now ready to get this thing going. What color on the stamping did you all decide to go with and when are they doing that? I havent picked a color yet and keep going back and forth
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Congrats! Remember to post pictures!!

The stanped overlay (actually I call it that but it's not actually stamped but textured by hand) was scheduled to start today but we have 70% chance of rain tomorrow so they're waiting until Monday.
We are going with an Alamo Moss and Iced Chocolate mix.
We were given color samples to take home then went to the warehouse where we could see the different options. We thought we had our choice decided but the guy at the warehouse gave us a board with our pattern and colors that we had chosen on it to take home to check. Boy are we glad he did that! It wasn't the same as we thought we were getting and led to us getting them to tweak the colors. It looked great in isolation but didn't fit with the coping or outline flagstone as we had hoped. The color for the product we are getting is a base coat with everything else applied by hand so the colors and highlights can be tweaked. We were advised to be at home if possible on the first day to show them the color and how you want it tweaked and then right at the end to tell them when to stop applying color and seal it in.
 
I found that posting pictures and starting a build thread made me feel like I was more involved in the process. Before I started my build thread, I felt like I was just a casual observer to what was going on in my own home. After I started documenting I felt like I was a part of the process more (than just writing the checks).
 
KenGood said:
According to pool school, the Ph is going to go up a lot over the next month as a part of the curing process for the plaster. The PB coming by once a day may not be enough to keep the Ph in the "zone" even for the first five days. You are going to be in charge of it in a few days anyway, so I would consider asking him if it is okay for you to "help" and set up a schedule where he checks it in the morning or mid day and you do it at night. This will double the efforts and would get the Ph under control more quickly.
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Thanks Ken. I spoke to him earlier and he's going to drop off some acid and I'll check it at night. I think I read that the waterfall could up the pH too. The builder should be around twice a day for startup. He only lives a mile or two from us so we're frequently the first and last stops of the day for him.

I have to say, I've been very impressed with our PB (Grand Isle Custom Pools in Houston). He's been very responsive, listened to everything we've said and offered constructive advice in keeping with what we asked for. Plus, I've never had trouble getting hold of him, he's always been available to talk to. We told him what we wanted included but he designed the pool we just tweaked a few things (moved the spa and fire pit locations and that's about it to be honest)
 
That is good to hear. My PB has been really good, but we had an episode early on where he told me I was the customer and he would do what we wanted. I pulled him aside and I told him that we did not hire him to be a yes man. We wanted him to give us his expertise and if we asked him to do something that he disagreed with, I told him I wanted to hear it and we would probably defer to him because that is why we have him. He later told my mother in law that he thought I was a little intense. Ha!
 
My guy approached that by saying that it was our pool and if we were dead set on something he would do it but here was his recommendation and why. I thought that was a good approach. The only thing we pushed was a SWCG. He said he didn't normally recommend them as they are harder on the pool but he thought our reason (my skin) was a decent reason to get one and we then talked about mitigating damage as much as possible by sealing and paying close attention to chemistry and salt levels.

I'd said the same thing as you to our PB when we first met him that we expected him to give his honest thoughts as he's a PB and we're not. His response was that he was forthright and we didn't need to worry about that! He and I got on immediately.

For us I think it helps that miraculously the PB's vision for the pool and ours were the same.
 
It appears that our PB is the go to guy in our area for elaborate pools. I learned that later. I think he is very good at handling people. He is less good about communication. But in his defense he is used to being hired and managing the project and not having much contact with the owners unlike us. So far he has worked well at staying within budget, but I think that is part of his gift for handling people. He told me that he had 9 pools under construction all at once. He is winding down more and more of them. So he must be very good at scheduling too. I would say that so far it has been a good experience. He has surprised me several times and he has surpassed my expectations as well.
 
That's good to hear Ken. We've had no budget issues. He charged us what he quoted us. I added in a couple of extra things along the way (additional electrical socket, guttering for covered patio and pre-plumbing for outdoor kitchen) and he told me roughly what they would be and that's what they were. No surprises along the way (except the sprinkler cost has crept up but that was always outside the PBs scope).

On another positive note, we are FINALLY getting cable re-installed today!!! :whoot: I'm in an argument with the cable co at the moment about who's fault it is it got severed. It was marked but it was buried so shallowly (I'm not even sure buried is a fair description) that the bobcat tracks ripped straight though it the second time it went into my back yard. They didn't dig through it (I accept that would be my fault) so I don't think I should have to pay for a new line considering in my opinion they did an inadequate job of protecting it in the first place. If I were ever to do this again I would place boards across the crossing point, but I thought it was a good 12 inches down not more like 1/2".
 
Wow! I agree with you on that one. When we bought our last house it was about 3 weeks from being completed. It was at the end of the street (at the time). We discovered very quickly that the cable and telephone had not be extended that far when the street was laid. So we were without cable and telephone for several months. Since our internet was through the cable it almost killed me.
 
Came out fantastic. Now you are at the point where it is 1000 time less stressful and you can relax and enjoy it. Looks great. The only bad thing about still looking at these builds on this forum is we see stuff people are doing and my wife and I say, "Why didn't we do that with our pool"? Yours is one of those pools!

Enjoy! One thing with your waterfalls and such, I am still putting in about 20 ozs of acid each day to keep my PH at 7.5. We are coming up on three months so I am curious how long that will last.
 

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