26' Intex - Planning, Install, Upgrades, and Landscaping Thread

[jseyfert3]

I heard back from the lawyer at the other law firm, they are happy to read over the covenants for me, pending no conflicts.

Wow, that's a lot of work you've got done! I rented a hydraulic one man post hole digger when I built since I knew an auger like you're using would break my arms! The pickets will go up fast with a nail gun. I screwed in about 7 of them before decided to pull out the compressor and nail gun...I don't know what I was thinking! Sorry you have such a grumpy neighbor. Glad you're on top of things legally, and I bet you can't wait to get that fence up! Are you planning to put up your pool after the fence it finished?

Yeah I got a Ridgid nailer, 2-3.5" nail range. I'm planning on using 3" nails (longest I could find in galvanized ring shank) for the 2x4s and 2" nails for the pickets.

We had a hydraulic one man for the 12" holes and it worked okay, but digging deep was a pain as you couldn't remove the auger from the hole with the extension attached. The little guy works great for 8" holes with two people though.

I am certainly planning to put up the pool after the fence is finished! Ground work will begin ASAP once the fence is done. I don't think it's more than a few inches out of level, so hopefully it won't be much work...

 

[jseyfert3]

My friends are awesome. After about 4 hours Friday, 5-6 Saturday (rain in the afternoon stopped work) and almost 11 hours yesterday we have this:

Still to go ia cutting a few pickets to fit around the posts and making three gates. But it's almost done!

 

[kimkats]

WHAT?? NOW those are some friends right there!!!!!

almost 11 hours yesterday

that is a HUGE amount of work after the other two days!!! SO what did you feed and have to drink to keep them going that long???? Did you let the soak in the hot tub when they were done?

Any visits from the neighbors?

Are you going to add anything on the bottom to help keep the puppy in? (I have ideas if you need them)

Kim

 

[zea3]

Maybe its the Texas in me but I just do not understand all the nosy neighbors who think they have the right to an unobstructed view of your back yard! I understand living by the existing covenants in the neighborhood, but if it makes exceptions for pools then they should just get over it!
A few years back I witnessed a woman who built her big expensive house backing up to church property (church was already built and in use) and we have a large lot for future expansion and she liked looking out at all the green space. We started construction on additional parking that ran behind her property and she waltzed in with a big fake toothy smile and tried to convince us not to build anything on our land, "because the view was so lovely from her second floor balcony". We very politely said "not going to happen" and she waltzed away. Across the road from us and in her direct line of site was a huge vacant lot with a big sign talking about the gas station/liquor store coming soon. 10 years later that lot has a gas station, strip center, and apartment complex on it. I guess her view is not so lovely anymore!

 

[kimkats]

strip center,

It would only be better if there was a stripper pole in the strip center LOL

 

[jseyfert3]

The fence is DONE! Pictures later.

that is a HUGE amount of work after the other two days!!! SO what did you feed and have to drink to keep them going that long???? Did you let the soak in the hot tub when they were done?

My homemade hard cider (we finished a 5 gallon keg in 3 days), Italian Beef, homemade pizza, brats, hamburgers, and hot dogs, breakfast casserole.

Any visits from the neighbors?

Nope, but they were glaring at us.

Are you going to add anything on the bottom to help keep the puppy in? (I have ideas if you need them)

He hasn't tried to dig out yet, and there isn't enough space for him to slip out. If you have ideas on how to keep him from random digging and eating dead grass and mud that would be great though.

 

[kimkats]

Make him a "sand box" to dig in. Put things he like to play with and chew on in the sand sticking up and show it to him. After he knows his toys in in the sand box you can bury them a bit so he can dig them up. Keep a long range squirt gun out there in several places. When he starts chewing or digging squirt him without saying a word. That way he will not associate the "correction" with you so this should carry over when you are not out there with him...........hummm when I dig here or chew on that I get wet..........guess I will not do that any more kind of thing.

 

[Newdude]

Keep a long range squirt gun out there in several places. When he starts chewing or digging squirt him without saying a word

works for snotty neighbors too. Just sayin.

 

[jseyfert3]

Okay, I promised pictures. Here's Keeta asleep on the auger.

Double gate, outside view looking NW. For all the gates we decided to do a stacked picket layout instead of shadowbox so as to not show the oddly spaced and angled 2x4's on the outside.

Double gate, inside view.

Looking NE near the double gate.

Looking N:

Looking NW:

Looking SW:

Looking S at the west side of the house, showing the walking gate on the other side of the house from the double gate.

Looking N on the outside of the above walking gate:

Looking S from the NW corner of the yard.

Turning around and looking N in the same spot, showing the 3rd gate, a walking gate to the 10' strip of our yard past the fence and the greenbelt.

Outside the above gate, looking in.

Slightly to the right, looking S outside the fence.

To the left a little, looking SE at the outside of the fence facing the greenbelt:

Another shot showing the pool location and the fence. The tree I planted which is close to the fence I'll be moving shortly, once the pool area is dug up. It is there since the fence was originally planned to be 10' further back. I'd leave it except since we plan to add the cat netting at the top of the fence and let our cats into the yard, they'd be able to climb that tree when it gets bigger and jump out of the fence.

General update: I finally got around to contacting a few landscaping companies and found one who said he'd be able to level for a pool. He knew that for a pool you dig down and don't build up. His new secretary will call me Monday to schedule a time for him to come estimate it. He figures he'll be out early this week. Hopefully he can level the ground relatively soon, it's getting to be perfect pool weather here!

While they are here I figure I'll have them clean up the old mulched areas and plant grass seed. I could do that but I'm getting tired of all this work, I've got other things I want to work on.

Getting close though! If he can level it to within an inch then all I need to do is put some pavers in and set the pool up. I figure that shouldn't be more than a day of work or so, though I estimate it will take about 24 hours to fill the pool so I will need to wait for at least a calm evening to set up and start the filling so it can be half full by the morning when wind usually picks up.

 

[Newdude]

My goodness this is coming along nicely. Awesome fence, looking foward to the rest. We’ve been on the ride with you..... feels like we are there too.

 

[kellyfair]

Great job on the fence, and pardon me for this weird comment, but your grass is beautiful. My yard only looks good when freshly cut so you can’t tell which part is weeds!

 

[kimkats]

You do AWESOME work!!! SWEET!!!! Look at the sweet baby holding your auger down! LOL

Put keyed locks on those gates yesterday. Sure don't want to take a chance of someone opening the gate and leaving it open without you knowing it.

SWEET of finding someone to do the leveling!!! Yeah let your wallet do the work for this part!

What kind of cat fence will you be putting up?

Kim

 

[jseyfert3]

Thanks all. It sure was a lot of work putting that fence up! Not sure I'd do it again, but we are certainly happy with it.

Can't wait till it's stained later.

Great job on the fence, and pardon me for this weird comment, but your grass is beautiful. My yard only looks good when freshly cut so you can’t tell which part is weeds!

Thanks, but that's all the previous owner. He was obsessed. He loved golf and at one point was a golfcourse greenskeeper. He told me when we bought the house he had fertilized SIX times last year! Nuts! The grass grows faster than I've ever seen grass grow.

Put keyed locks on those gates yesterday.

Will do, or at least combo locks. All the latches accept padlocks, I made sure of that as it's required for the pool by code (and common sense).

What kind of cat fence will you be putting up?

I'm thinking it will be the Purrfect Fence, the one for existing fences. It seems to be the best one out there, but I didn't do a ton of searching. Not a whole lot of options for cat fences though, I suppose it's not a very common thing to do.

 

[Newdude]

Not sure I'd do it again,

Good thing you did it right in the first place then. No need to revisit this for years and years.

I'm thinking it will be the Purrfect Fence,

Im not quite sure what @kimkats might think about this fence....... its not like its her favorite word or anything.........

 

[kimkats]

Not a whole lot of options for cat fences though,

What we did at the old house was use PVC poles with slots cut on either end to help it hold the current fence (chainlink) and the chicken wire use used for the netting. It took some doing to find just the right length of pole and the distance they needed to be apart to hold the netting up. The main thing is to have a good overhang BUT not have overhang so far as they can grab it as they go up. That Purrfect cat fence system looks ........well purrfect LOL (hehe yeppers one of my fav words. It is right up there with pool )

I worry about someone opening the gate and letting the puppy out more than anything.

 

[jseyfert3]

I worry about someone opening the gate and letting the puppy out more than anything.

Oh I see what you mean now. We haven't added a doggie door yet, but good point. I'll make sure to get locks before we add the doggie door.

 

[jseyfert3]

I got in touch with a landscape company. They said they'd come out Monday to do a site inspection. I asked when they could do the actual work, and the secretary estimated "end of July, maybe second week in July." Hmm...

I remembered a guy at our church has his own business and might know something. Turns out a guy on his crew can level and he'd has a bobcat, a small dump truck and can come out next week. So I'm hopeful we'll have it leveled next week and we can set up the pool next weekend.

 

[kimkats]

SWEET!!! Got to love supporting a local guy !

 

[jseyfert3]

They are here. The guy has a transit or similar, and he understands that a pool has to sit on undug dirt.

Under the putting green is a small rock/sand mix that's probably solid enough to set a pool on. What we talked this morning is that everything will get leveled to the low point (which is on the sand/rock where the putting green was). After that they will dig up some of the sand/rock mix from the corners where the pool doesn't sit and spread it over the dirt to leave a nice flat surface, and use some of the dirt to fill back where they took sand/dirt before hauling the rest of the dirt away.

I will be getting 1" or so foamboard and putting that down under the pool, since that's so highly regarded here.

I'm taking a timelapse video with a Wyze cam I have, plus I can watch the progress over the day.


If the digging goes good today I'll spend the rest of the week after work getting pavers and foamboard. I'm also going to start digging the trench for the electrical. I'm off Friday and will work on setting up the pool, though it's likely we won't get it up until Saturday.

 

[Newdude]

You know, at some point this will become an actual build thread

- Jseyfert3 Feb 23rd 2020

Yay.
- Newdude. June 16 2020