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(Semi-)Final Report All in all I'm glad we did it (obviously), and there's still plenty to do: - Fire Bowls have a long lead time and are due July 18th - Fence needs to be installed (we still have young ones, clearly) - Lots of landscaping But wow, this has made summer in Arizona so much...

5/30/18 to 5/31/18 - Fill and Startup Very exciting! Took about 11 hours to fill with two hoses. The BIL came over to help with startup and getting chems balanced. The kids did great but it was clear the waiting was brutal for them! - - - Updated - - - 6/1/18 - First...

5/29/18 to 5/30/18 - Interior Finish and Acid Wash We went back and forth a lot about interior finish brand and color. We wanted a light "aquamarine" color, and not something too blue. We had initially chosen Wet Edge Kaleidoscope, until we were quoted a price... Once sticker shock wore off...

5/25/18 - Final Inspection I took the day off of work to make sure I was here for Final. I wanted to be ready to answer any questions, to make sure the inspector was enforcing the codes appropriately, and defend whatever I might need to defend........ Inspector pulls up in his truck, leaves...

5/21/18 to 5/23/18 - Cleanup, Accent Tile, Headset Wow what a difference cleanup makes. I wasnt expecting them to backfill my entire trunkline trench, but they knocked it out. Headset is, well, headset. Not very exciting. For accent tile, we just lined each "edge" with a double row. The...

Tile is NWAO653 from Noble Tile

5/19/18 - Coping, Deck, & Stone 2 With all the missing materials in hand, and the sheers and key valves set, we're ready to finish the hardscaping. Moment of truth... .. the columns start to come together!

5/14/18 - Columns and Key Valves and Sheers, Oh My! Yeah, the columns again. Electrician came to modify his conduit run , and plumber came to set the gas key valves and sheers (no good pics). The RBB wall caps, columns, and stone were are all set to be finished out next weekend... we'll see...

5/11/18 - Coping and Deck 1 All these contractors are just so darn busy this year and in general, scheduling has been tough. After finally getting scheduling worked out with my coping/deck/stone contractor, we're starting on the pretty stuff... The coping and deck were mostly complete after 2...

5/5/18 - Watering and Waterline The next few days was watering concrete, getting a head start on the summer tan, and Waterline Tile...

5/3/18 - Shotcrete Day It feels like it's all make or break right here, and I was incredibly anxious about the columns. Again, gas and electric need to finish together close in "some kind of channel" that I assume the shotcrete guys will know how to do... along with the forming around the...

4/25/18 - Pre-gunnite and Gas Inspection The inspector walked me through what he was looking at and was a generally nice guy. He looked at the electrical for proper bonding, measured water and gas pipe depths, took a lap or two around, measured my RBB wall clearance, and was done. Nothing was...

Yes, I'll be hiding the manifold with one of those fake ricks used for above ground back-flow preventers, and the valves will go in a couple of standard sprinkler valve boxes. Definitely want to have easy access to them once the area is backfilled.

4/24/18 - Electric 1, Notching Steel, and Modifying Plumbing for Sheers Initial electric installation was great, and the electrician was a helluva a great guy, very helpful. If anyone in the Phoenix metro area needs an electrician, I'd recommend Chris from Milligan Electric to anyone in a...

4/21/18 - Gas Even deeper we go for the gas line... further destroying my once perfect forms! At this point I'm worried, but I'm assured by my BIL that it will all come together in the end... This was the beginning of the most stressful part of the entire build... making sure everything...

4/17/18 - Plumbing I had no idea how much plumbing... I guess I knew, but see it go in... wow. I asked for the equipment pad to be kept as tight to the house as possible and I love his solution. I'm no expert, but this pad is impressive to me... very pleased! - - -...

4/13/18 - Dig Day After a few scheduling hiccups (and a few more), we finally broke ground. 3 guys over about a day and a half knocked out a giant trench and a giant hole in our yard! Great crew, and even signed their work. The kids asked if we could get the hose and start filling it up :D

4/3/18 - Layout My layout guy contacted me beforehand to alert me about my RBB wall near the party wall of the property. After some misinterpretations all around of Town of Gilbert code, we ended up moving the pool 12" closer to the house to give more clearance. Hindsight now, I'm very glad...

It's been a whirlwind 8 weeks to say the least, but the end is in sight. I've been terrible about posting but good about taking pics, so I'll play some catch up here over the next few posts.

After finally getting bids and financing sorted, I'm actually scheduling. Dig is scheduled for April 4th. Question for everyone regarding hardscaping materials... Planning on travertine deck and coping, and part of that will overlay the existing "stock" slab patio. What thicknesses do you...

Spent some time with the BIL this past weekend getting straight on equipment (some of which is now sitting in my garage!) Lots to still get on order of course. I updated the equipment list in my previous post and in signature, but here it is also: Jandy VS ePump 2.0hp Jandy CV460D...

riley and Pat - Thanks for your comments. I clearly dont know enough yet about chlorination methods. Wife is dead set against Salt, partually due to up-front cost, but mostly because she's concerned about long-term damage and/or maintenance to decking and materials. So with a SWG out, I...

Pool rookie here working on a small play pool. Wife, 3 young kids, dog, and cat are all looking forward to something to fill the dirt lot behind our new home. Insert pool here: My Brother-in-law (BIL) is with Zodiac Pool Systems, so between him and his co-worker contacts who have OB'd...