Hey all, I enjoyed going through all some of the other build threads so I thought I'd share ours. We started building Wednesday (7/29) and I'm amazed at how much got done in about 2 days worth of work. Now apparently its just waiting game with township inspectors. Any feedback or ideas are welcome as nothing except whats already done is in stone.
The story in a very large nutshell: My wife had a pool growing up and said she wanted one by the time our future kids got old enough. All the kids will come to our place, we know where they are, etc, nostalgia, etc. Fast forward to the beginning of 2015, she sees there's a pool show and "just wants to go check things out and ask some questions (tm)". I had just found out I was going to need my 3rd heart surgery and she wanted something to take her mind off things and to cheer her up/look forward to. Fine, lets go. She won't stop talking about things after the show and I mistakenly challenger her (never do this btw) and say "If you can get the bank to work with you, you can have your pool". Never in a million years did I think it would work out but she pulled it off (money, permits, HOA approvals, neighbors removing their fence(!) ) and here we are.
We did all the normal quoting and talking and picked what we believe is a really good company. Coincidentally, we found out that the company owner's father built my wife's pool in Canada when she was 3 years old and he's now the crew foreman on our pool. We decided to wait until later in the summer so we could get the best price and the ground wouldn't be a swamp from all the rain this year. This turned out to be a good plan so far.
Our plans have changed more times than I can count and they changed a few more times in the last few days while they've been ripping up the backyard. Single speed to variable speed pump. Sand filter to cartridge. The pool moved over about 10 feet and about 5 feet closer to the house on the day of the dig. The back stairs have changed from a 10x10 concrete platform with a kitchen-> a 10x8 trex deck -> trex stairs -> wood stairs to match the pergola all in about an hour. The equipment location has change 4 times and is now back to my originally suggested location (I might know what I'm talking about after all...). Who knows what we're going to end up with. But that's part of the fun right?
Anyway, on to what you came here for: Info! Pictures!
Here in all of my craptastic sketchup skills was our first plan and nothing is the same but its enough to get an idea. I gave up trying to color the cement an appropriate color so have a few beverages and just pretend
The pergola is farther to the left to not block the kitchen window and has 6 posts now
The patio is just a small square set of 3 stairs down (decided to have more space on the main level)
The pool moved to the left to be in line with the house.
The stairs moved up more to the center line
Wednesday (7/29) the crew showed up bright and early with all the equipment and had the grass up and hole dug before lunch even with some delays with the excavator. Ignore my grass as I stopped watering and cutting it a few weeks before since it was all going away. You'll also see the hastily moved playhouse sand.
They got cut short by rain but came back the next day to finish the walls and run some plumbing
Sat morning they poured the footings
Inspector giving his seal of approval
The inspector should be out on Monday and then the backfill crew comes in. I'll keep this thread updated as the progress continues.
Thanks for reading and appreciate any advice.
The story in a very large nutshell: My wife had a pool growing up and said she wanted one by the time our future kids got old enough. All the kids will come to our place, we know where they are, etc, nostalgia, etc. Fast forward to the beginning of 2015, she sees there's a pool show and "just wants to go check things out and ask some questions (tm)". I had just found out I was going to need my 3rd heart surgery and she wanted something to take her mind off things and to cheer her up/look forward to. Fine, lets go. She won't stop talking about things after the show and I mistakenly challenger her (never do this btw) and say "If you can get the bank to work with you, you can have your pool". Never in a million years did I think it would work out but she pulled it off (money, permits, HOA approvals, neighbors removing their fence(!) ) and here we are.
We did all the normal quoting and talking and picked what we believe is a really good company. Coincidentally, we found out that the company owner's father built my wife's pool in Canada when she was 3 years old and he's now the crew foreman on our pool. We decided to wait until later in the summer so we could get the best price and the ground wouldn't be a swamp from all the rain this year. This turned out to be a good plan so far.
Our plans have changed more times than I can count and they changed a few more times in the last few days while they've been ripping up the backyard. Single speed to variable speed pump. Sand filter to cartridge. The pool moved over about 10 feet and about 5 feet closer to the house on the day of the dig. The back stairs have changed from a 10x10 concrete platform with a kitchen-> a 10x8 trex deck -> trex stairs -> wood stairs to match the pergola all in about an hour. The equipment location has change 4 times and is now back to my originally suggested location (I might know what I'm talking about after all...). Who knows what we're going to end up with. But that's part of the fun right?
Anyway, on to what you came here for: Info! Pictures!
- Approx 18,000 gallon kidney beanish with tanning ledge built into the stairs. 29' x 19' at widest points
- 3.5 ft in shallow end. 6.5 ft in deep end
- Lathem Steel walls with grout bottom
- Kafko vinyl liner in Natural Grey minus the cheesy fake stone border.
- Pentair Intelliflow 3HP VS pump
- Pentair Clean & Clear 150 sqft cartridge filter
- Pentair Intellichlor IC40 SWG
- Hayward H200FDN 200k BTU heater
- Pentair Intellibrite 5g LED light
- Other pool type things I don't know about yet
- Concrete will be regular and stained an undecided shade of gray around the edge of the pool and a beige for the rest to tie it in with the house.
- Fence will surround the whole backyard and will be the standard aluminum pool fence in oil rubbed bronze.
- Pergola will be 6 post 18'x16' in wolmanized pine or douglas fir. Unstained until we decide what we want
Here in all of my craptastic sketchup skills was our first plan and nothing is the same but its enough to get an idea. I gave up trying to color the cement an appropriate color so have a few beverages and just pretend
The pergola is farther to the left to not block the kitchen window and has 6 posts now
The patio is just a small square set of 3 stairs down (decided to have more space on the main level)
The pool moved to the left to be in line with the house.
The stairs moved up more to the center line
Wednesday (7/29) the crew showed up bright and early with all the equipment and had the grass up and hole dug before lunch even with some delays with the excavator. Ignore my grass as I stopped watering and cutting it a few weeks before since it was all going away. You'll also see the hastily moved playhouse sand.
They got cut short by rain but came back the next day to finish the walls and run some plumbing
Sat morning they poured the footings
Inspector giving his seal of approval
The inspector should be out on Monday and then the backfill crew comes in. I'll keep this thread updated as the progress continues.
Thanks for reading and appreciate any advice.
