Gunite was competed on 4/13. I was pretty impressed with how well they were able to shape everything and add the details. I would have loved to have been home and watched the whole thing, but my wife sent me pictures of the process throughout the day. The crew left some directions regarding how to care for the gunite. Water 2-3 times a day for 30 minutes for the next 10 days and no plaster for 10 days.
Of course there was one minor hiccup. As I left for work this morning I glanced over at the new, energy efficient water heater that my buddy (licensed plumber) and I had installed on Sunday. It looked so much nicer than the behemoth 75 gallon, 20 year veteran it had replaced. It was tucked away nicely in the corner and the markings advertising how fantastic and efficient this water heater was could be seen from across the garage. As was the mist of water that was spraying about 6" out from the shutoff valve.
Due to where it was leaking, I wasn't able to just shut off water to the heater, I had to shutoff water to the whole house. I did that real quick, let my wife know and left for work. For those keeping score, I have a 7 week old at home, my AC is still disconnected because of the required excavator access and pipe trenching and now no water.
I spent the rest of the day at work picturing my gunite shell crumbling to pieces because it was going to go without water for most of the day. On the way home I picked up a 100' hose, and with that and two other hoses I connected to my neighbors hose bibb and watered the gunite. My plumber buddy is working some big job in the bay and wasn't able to come out today to fix it, but will hopefully be out here tomorrow night.
Here's some updated pics...