Small Yard, Big Pool Dreams - New Build - Lakewood, California

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kimkats said:
What a story about the wire! Me, being me...........would you have bought the house if you knew you would have had to pay to have it moved?
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Yes - I knew going in we would likely have to pay to have it moved, even called SoCal to ask about it, but was told it'd probably cost about $700-800. Then after we moved in, called to get it done and they came back with $3000 - that's when the Eric Wrye Justice League kicked into high gear...
 
Here are some short, fun Time Lapse Vids of the Demo from yesterday:




And here's what it looks like after excavation today:



26551590137_9838653874_c.jpg
 
Hey dude, there's a hole in your back yard!!

Love the videos. So cool.

Poor lawn, may you RIP.
You were once was so beautiful,
Then you struggled so, in the hot, socal sun.
You fought for every sip. Denied your right.
Now you're just a distant, faded memory.
And a three second blip on YouTube.
Poof.
 
Now that’s progress! No turning back now. I hear you on the last minute freak out. I think mine lasted the entire week it took to dig our hole. Looks like they have done a great job with the excavation. A whole new chapter in your life is about to start... filled with dirt, mess and eventually swimming [emoji474]*??
 
teribble1 said:
I'm enjoying the videos and can't wait to see it finished.
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Glad to hear it. I messed up the first time I put them up (directly from my YT Channel) and violated the TFP Code and got reprimanded. lol - not really as harsh as that sounds, but I was unknowingly violating some very good rules used to protect the forums. So I had to do a special set of vids just for the forums. I'll be adding time-lapse of the dig over the weekend as time allows.

- - - Updated - - -

HolliG said:
Awesome design! Can’t wait to see this project complete. Loved your time lapse videos. Wish we had done some of those.
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Thanks! I'm enjoying doing those, even if is a little time consuming. We're excited. It's a little ominous right now having that humongous hole basically taking up our entire backyard. We knew going in that space was limited - I just can't wait to have it all done... 10-12 weeks from now.
 

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kimkats said:
Can't wait to hear about your picks for your finishes!

Have you measured to make sure it is wide, long, deep, etc enough? NOW is the time to fix,change, tweak as needed/wanted.
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This is the worst aspect of any construction now-a-days, that it is performed by human beings!! You have to personally double check as much of the work as you possibly can. Ask a lot of questions. Get them to explain things. Show you what they are doing. Make sure everything on the plans is as it should be, Etc. It's not right. It's not fair. It's not easy. It's not what you paid for. It just is. If you skip this step on a pool, it is often impossible to go back and fix, as a mistake can literally be "in stone." You get a credit, if you're lucky, instead of what you wanted. Measure twice, cut once. You've heard that. For a pool it's measure twice, pour once. You do the second measure!

If you read some of the other builds here, you'll see what I mean...
 
Thanks for the tips! Actually, the builder themselves measured width and length with us to confirm the correct sizing. The pool is as wide and long as humanly possible in our yard! :p The depth seems correct - with no rebar/concrete it's deeper of course than what it will be. I confirmed with our designer on excavation day (just to be safe) that he had 4'6" marked as the actual water depth meaning the over all pool shell depth would be a bit deeper and he confirmed 4'6" for the actual water depth.

The construction manager is supposed to stop by today to look over the excavation and make sure everything is good to move forward so since my spouse is at home (he's a CHP officer and has every other Monday off), he's gonna talk to him and go over everything with him and make sure everything is kosher.
 
Small Yard, Big Pool Dreams - New Build - Lakewood, California - Pool Finish Color

Pool Finish Selection
Originally, we were going to go with super dark Quartzscapes Color like Anvil or Curacao Night, both Dark Gray/Black colors that give a super deep lagoonish water color. But after thinking about it longer we decided that would be too dark especially because our pool will be fairly shallow at at times depending on sun/shade you'll probably see the pool floor surface directly rather than the water color reflection and we didn't want to see a "black/gray" floor. So we decided to go with the deepest richest blue water color they have that is based on a blue finish.

The Winner: Barbados Blue



 
Sounds like you and your PB are on top of keeping things to spec. Awesome. Keep it up. I've been amazed here as I read about what PBs get wrong, forget, overlook, etc.

Does your PB have any pools with that finish that you can visit? Pictures and swatches are not the greatest. Of course, it'll take on its own color and personality in your yard, but seeing someone else's pool with that finish might be worth your time, if that's possible...

Sounds like you've already figured this out, to some extent, but keep in mind that depth affects color more than you might think. I have a deep aqua color (modified Tahoe Blue), that looks one way in the deep end, a little less blue in the shallow end, all the way up to the top step, which is a med-dark grey. Doesn't seem to have a bit of blue in it.

So as you look at pic's or pools, it's the shallow end that'll be your color...
 
Having nailed down pool finish, we moved on to tile selections. First, if you live in SoCal and your builder is using NPT Tiles, I would personally recommend not going to their showroom to pick out tiles. It was a hot mess and had us very frustrated. What we did get from there was a piece of paper that had the names of tiles and what group they were in. Our build included Groups 1-3 in the pricing (could pay more for tiles outside those groups). So we went back home and used that paper and went online to look at tiles and find the ones in our groups and narrow down. This was WAY more productive and I wish our builder had given us the paper with the group #'s names and suggested we do it that way. (After narrowing down to 1-2, THEN going to NPT to just see them in person would make sense.) Not sure why NPT doesn't have the "grouping" on the website with each tile - would make way more sense. Anyway...

After a frustrating morning at NPT, we were able to sit at home and take our time looking at various tiles and discussing what we wanted and ultimately decided on the 6x6 Tuscany for our Pool Line. We liked the more natural look of it and the fact that each tile varies greatly so it doesn't look like a factory repeat patter print. Here it is:



While we were looking for our pool line tile, we saw this other tile - Canyon Gems - and decide the brown/bronze shimmering color would look great as an accent just on our steps into the pool so we did a change order to add that into our build. Here's the tiles as well as an example of how they will be on the steps:



So many decisions with a pool... It's great being able to customize it to our liking, but there's a part of me that wishes we'd just bought a house that already had one and would have just been happy with whatever was there. :) (Not really, but I sure felt that way Saturday afternoon.)
 
So many decisions with a pool... It's great being able to customize it to our liking, but there's a part of me that wishes we'd just bought a house that already had one and would have just been happy with whatever was there.
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That's how I did it!! ;) Fortunately my tastes and the original owners' match perfectly.

Reminds me of the diner scene in "My Cousin Vinny" where Pesci says "Wadda ya tink?" to Tomei and then shows her the menu that has only three lines:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner


So this won't help...

Tip'o'the'day?

If your tiles have color variations and you're looking forward to the effect that'll create, then you might want to plan to be onsite when they install. If they're willing (after the juice and donuts you'll serve), ask them to layout the tiles all the way around the pool. Then have a hand in arranging all the tiles to your liking. It's how I did my step tiles, that were all different colors. I even rejected a bunch that I knew would bug me. It's not that they might do it wrong (though they certainly could otherwise), but everyone has their own eye, and if you're picky (like me!) then even a couple tiles can bother you forever! This way you'll get what you want and be able to live with it. Your tile guys might actually welcome this, as it takes the burden of arranging them away...

Sub tip?

This probably won't apply to you and your tile, but just in case: keep in mind that a lot of the time you'll be looking at the tile, you won't see the whole tile, but rather only the upper half and it's reflection in the water (like during certain hours of the day, with calm water). This would be more of an issue with tile that has some sort of strong pattern or design that would look funny when reflected. In your case, if one of the tiles has a big blotch of color, you might want to hide that under the waterline, to avoid having to stare at a big ol' blotch and its identical twin a few inches below it (its reflection).

This is probably just me and my OCD, but I'm sensing you might have a touch yourself...
 
Dirk said:
Reminds me of the diner scene in "My Cousin Vinny"?

This is probably just me and my OCD, but I'm sensing you might have a touch yourself...
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Ha! My Cousin Vinny - love that movie!

Those are EXCELLENT tips - hadn't even really thought about having a hand in tile layout. I am picky and super into the finer details, but my spouse is SUPER OCD so I'll probably have him be there and do that. He'd be like you if one tile was just out of place it could literally drive him mad. Whereas I'm being overly involved in everything right now, but the minute there is water in the pool and I can jump in and swim, I probably won't care about anything else anymore. :)
 

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