My salt water build in Southern California

[letterk]

My pool was finished end of last summer, but thought I'd post some photos of the build.

Pool is about geometric 20' x 40', 7' deep on the deep end. Some cutouts to make it fit the yard. Baja step with umbrella sleeve.
Spa is 7' x 7'.
Three waterfalls on separate pump.
Natural stone coping around pool and natural stone ledger on the back walls.
Tile water line.
Pebble Fina grey (forget the actual name).
All Hayward salt system and color LED lights.

We also did a fire pit with built in bench and have it pre-wired and gas line for the grill island.

Kicking it off with the dig.






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Next is the rebar and trenching.






The dogs loved watching.



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Plumbing.




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Time for gunite.







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Time for tile, ledger stone and coping stone.






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Then it was time to work on the retaining wall.




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Getting ready to pour the concrete decking.







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I had to do the floating wooden bench because the contractor wasn't sure how to do it. To prep for the steel brackets, I placed wood cutouts on the block wall. These were the areas to not apply the stone.




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Concrete! Three trucks worth.








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Adding the Pebble Fina.

 

[kimkats]

I like what I see so far! Fun how fast it is happening for me! Can't wait for the next step!

Kim

 

[LeighHop]

Let's see more! (And love your doods.)

 

[letterk]

Time for another time warp.

After the Pebble, water time!





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Of course the mandatory brushing while we wait.



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Testing the burner for the fire pit, add glass, and voila! Fire pit.







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Let's do some landscaping.










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More landscaping.





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Add some LED landscaping lights.

 

[riley00dog]

Oh wow! Everting turned out beautifully- your pool, and that fire pit is amazing! Great photos.

 

[letterk]

Oh no! The spa has cracks. We think it's because they applied the Pebble when it was very hot and the spa went a couple days before it had water. This was fun to deal with. The plaster company wanted to patch. Long story short, we fought them for a while and they finally caved. Had to tear out the Pebble Fina and restart. When they did this we found the cracks led to significant leaks, as suspected.






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Spa fixed. Not very happy with the way the Pebble Fina turned out in the pool, but that's another story.




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Starting to fill out the furniture now. And one dog swims every single day.





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Few more landscaping photos.






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I built a few garden boxes for the veggie garden.






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My wife found a great floating wooden bench idea. The contractor didn't know how to do it, so she volunteered me. Still in process, but here is the progress.









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Also made a trellis for the star jasmine along the fence by the side of the pool.



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More doggie photos.

 

[riley00dog]

Sorry to hear about your plaster problems in the spa. It looks great now that it’s been fixed. I guess the redo of the spa makes any problem areas of the pool look more noticeable. The pool didn’t show any cracking etc despite being applied in the same conditions? Love the pics of your dog, especially the one with the towel. I’m not sure if our dogs will want to swim or not. They’re more waders than swimmers, even though one is a lab x. That floating bench is amazing! You don’t look too unhappy about being volunteered up to do it. Are you swimming yet for the season? We’re coming to the end of the season here in Australia and our pool is just about finished [emoji53] Actually dreading the mini pebble going in as so many people have had problems with their finishes.

 

[letterk]

The pool didn't have any cracks, but I assume the poor aesthetics are due to the heat and lack of water. I'm going to have a Pebble Tec rep come out and look at it.

We have two labradoodles. One hates the water, the other lives in it. She swims a good 2-3 hours every day. Even when the water is 50F! We have had to up her food intake significantly and she's still skinny.

I'll be happy when the bench is done! I actually do enjoy doing some of the projects myself. I need to figure out how to do the grill next.

We're close to being able to swim without the heater. Today the water was at about 75F. The kids will use it, but I don't go in until at least 82F! We heated it for spring break for the kids, but we don't usually do that. Summer is almost hear and soon the water will be plenty warm.

Just find a good Pebble installer and ask lots of questions. I should have asked about the heat.

 

[riley00dog]

Just find a good Pebble installer and ask lots of questions. I should have asked about the heat.

We don’t have much choice unfortunately. It will be who our pb uses. It is probably for the best that our pool has taken so long otherwise there would have been a chance it would have been pebbles on 40*C day. Temps have dropped and it will likely be around 24*C when pebble goes in. Glad your pool hasn’t cracked and it’s just aesthetics, but still it needs to be nice to look at as well as functional.

Keep your thread updated as you go. Keen to see the finished bench and grill.

 

[kimkats]

Love the landscaping! The border between the grass and mulch, what is it made of? The large rocks are purrfect!

Good job pushing for the total redo of the spa. There is one build on here where they are working through the process of cracks in their whole pool

LOL on water and not water dog! "But I likes to swim!" cute pic!

I have been waiting for the floating bench pics. Dude you have mad skills right there! Is it comfy to sit on? That will really finish up that pretty fire pit area! What do you have left to do?

Kim

 

[LeighHop]

Gorgeous! (I think we have similar taste in design and dogs.)

 

[edthediscoman]

Looks fantastic!

 

[letterk]

Love the landscaping! The border between the grass and mulch, what is it made of? The large rocks are purrfect!

Good job pushing for the total redo of the spa. There is one build on here where they are working through the process of cracks in their whole pool

LOL on water and not water dog! "But I likes to swim!" cute pic!

I have been waiting for the floating bench pics. Dude you have mad skills right there! Is it comfy to sit on? That will really finish up that pretty fire pit area! What do you have left to do?

Kim

It's a poured in place concrete border. It wasn't exactly what we wanted, meaning the profile isn't what we would have picked. But they didn't ask and we forgot to tell them. Oops. But I think it still looks nice.

I'm so close to having the bench done. Hopefully tomorrow if everything goes as planned. I'll post more photos of the underside so you can see how it's built. And yes, it's quite comfy. The wood has just a little give to it.

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Gorgeous! (I think we have similar taste in design and dogs.)

Just read your build thread, and yes we do! We would have gone just rectangular, but our house sites awkward in a triangle shaped lot. It would have had to be a lot smaller than we wanted. So we added some character!

 

[GregInClaremont]

Fantastic yard! Great design you guys went with!