Getting so close to the finished product. Got a bunch of small punchlist items to knock out (hopefully get most done next weekend). Got the landscape and hardscape lighting in last weekend, and had a problem with the plaster install fixed (they plastered over one of the deep water returns, but were able to chip it out after the fact and smooth out the area around to be acceptable).
wow, really beautiful, one question if you don't mind, how much you saved handling the project by yourself instead hiring pool builders?
I have been getting this question a lot lately, and have a possibly loaded answer.
We didn't save a dime. In fact, we went over budget by about $4k
To expand on that, when we started, my wife and I set a budget and had a few quotes by a couple of builders, and figured I could do it for less. These quotes were all at the top of our budget, and of course didn't include landscaping, sod replacement, irrigation or lighting beyond the pool light. During the project we upgraded finishes, built more deck then planned, added water features, added automation, added color led lighting, completely landscape the back yard, added landscape and hardscape lighting, expanded the pool by 3' lengthwise, upgraded the filtration, pump, skimmer and main drain, re-did all the irrigation for the new sod-less backyard to a complete drip system and purchased some furniture that was way nicer than planned. We did all that for only $4k more than our original budget.
A local builder came over the other day to check out the project and said I built an $80k pool. Using that number and subtracting out the landscaping and other items the builder wouldn't be handling our savings would have been around 30%. The biggest positive for me however has been the control over the project, and the fact that there haven't been any surprises or corners cut (that I didn't know about till after the fact). If I was doing this all over again there is almost nothing I'd change and I'd definitely go the OB route again.
One more quick photo of the lighting so far.