I know we all love pics, so here are all the pics so far.
Worst part of the whole thing...beautiful old pine smack dab in the middle of the pool.
That's something you don't see every day.
The dig. Hand shaped with heavy lifting done by Bobcat.
Really starting to take shape.
Great soil for a pool ( I think). The clay was easy to dig and shape, but makes for a nice solid base. My daughter had been asking me for two months if we were really getting a pool. I kept telling her "I don't know, we are gonna try. You shouldn't get your hopes up" Today I told her we are definitely getting a pool.
Sun shelf. I think my 13 year old daughter and her friends are gonna love this!
Spa with 18" walls. The PB suggested 12". I opted for 18" because I thought the spa wall would make for a nice bench. Not sure how I feel about this choice. It's a real pita to step up onto the 18" and down into the spa. I am more of a sit and swing kinda guy anyway. We will have to see.
Rebar work. I like the looks of that!
I don't like the looks of this! Rained for two days. Had very little collapse. Most of it around the beam.
PB finally got a pump delivered. I thought it was a disaster until he showed me one of his other pools that was completely filled in. It's all about the perspective.
Plumbing happening! Return on the right, bubbler on the left. CAn't wait to see my mini Aussie go after that bubbler. She loves to chase the sprinkler. That should provide hours of entertainment.
Gunite. Woohoo. Seemed like we would never get to gunite. Erosion from the rain left me with a lot thicker gunite. Looks like I got the bonus.
Is it me, or does this look like fun? Ok fun for about 15 minutes and then I'd be crying like a baby.
Daddy sized double jet in the spa. Looking forward to soaking in there!
And then it was done. Strange I watered it every day twice a day and it didn't grow. Maybe time for a different fertilizer. (Please forgive me if that is the oldest joke on the forum.)
Starting to really look like a ppol. Getting really excited now. I promise it's not as big as it looks in this picture. Perspecitve playing tricks on you.
Arial view taken from my personal drone. Ok, ok, taken from my second story window. The spa is supposed to be oval. Looks like a flat tire. I hope that turns out ok. I remembered it looking different on the plan.
Equipment pad. Please pay no attention to the tri-chlor dispenser. I got here too late to know what a bad idea that was. I'll turn that off once CYA hits the right level. I would have a hard time switching to SWG at this point.
Jandy 2.5 HP single speed pump. PB was not fan of the VS. We'll see. Also the polaris 280 booster pump.
I am no expert, but it looks like I have three valves on the inlet side. On valve on the return side. I think the three inlet valves are main, skimmers and spa. The returns are spa and waterfall. Looks like I have all the returns on one loop. Too bad if so. I didn't know better when I started. Maybe not. There's a lot of plumbing in there.
One more pad view for all the equipment geeks out there. Not sure what it all does yet, but at least it looks organized.
Finally tile and coping today! Flagstone was called 'Cherokee'. I'll get some closeups when I can.
Spa looking good. We decided on the sawed edge as opposed to the hand chipped edge. PB said the upgrade would be around $1000. The sawed edge is supposed to be smoother on the back anyway.
Whew, that took a while. Sorry for the photo spam, but you are all caught up now. More to come, and thanks for the great community.