I knew I wasn't crazy! The stone on the spa is lovely but it was not looking like what I ordered. I knew natural stone had variances but this was not right!
I grabbed a box of what was being installed and it said "Sierra Blue". We ordered "Oceana". Now we opened a box of stone when it arrived and it said "Oceana" but we couldnt get to the other boxes to read them or open them due to how the crate and pallets were packed. But we just figured they were all the same as they were ordered from the same store and delivered at the same time.
When I looked at the stone last night on the spa, it was in the shade and evening time so figured maybe I just need to see it in the sunlight. But when I went out there today, it still did not look right and there was another box of the flat stone by the porch and I went to look at it and that's when I saw it was the wrong color.
So I had the guys stop installing the stone as they had almost done half of the spa. Until we talk to the PB to figure out what is going to be swapped out (stone or pavers) we don't want any more work done on the stone.
So the "Sierra Blue" that is installed now is beautiful esp with the tile as the tile pulls the blue out of the stone. But it makes the pavers look like flesh color bc the stone is so "cool" and the pavers are "warm". I have left 2 voice mails and 1 text to PB but I know it is a holiday weekend. But also, you are a business owner and have a crew working today so you have to be able to answer calls when your crews are working.
This shows the difference... The top is what is on the spa now. The bottom is the picture from the store that we took of what we ordered.
This has the pavers under the stone. The top stone is the color we ordered and the bottom is the wrong stone that is 3/4 of the shipment and what is on the spa. Here you can see the difference in how it does or does not go with the pavers. I personally do not like mixing colors of different temperatures.
This is the spa now with the Blue Sierra stone on it. It is beautiful as you can see but not with the pavers. The guys have done an excellent job leveling out the spa wall and cutting the stone and laying it to fit the curve. Very, very lovely.
**** Update ****
While trying to type this post, I heard back from the PB. He was out on a boat and couldn't hear his phone (I figured he was not able to hear the phone bc he has been great with communication so far). He said we will get this all sorted out and make sure we are happy but he wants to come out and see everything and we will figure out the best thing to do. I get it from a business aspect that yes he wants to make us happy but also not lose money but I have confidence we will be happy regardless. I told him not to worry with coming out today as it is a holiday weekend and nothing can be done and we will see him Monday and figure it out.
Also, after talking with our tile guys and seeing their work, we have come up with an idea for our fire pit. We had the PB order the stone and travertine for our fire pit and we were going to build it ourselves as we built out stone retaining wall that used to be on the patio. But now that we found more glass tile in the house and we should have some extra left over, we thought about having some used in the fire pit. Hubby (Brooksrandy81) actually came up with the design. He thought about paying our tile guys to apply the stone and travertine for the fire pit and have them cut the fire pit coping so that they could inlay a strip of the glass tile in the middle all around the top of the fire pit. Seeing these guys work, it would not be hard for them to do.
Furthermore, being as visual as I am, I had hubby place the travertine on top of the wall and spa as right now all we have is one side bull nose travertine and one side flat polished. We had originally thought to have the bullnose side on the inside of the spa and the flat side on the outside, but we had told the store we wanted the flat, unfinished side, not polished. We also wanted the raw edge for all of the wall and columns. More travertine needs to be ordered but looks like we get the chance to see the polished flat and the bull nose "in place" to make a decision.
Lastly, I had him place a cinder block in place of the columns. Originally we thought of doing 18" square columns. But I am wondering about how far the column will stick out behind the wall and if we should do a smaller column or do a rectangle column. We purchased items to make our own fire bowls that will be 21" at the top and had thought of doing a 24" square top. But if we make the columns smaller, we made need to adjust the top too....
More pictures!
This is an example of the coping for the fire pit. I had mentioned doing it on top of the spa too! Hah but the tile will be inlayed and flush with the travertine.
Our fire pit will be a square with the base with stone measuring 40" square and 18" tall. So the glass tile will make a little square on the top, flat surface
Bull nose for wall cap?
Or flat? This is polished but they make a flat that is rough and natural
This is how the coping will be on the spa with fkat, polished on the outside. We again had thought about having the natural, rough side on the outside but what was sent is this stuff but probably for the best if you have to sit down with your legs on the outside of the spa, it won't hurt.
I had him move it to see how the bull nose would look. The spa was supposed to be poured so that a 12x24" piece of travertine would fit as the coping without a seam in the center but bc the spa walls were so wavy, the guys had to bulk up the walls so much that now they need more than one piece of travertine to go the width of the top of the spa. So figured if we have to have more ordered, we could decide to have bull nose on the outside and inside or just one side... Thoughts?
So this piece of block is 15" wide. This is how a column 15" wide would look..
And this is how far behind the wall a 15" deep would extend (the back of the wall will have stone on it so will add about 1-2" of depth so the wall)
And the block with this paver is just over 18" if we did an 18" column like we originally thought
And how 18" would look if we did 18" depth
So hope that wasnt too confusing! I have been trying to type this post for over 3 hours lol but kept getting pulled away!
