Ok...I'm ready for some updates.
I'll apologize for being long winded, but this is kind of a "pool build diary" for me to try and remember all the hard work that is going into this project!
I've kind of lost track of the days but I'll post some of the progress and try to keep it in order!
I spent 2 and a half days basically doing nothing but shaping walls and slope. Some of the hardest work I've ever done, with only one other guy helping...sometimes 2...swinging a pick axe all day, then shovelling wet dirt, mud and rocks into 5 gallon buckets and carrying 2 at a time out of the 8 foot deep hopper, over the walls, and out to be dumped. (this is where it was so much extra work for the kidney shape). But in the end, we got where we wanted and were ready for mortar for the floors, slope and deep end walls. (Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of that hard day).
I backfilled the walls with clean sand, and I ran a tamper back and forth like crazy every foot we filled...(I do NOT want issues with my concrete because of settling), then I used crushed rock for the top 6" layer and tamped, and tamped, and tamped!
We had some very heavy rains at this point and things were on hold. The hopper had to be pumped out numerous times and we had to wait until things dried up good before doing the mortar floor, slope and walls.
It ended up being much warmer than expected the day of the pour...so the concrete (mortar) was setting up VERY fast...and caused alot more rough edges than anticipated... So I spent another whole day with a concrete stone and a grinder, smoothing out every single rough edge, bump, ect...
Then taped all the wall seams, added wall foam for a smooth finish, put the gaskets for light niche, skimmer, and drains, and installed the liner (which wasn't easy since it was not marked clearly at all).
It was a great feeling to turn on the hose and start adding water to the liner for the first time!...
we added about a foot, then screwed on the covers for the main drains (not a good feeling piercing that brand new liner! but it went smoothly).
Next day we had alot of rain, and somehow had some ground water seep in under the liner in the hopper, so I had to unhook part of the liner and crawl down underneath with a pump and shop vac to clean it up.
Once that was cleaned up, we clipped the liner back in, started the shop vac to suck out the air, and started putting water to it.
It's now filled almost to the break point but I'm waiting till tomorrow because it was cold and cloudy today and I'm looking for the sun to soften up the liner and help me smooth out the last couple wrinkles in the shallow end before the water hits there.
My concrete guys came to finish up the prep and put in the forms for my concrete walkway/patio. The forms look exactly like I designed and we can't wait for them to pour and stamp/color on Monday or Tuesday!
Siding for the shed was on back order and should be here Monday, meanwhile my electrician should be able to wire up my equipment this weekend.
Once the concrete is poured, my fence is going up and all I have left is a small bit of landscaping around the fence!
What a huge undertaking this has been...but it's well worth the effort to have such a beautiful pool in our back yard!
