New OB in Sacramento Ca

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SWEET!!! Now put her on the line....................Hey Girl!! You did GOOD! So what did you say to get the job done??? WELL DONE!

Dustin go through the whole box carefully to make sure there are not crack or chipped pieces to be on the safe side. Better now than as they are putting it on.

Wait until you see it in the sun!!! Now think long and hard about the color of grout you will have them use. White will make each tile stand out, gray will help them blend in together. Both ways look good so it is just a matter of what you and your wife like. They have grout sticks you can play with to see which color you like the best.

Kim:kim:
 
She said to say thank you.

We didnt think about the possible broken tiles? We have looked at a few but when I get home today I will unbox the rest and inspect, thank you.

It really seems to be moving along now, rock guy thinks he will be "mostly" done by this weekend? So we are very interested in seeing the progress this week. Tile guy possibly this weekend? We are still negotiating regarding coping, but hope to get that finalized by mid--week (looking at custom cut individual sections of Peruvian Travertine) custom sections take about 10 days while the pre-cut pieces are 1 or 2 days out, regardless tile has to get done before we can do coping.

I have been researching places to get the equipment and have a few places that seem to be very responsive, also good reputations & reviews that meet the requirements for Pentairs warranty guidelines, but if anyone has recommendations I am always willing to listen & research! (Thank You in advance).

The grout color???? I will leave most cosmetic decisions to the enforcer my input would probably be in the beige / tan area since that's what the rock color will mostly be, but this way I stay out of trouble.

Hopefully its a busy week as swimming season is approaching quickly!

Thank You,
Dustin
 
Started ordering the equipment, some good prices out there and allot of not so good prices. Not sure if I can list where and how much I pay for the equipment since some might not be supporters of TFP? I do plan to do a spreadsheet at the end of this with prices and providers/suppliers if I can?

Thank You,
Dustin
 
Little bit of an update, still getting the base color on the faux-rock (more detail and color to come then sealing it) he has gotten most of the rock done except the grotto & slide.

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We got the template into Peruvian Stone and are in the queue for him to build our coping (and we have an installer), anxious to see that done!

We are still having some troubles finding a tile guy at a reasonable cost who has done lightstream glass tile before, we have someone stopping by tomorrow fingers crossed.

Once that is handled then we will get finish scheduled and we will be mostly done! (except those little things that I get to do like the deck).

Ordered my testing kit, going to check my ph levels just to play a bit.
 
yeah that lightstream is a special critter to do for sure. Good luck on this one coming by!

Man, oh man that rock work is first class! If they look THIS good now I can't wait to see them with the color on them!!

Kim:kim:
 
Hi Kim,
The rock is almost 100% base color coated, he is going to start on the other colors next week and we are really looking forward to seeing that! (thank you for the compliment (although I had virtually nothing to do with the rock-work)).

Tile and grout were finished today I will get pictures posted when I get home I think they will still need to do some cleanup but looks pretty good from what I can see on my cameras.

Thing that sucks about being an owner/builder is situations like this were you get a bid from someone and then when you go to sign with them to do the work.... "Oh we had a price increase".... so needless to say we wont be going with our original plaster company! We have already spoken to two other companies and a third is getting us a quote by Monday, most companies are 4 weeks out as of now so that works perfect regarding our tile setup time (Lightstreams suggest 28 days). The good thing about being O/B and a consumer is that we control who we do and don't do business with AND wonderful sites like TroubleFreePool Forums where we can tell how some companies treat potential customers... or in my case a would have been customer.

Thank You,
Dustin
 
OH but you picked who is doing your rock work so you do get the credit! I am sure your check will reflect how happy you are with his work!

gurrrrrrrrrrrr on the price increase! REALLY??? Oh well, NEXT!!

Kim:kim:
 
Tile is installed and looks good, now waiting on coping then we can go for pre-deck inspection, I have some work to do before pre-deck but its not to bad. Coping should be installed late next week? Moving slow but it tends to be a hurry up and wait game. rock guy is doing his thing still, I am at a point where I almost regret doing the "natural" or "swimming hole" look, it has taken so long and cost allot extra, oh well too late now.

tile1.jpg

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the picture is crooked, the tile isn't. (mostly)
 
Question about the rock.... since I didn't even know it was an option....

It's formed in gunite, right? Why do faux rock versus the real stuff? I assume it's a little more flexible than real, and probably allows more options since you can run plumbing / lighting through it?

Regardless, it looks really awesome. Kinda makes me wish we had incorporated some rock work (faux or natural) into our build.
 

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Hi CantSwim2047,

I am not 100% but if you present some idea to a pool builder they will find a way to do it, its just another trade in the construction arena and of course charge you accordingly. Pretty cool show on TV extreme swimming pools featuring Lucas Lagoons (I believe) and he does all kinds of natural rock work on big budgets (of course). The faux rock (formed & carved gunite) is allot cheaper and easier to work with than real rock, the cost of finding large rocks, securing those rocks in your pool area, shipping said large rocks, all adds up really quick and so does that final bill. To do what we have in real rock would probably be an additional $50k over what we have already spent? I will say the hard part is finding "good" faux rock people who have the vision, talent, and character to do the job. That is also one of the big benefits, I am able to run low voltage wire, mister lines, lights, irrigation, drainage, and any other lines I might need through the gunite rock without having to do major drilling, I really like your pool & design (really nice decking, with a clean equipment layout pad) cantswim2047 I am pretty sure you all will enjoy it too!

Thank You,
Dustin
 
Hi Kim!

I thought you would like the tile, lots of bling to it that the pictures don't really show :D
Don't know how to say it but I am ok with not having pool parties and stuff like that, as long as the family is happy, I am happy. (Yes, I am the stereotypical IT guy). I do appreciate and like sites like TFP because we can all learn from them and then attempt to do foolish things :D 12 years ago that's how I got stated on being an owner builder for our own house and in all honesty saved nearly 50% of the cost of having it built by a general contractor (which we couldn't afford). You are 100% correct though "You will be glad when it is done" :kim:

:D
Thank You,
Dustin
 
Finally got my coping installed, looks pretty good. I have not had time to take a picture yet I have been working like a dog to get ready for pre-deck inspection. So the coping was installed and finished on Friday and I am thinking I will have Sunday mostly off and can relax a minute? My schedule for the next two weeks regarding pool/patio goes something like this; Saturday trench a few feet and put in the waste line from the outdoor kitchen area to the side of the house (now I have already trenched and installed conduit for electrical and water to where the kitchen area will be when I start building it), I reserved a uhaul to haul most of my gunite/concrete/mortar/wood/misc junk to the dump and get my yard back on the path of looking decent once this pool is done. And then Sunday I was going to throw down the equal points bond wire and then replace the fender on my car that my wife rounded out last week and that was it I was going to call for pre-deck on Monday and get inspection on Tuesday. After passing inspection(hopefully). Then next Friday I reserved a skid seer to start putting down gravel and sand for the decking that is being delivered on Friday approximately 18-19 yards of each.... Well neighbor Bob stops bye to see progress on the pool, Bob has built several pools. Bob is checking things out and giving his perspective on how things are going when he notices that their is no drain in the bottom of the laminar..... Long story shortened (not short) they did not install drains in any of the laminars, you are probably thinking no big deal, install the drains? Well the Laminar drains are under the Laminar which after you account for the 1 1/2" pvc that you need to use the trench needs to be 21 1/2" under the surface and needs to go at some sort of slope to drain. I had to go under all my pipes and gas lines twice (2 laminars) to get to the area that I was going to trench (again this has to be done with a slope so its been tricky but so far so good). I am pretty sure my neighbors hate me as they had/have to listen to jack-hammering most of the evening Saturday, all day yesterday, tonight after work, and most of the day Tuesday, I am pretty sure they will be just as happy when I am done with this project as I will. The only thing I can say about this last minute surprise is that; I am happy to catch this now since the deck isn't already installed and I don't have to remove large portions of it. But I also feel like I have been run-over and then they hit reverse, then 4-wheel drive for good measure. I have to take pictures of what I have done and then I will try to post.
 
thanks for the hug, anything other than gentle hurts right now :? The dangers of owner builder... if you don't know they are going to get you somehow? I would still do it again as the amount saved is still way up there as opposed to hiring someone and guess what they still might not put a drain in? Going to put the kids to work tonight, back-filling and watering the dirt as it goes into the trench for good compaction.
 
This is trenching for 2 of the Laminars
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Some of the tunneling under the existing pipes/gas/water lines
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Picture of the grotto and a step back view of the coping
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More coping and tile:
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And the Best kind of Labor... free & child! (just ask Kathie Lee!)
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