It was another non-stop weekend around (but not so much in) the pool. My good friend and dad stopped by on Saturday to help me get the runners put up, which went pretty smooth. Before that I spent the morning moving the receptacles in the decking planters (placed in the wrong spot by our wonderful "electricians" (I use that term loosely)) and preparing the land on the side of the equipment pad for building a stone walk way back to the shower. I sprayed the ground with some Ground Clear week killer, then laid some very thick visquine and bordered the ends with stone and one side (against the fence) with a landscaping border. Then I went to the stone yard before they closed to pick up some small red rocks. After working on the fence, I helped the plumbers reset the overflow lower (as planned). Unfortunately, I didn't double check their measurement
, and they ended up setting it TOO low. So, the next day I had to dig out all around it to try and pull it up 1 inch. All I got though was 1/2 inch (too much piping connected), which isn't terrible, but it's the best I can get it.
Sunday included setting the flagstones and pouring red rocks for the walkway by the pad, extending up 2 valve boxes and setting/connecting the 2 speakers for the decking planters. All this in and around rain showers made it very muddy and difficult earth work, but it all had to be done this weekend because they are planning to finish landscaping and sod this week.
Speaking of landscaping, my stone guy came over this evening to address a few leaks in the waterfall planters. The leaks are just abandoned conduit/pipes running to the back wall that never were sealed off. So every time the irrigation runs, water drains to the back wall and onto the ground making a muddy area. So, they came to assess that this evening and will fix tomorrow. HOWEVER, what we realized when we he started poking around was that the canna looked pretty bad (I knew this and mentioned it several times to his wife (the landscaper))...come to find out the entire planters on either side of the waterfall were holding A LOT of water...it was seriously a kiddy pool for plants, soil and mulch! Nothing was draining out through the drain (the only way it could escape was through those conduits/pipes to the back wall). He had put fabric underneath the drain cover and on top and then rocks, but admitted that he shouldn't have put the fabric on the under side. Sooo, back tomorrow to basically re-do the drainage on both of those beds, replace the 4 canna that looked bad (birds of paradise looked fine), patch the conduit/pipes and restore the beds (i.e. speaker, irrigation, lighting, etc.). At this point, I'm thinking other landscaping may commence this week, but sod looks doubtful...we'll see.
On a positive note, we took the kids night swimming for the first time tonight and my wife got some pretty good shots of our son underwater. He's getting more and more comfortable with going underwater every day!
Elliott underwater
Runners up!
Setting speakers in deck planters
Laying stone walkway (leftover flagstone and creek/moss rock)
Discovering planter drainage issue (stone crew supervising owner 
)
Here is hoping they get it RIGHT soon! 
:cat:
