O/B IN AZ VERY SOON....FINALLY STARTED 12/28

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

We have a hole...the bottom left is about 3ft too wide but well fix that with the forms and shotcrete. Hard to tell if hight is good but looks good so far. He tried to dif the beaches but they crumbled a bit ha..oh well just more concrete. Had to get my helpers to help with the measurements.

Now I guess you can say things are getting pretty serious

 

[kimkats]

Let the dirt begin!!!!

Kim

 

[Nikilyn]

Let the dirt begin!!!!

Kim

Just dirt, not mud, because Arizona doesn't believe in rain .

 

[mslaman]

Lake Havasu? Why do you need a pool. Youhave a lake and a river! Let me guess. You compromised and got a pool like we did?

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

You would think that the lake is great, but it better to look at than to use it. There are tons of people on it over the weekends from CA that don't know how to operate a boat and drive way too fast, so we don't have a boat. We can goto to the "beach" but when its 110+ out its hard to be there longer than an hour with only a ez-up shade. The kids like it, but we are all VERY fair skin and extended time in heat/sun doesn't go well for us haha.

It will be great to hang out for an hour in the pool, go inside cool off, eat, relax and go back out later. Its typically 115+ starting in May/June here and 120s come July, so a nice relaxing pool is where our mind is at ha. The lake/beach isn't our scene but if we do go, it's real early for an hour or so, the sand heats up quick haha.

 

[Nikilyn]

I totally get what you are saying about not wanting to go somewhere. Our community has a pool but I really don’t like going to it. It is way too hot to pack everything up, drive there, walk thru the clubhouse then feel like you have to stay for a certain length of time after all that effort. I really don’t like it so we rarely went.

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

It is way too hot to pack everything up, drive there, walk thru the clubhouse then feel like you have to stay for a certain length of time after all that effort.

This is exactly how we feel just going to my parents house to use their pool and they live only 5 minutes away. Tons of bags, toys, floats its just a pain with 2 little ones its just easier to stay inside ha. We cant wait for ours to get done so the Mrs can hang out with them outback and it wont be a hassle to dry off and get things together to leave....which can be a 15 minute ordeal just to pack up to leave.

i still have to pick up some lumber to get the forms going, so hopefully by weeks end or the weekend the guy will be out here forming up so he can start plumbing...

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

its been a busy 10 days...plumbing id done, rebar is done, lights are located and need to finish rough electrical and then time to call for inspection. i forgot to get some pictures today, but will tomorrow of everything.

we met with someone today for plaster and well i knew pebble was going to be more, but didnt expect double. so question is....do we just do some white quartz plaster or spend the extra for pebble? we were told that basic plaster lasts about 8-10 years and pebble will be about 15 years....so in 8-10 years the cost to re-plaster is a couple thousand more than the plaster job the first time meaning we would still be a couple thousand more than just doing pebble originally. i also prefer a couple options for color...either deep dark blue or real light grey pebble, she doesnt have a big preference, besides nothing looking green or tear up the kids feet.

any insight on mini pebble is greatly appreciated...or comparisons from experience.

 

[Nikilyn]

You are asking the same question I am. I want the texture and price of quartz but I want the color of pebble. CDC Pools in Chandler has sample pools that I walked in. Their mini pebble isn't rough but it isn't smooth like quartz. It's such a difficult decision. What brand of pebble is it?

 

[kimkats]

@Dirk will be able to talk of the feel of pebble.

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

niki i think he said it was stonescapes mini pebble. we could do the dark plaster, but because the hard water here we have to sign a wavier acknowledging the possibility of splotching. he said we can add glass to the pebble and enhance the sparkle for basically no charge, we could also add it to the plaster too but the process is different and might not see the true look of glass for a while.

theres so many choices and its not like paint color for a house you can redo it if you dont like it...it very expensive to fix ha

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

1 WEEK AWAY!!!! So i am calling for inspection this week and planning to put down the shotcrete next Saturday. Met with the crew today when they were at a friends house doing his pool and let me know we will be on for Saturday, a week earlier than we planned...no complaints here. I will add the bonding wire tomorrow and run a couple sleeves but should be good to go after that. I am calling to schedule inspection on Monday so if there are any issues, i have time to fix and call for another inspection mid week.

side note not too much pool related....submitted plans for the pool house/casita yesterday so we hope to hear back sooner rather than later, but they told me the city is about 3-4 weeks out (about 10-14 days behind normal). hopefully we can get that knocked out pretty quick so we can get water in the pool in april. we need the building going in order to get the walls finished and then finalized for plaster. if not ill just get a fence up to pass for plaster, just the yard will be a mess for the kids bday party.

 

[kimkats]

1 week??? OH YEAH!! It is getting closer and closer!!!

Share your plans for the pool house so we can enjoy that build as well! We might have some ideas for that as well!

Kim

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

Yeah closer and closer and pretty fast considering the dig was started on Dec 28 and finished jan 4. The last couple weeks nothing happened besides my work on the weekends but thats part of O/B. The upside of O/B is I don't have to wait on the big companies to do anything, just a rebar and plumber on the side and I'm doing the rest.

The pool house is definitely going to be a bigger project and more complicated han the pool but another O/B to save some money and time.

The big slider will be 10ft off the pool deck. This is an original drawing, the pool is now 15x30 swim area and the building is now 26x21 not the 25x23ft as per my drawing. The rear wall is now going to be a fence and is allowed to push back to the property line.

Can't wait to have it all completed. The goal was May but now I just need to get far enough done to get water in the pool by then. The guys building the retaining wall took an extra 6 weeks to start which put me about a month behind and now not getting the plans submitted 2 weeks ago, add another 3 weeks to that, I am real far behind. Im getting bids now on concrete and plumbing to get out here in a month to keep on a decent schedule. So along as everything is 99% done by September thats the goal....landscaping might have to wait another year depending on funds ha.

 

[kimkats]

I know where I am crashing the next time I am at Lake Havasu!!! ❤

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

I know where I am crashing the next time I am at Lake Havasu!!! ❤

Haha thanks Kim I'll add you to the list. We were going to just do the space with a bathroom, but figured for a little bit more, we can add a bedroom for friends and family. So with that I turned the space and changed it up to make it work, when we thought about it more we took out the garage door and made it a big slider, itll change the look and feel but more practical.

Can't wait to get it going....and FINISHED

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

Passed inspection yesterday and officially getting shotcrete on sat...just hope it doesn't rain too bad or at all. itll finally look like something and i can start to clean up these hills and back fill. i will have to remind myself to take pictures because im sure ill just keep staring at them working haha.

 

[Nikilyn]

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

Yesterday was a long day/morning. The concrete batch plant closes at 10 on Saturdays, so the guys started early. The crew showed up at 4:30 to start prepping the backer boards and the protective tarps. The first concrete truck showed up at 530, they flashed the pool and mainly back wall with the first truck. Then the second truck showed up and it was go time. Several hours and 2 more trucks later they finished up. A total of 40 yards of crete. Glad I was here for the couple little issues that came up or I saw, but all said and done, it went pretty smoothly, minus the busted pipe.

Finished just a bit bigger than 16x30, and deeper 4' in the shallow and 7' 4" in the deep. Because the extra depth in the shallow, we added another small step. Each step is 9" high besides the last in 4".

We are about done with the pool, and then its on to the casita/pool house project. We are waiting to finish the pool until the casita is close to done so we don't get trash/wood/nails on the new plaster. We will get to the point of plaster over the next several weeks but not shooting for plaster until April.

 

[BUT ITS A DRY HEAT]

A couple pictures after some bonding time. Lots of bonding today since I won't be able to water until 530 tomorrow night.