Our Build in Magnolia, Texas

[Goob]

First post of what I am sure will be many. Just found this site after talking to a friend about our search for a pool builder and our pool.

Wow! Tons of information and it is overwhelming just reading about others' builds and things they caught before it was too late and the items that, unfortunately, didn't. Each night I have read a few new build threads and come up with half a sheet of new questions to ask our pool builder. I am already appreciative of the knowledge and friendliness of the members. Thank you.

My wife and I started our pool builder search just about three weeks ago. We started with 5 builders and were able to quickly eliminate one while talking to the sales rep at our house. He didn't seem very interested. Two others showed us a design that didn't even seem to take into consideration what we wanted and the yard we were dealing with- my wife had a good description for those, "clipart pools". One came back with a beautiful plan but it just wasn't the design for us. The fifth builder, and the first one we talked to, came back with what we are going with. It took into account what we wanted and what we were going to have to deal with.

Unique to most of the area, we actually have a slope that leads down to a creek in our back yard. I think our builder used this to her advantage in designing our pool. She created a small infinity edge for the hot tub and pool. Extra expense but I like the idea.

View attachment Pool Dimensions.pdf


The inside pool dimensions are about 34x17 and the spa 6x9. There is a catch basin at the bottom more for sound around the fire pit and for the infinity edge. The coping will be flagstone and the decking will be spray deck. We thought about pavers or flagstone but thought that it would look busy with the size and detract from the pool.


We have the following equipment and materials being used-

Pentair Intelliflo 3.0HP Variable Speed Pump
Pentair Whisperflo 2.0HP High Performance Pump
Undecided on LEDs
Pentair Clean & Clear Plus Cartridge Filter 520 soft
Auto Fill
Overflow
Kreepy Krauler Prowler
Pentair Easytouch Remote 8 Function
Chlorinator
Pentair never lube valves


I am more than open to ideas on the design and the equipment. I hope to keep this thread as somewhat of a diary of the thrill and frustration that we will be going through in the next few months so that hopefully I can look back and laugh at the whole thing while sitting by the pool.

Please fire away.

 

[Marlahoutex]

Welcome to TFP! Love your design! How are you chlorinating your pool? SWG? Bleach?

 

[Helen203]

What a pretty design!

 

[JamieP]

I agree. That is a beautiful design! It's going to be great when it's finished. I will look forward to watching your build.

 

[ozdiver]

Wonderful design.
What is your depth profile; sport of diving?
You may be able to go with a smaller Intelliflo VS pump for the primary. That seems like a lot of pump for this size pool.
I assume the Whisperflo is for the water features, it even seems big for what appears to be only some bubblers.

 

[SuzfromTexas]

Exquisite comes to mind when I look at the drawings. I usually don't pay too much attention to anything in those renderings except for the pool. I know that the decking and landscaping ideas often come from the designer trying to embellish the pool design, and they aren't from the pool owner.

In this case, I love the hardscaping and landscaping features as well as the pool's. Were these ideas ya'll gave the designer? If not, are you considering her suggestions? Would the hardscaping and landscaping work well with your actual space? I think the ornamental tree set in the upper patio is spectacular! How would that work with the view from inside the house?

When you get a chance, can we see some photos of your actual yard and the slope down to the creek? I'm so intrigued by your designs!

Sorry I haven't commented on your specs, but I can't take my mind away from the designs!

Congrats on your new adventure!

Take care,
Suz.

 

[Goob]

I appreciate all the comments. It's daunting to us with the cost and knowing that there is so much that could be changed to make it just right, but this design hit the right note from the beginning. The only item that we changed (actually added) was the "planter" from the top patio that breaks up the first two steps. With some type of smaller tree there, it will help shade the sun which sets in the opposite corner. Originally, the designer had the upper deck broken up with a flagstone path due to all the concrete up there. This allowed us to cut down the costs considerably and still add something to soften the patio a little.

Marla, this will be a chlorine/bleach pool. Each builder recommended to stay away from salt for their own reasons. It just helped us confirm what we were leaning towards.

Oz, I forgot to put the depths. It is currently 3.5' down to 6'. We have a tall 7 year old at 54" but didn't want him to feel like he couldn't stand up the whole time in the pool. Me at just over 6' wanted to be able to not have to stand up the whole time and thus didn't stop at 5.5'. We are debating going with 4' at the shallow end as our son is growing like a weed and probably would only have 1 more year (even next summer) where he would be able to stand up in the shallow end without being nose underwater. Comments?

Also, I'll ask about the Intelliflo size. I'm not smart on much of the hardware and what is actually "needed"? I think the Whisperflo is for the basin at the bottom. I'll have to ask again.

Sun, you read my mind. Below are pics of the yard. Forgot to take them yesterday. Again, the drawings are pretty much from first take and will all be incorporated. We told the builder we always wanted to extend the patio as it seems like a natural area to pave and flows good from our living room with the big sliding doors at the back of the house. We have also wanted to put in a couple of retaining walls to add some flowerbeds near the house and to help with controlling the runoff. The ornamental will break up some of the view from the house, but I really think it is needed to break up all of the concrete that will be up there. You can also see the guesstimated spray paint edges of the pool in some of the pictures.

I have had a comment that the curves of the beds and the decking around the pool aren't in harmony with the geometric pool. We actually like it, but I wonder what others who have gone through this think about it. Comments?

We may add another foot to the decking at each end of the pool and another 2 foot to the diameter of the fire pit.

I'll try to keep this thread up to date, but we just submitted the plans to the POA so it may be a couple of weeks for any real progress.

Thanks again, guys. Back to research!




From the middle of the patio

From the sliding doors

Looking from the sun shelf side

From the fire pit area

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From the deep end corner

From the grill area

Dimensions

 

[platipus]

Very nice. I agree whole heartedly with Suz's comment above on the hardscape. The integration of the planting areas really soften the design and I think you are going to truly enjoy having that extra green space. If it hasn't been discussed already with the builder, you will of course need irrigation run to all of the planters. When they do that I would have them run a dry PVC line as well to each one that runs back to the edge of your decking in such a way that you can run low voltage cabling for landscape lighting. Also consider an outlet in the tree planter for Christmas lighting if you are inclined to holiday decorating. Lastly, if you do run the dry PVC, consider making it large enough to also handle a speaker cable if you wanted to get some rock speakers installed later on.

Regards,
plat.

 

[kimkats]

I am SO in for this one!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!

Kim

 

[ozdiver]

One thing that you will have, that not many of us have is a constant level pool.
Ours go up or down an inch or so based on autofill settings and overflow pipe height, rainfall and evaporation.
Yours, due to the pool overflow into the cistern will always be at exactly that level.

In fact your overflow pipe will have to be by necessity in the cistern.

 

[Goob]

Platinum, all covered except I hadn't thought of an outlet for each planter for Christmas lighting (we decorate so much that Halloween isn't safe!). I had asked for an outlet at one of the fire pit planters so that we wouldn't have to run the robot electric cord as far, but I think I'll add for each planter. Sounds cheap compared to finding out later. Irrigation and lighting will be run. I had speaker wire run over by the grill when the house was built just for this reason. I just need to figure out where I want the speakers put- probably by the fire pit, the patio already has four speakers.

Oz, hadn't even thought of that. Guess I'll really have to make sure I keep the water tuned correctly to avoid any lines being etched at the constant level.

 

[Helen203]

Are you going to keep the zipline?? We had one when the kids were younger then eventually gifted it to a neighbor.

 

[northrn]

Love the design!

 

[philboyj]

The PB certainly has paid attention to detail. Love the design - especially how they have added flagstone/ boulder design elements on some of the steps and around the pool and at the firepit. Looks great while also keeping costs down.

The firepit seems far away from the house but it looks like you already had one setup in the same spot so that should probably not be an issue. Now that you are having a kitchen and additional seating near the house, you can consider making firepit as phase 2 - if cost is a concern. I would imagine that the heated spa area will get a lot more use than the firepit area going forward.

As Suz mentioned, that tree location should be carefully considered ( which it seems that you have) - but tree there could also mean twigs, leaves, birds, etc dropping stuff onto hardscape that may end up in your pool.

Looking forward to seeing your dream pool taking shape.

 

[Nursenini]

What a great design! I'll be in to watch this one!

Welcome to TFP!!