Pool, Patio, Fire-pit Build - So. California

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We have the Paver Stones going in over the past two days, they are an Angelus Tumbled/Blended Antique Cobble in Sandstone Mocha.
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The old 1960's Patio Cover is still up for the time being. We plan on redoing our cover soon, just not at the moment. The crew will be paving around it and when we pull the posts out, the pavers will drop in and cover the openings. We plan to have a wide span structure that will probably be an Alumawood type build.
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My pool builder installed these door alarms to get us past our gate/door alarm inspection yesterday, and we passed!:thumleft: That being said, does anyone have a recommendation for a less obnoxious model? This one is insanely loud and has left us in fear of stepping outside:rolleyes:
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We are now pebbled! We used Stonescapes "Aqua Cool" with Abalone for some added bling. The pavers are almost done with some detail work last for tomorrow. They will come and "detail" the Pebble tomorrow then we start the water hose:party:
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Here's a close up of the different materials and how they ended up tying together
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Once they start the water do NOT stop it! You can slow it down by taking a hose out or turning the flow down some but do not stop it all of the way until the water is half way up the waterline tile. If you stop it your risk a ring forming on the plaster :( We had someone one come to TFP to ask about how they could fix their brand new plaster for this very reason. I had a big sad for them but no help :(

Is Penny asking "Are we having fun yet?" or "Are we there yet?" or "NOW can I have my yard back?" LOVE her face!

Look at the tiny details they are doing with the stone work! Artist with a big saw for sure on your property! I like they are coming back in the morning when they are fresh to do the final detail work.

Here is my mud puppy! He was playing in the pond and this is how he tired to come into the house :roll: No doggy! Not until after a bath!

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I am still looking for the one we have of him and his best friend we were babysitting. TWO big mud puppies!

Kim:kim:
 
Love the design - couple questions if you don't mind:

What are the dimensions of your firepit and bench (and distance between the pit and bench) - I know you posted a plan but I can't read the dims.
Is the precast coping on those a pre-made product, or was it custom made to order for your project?
 
kimkats said:
Once they start the water do NOT stop it! You can slow it down by taking a hose out or turning the flow down some but do not stop it all of the way until the water is half way up the waterline tile. If you stop it your risk a ring forming on the plaster :( We had someone one come to TFP to ask about how they could fix their brand new plaster for this very reason. I had a big sad for them but no help :(

Is Penny asking "Are we having fun yet?" or "Are we there yet?" or "NOW can I have my yard back?" LOVE her face!

Look at the tiny details they are doing with the stone work! Artist with a big saw for sure on your property! I like they are coming back in the morning when they are fresh to do the final detail work.

Here is my mud puppy! He was playing in the pond and this is how he tired to come into the house :roll: No doggy! Not until after a bath!

View attachment 71499

I am still looking for the one we have of him and his best friend we were babysitting. TWO big mud puppies!

Kim:kim:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the pointer on the water feed Kim! I talked to my pool builder last night and he gave me that specific instruction as well so he probably has seen that very thing happen as well. I'd be so dissapointed if I goofed up my new finish due to such a simple error! We have an auto feed and he specifically said no to the auto feed for initial filling as it might stain the wall as well.

You aren't kidding about the detail work, it's unbelievable how much dust comes off this stuff when cut. I was telling my wife that we need to give our neighbors a nice gift when this is all finished for putting up with the 7am noise and dust. Everyone loves fruitcake, right? :pukel:

I think Penny is understanding what this big hole in the ground is as she ran to the shallow end and peered down yesterday. I think she was confused that there was no water in it though.

That photo of your pup is great:lol: He looks confused as to what the big fuss is for! What was his name again? We don't have any nearby ponds (that I know of) but the local dog park sometimes has some faulty sprinkler problems and mud pits develop. Penny managed to wallow her way through it before I realized it was there. Getting her home in the car took some creative covering of the car seats for sure.
 
SunshineNative said:
Love the design - couple questions if you don't mind:

What are the dimensions of your firepit and bench (and distance between the pit and bench) - I know you posted a plan but I can't read the dims.
Is the precast coping on those a pre-made product, or was it custom made to order for your project?
Click to expand...

Hi,

The total Diameter of the fire pit is 16ft. The distance between the pit and the seating wall I don't have for you at the moment but will be able to get to you a little later today. For the coping, none was precast but instead, poured in place. They did the pool coping, fire pit coping and spa coping in one shot

I will say at 16', we have space for chairs at the fire pit in the area opposite the seating wall without risk of falling off the landing accidently. The sizing of It turned out just as we hoped it would.

I'll get you better dimensions today
 
His name is Boss as in the boss of my heart LOL He is a BIG goof! That look was all "BUT mom!!! I was having fun!" As you can tell from the wall he was in "his room" aka laundry where he goes until I can clean him up AGAIN! We have a pond on our property so him getting wet and kind of muddy is common event but this level of mud was new! We had been without rain for a little while so the pond had gone down...............hence the MUD!
 

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kimkats said:
His name is Boss as in the boss of my heart LOL He is a BIG goof! That look was all "BUT mom!!! I was having fun!" As you can tell from the wall he was in "his room" aka laundry where he goes until I can clean him up AGAIN! We have a pond on our property so him getting wet and kind of muddy is common event but this level of mud was new! We had been without rain for a little while so the pond had gone down...............hence the MUD!
Click to expand...

Boss looks like he knows the clean up routine though, "if you wanna play you gotta pay". Though, for him it's play, for you it's pay:)

Ever think about building a dog shower stall near or in the laundry room? I thought of that for Penny but we usually do the play in the yard with the hose method while I sneak in the shampoo.

Oh, and we have water going in now!
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He is 125lbs and a B.I.G. boy! It would have to be a huge anything. Nope we just use the hose and call it good. He LOVES to be towels off! He does his "happy dance" with he sees the towel so it is all good! He will even shake on command so that helps get him dry faster.

Look at that color! LOVE it!

Now know you might see a bit of green in the beginning. That is NORMAL! It will go to the finial color as your brush and get the water balanced. It can take up to 3 months or so to show the true color.

I can see the sparkle! SWEET!

Kim:kim:
 
12/16/17 Start up day!20171216_150700.jpg
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I was out there skimming with my new net and found it quite enjoyable, is this feeling going to wear off in a week?:-D 20171216_100956.jpg Our pool builder Bobby, mentioned giving our cleaner a name, "Robby" is what we ended up with:lol:
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I just realized each photo looks like a different color pool... It's wild how much the time of day affects the coloring
 
I still LOVE to get in the pool and vacuum it in the summer! Not as much fun during the burrrrrrr time when I do it from the deck though.

Okay now lets play.........get some ping pong balls or such. Throw them in your pool when Penny is not looking. Watch them to see how your water moves. You can adjust your returns (eyeballs) to get the best flow. This will help with your skimmer action as well. You do not want the returns to ripple the top of the water though. You do want a good rotation of water so the leaves end up in the skimmer. You can also angle them towards the bottom to keep it all mixed up good.

Penny needs to stay out for a while as the plaster is not up to her nails yet. Now if you have cut back good then it might be safe but really don't want to mess up that pretty plaster.

Kim:kim:
 
kimkats said:
I still LOVE to get in the pool and vacuum it in the summer! Not as much fun during the burrrrrrr time when I do it from the deck though.

Okay now lets play.........get some ping pong balls or such. Throw them in your pool when Penny is not looking. Watch them to see how your water moves. You can adjust your returns (eyeballs) to get the best flow. This will help with your skimmer action as well. You do not want the returns to ripple the top of the water though. You do want a good rotation of water so the leaves end up in the skimmer. You can also angle them towards the bottom to keep it all mixed up good.

Penny needs to stay out for a while as the plaster is not up to her nails yet. Now if you have cut back good then it might be safe but really don't want to mess up that pretty plaster.

Kim:kim:
Click to expand...

Hi Kim,

I'm not home today unfortunately but I do have my pool on my mind. I didn't notice any "eyeballs" on my returns yesterday, are these threaded in somehow? I'll see my PB tomorrow and ask him about that...but yeah, don't recall seeing them.

There's a local guy my PB contracts with that's a Pentair whiz that will be coming by to get me set up with the automation, dial in my "Rebel Robby" to function somewhere near 18-1900 rpm, and answer any questions I may have.

Any suggestions for things I should inquire about to get some training on this stuff? At this point, I don't know what I don't know! Easytouch 8 w Screenlogic.

I definitely want to label my piping at the pad with direction of flow and function.

Penny has been doing a great job of look but don't touch, I'm really proud of her. We are using this as training opportunity for her and she's doing great so far. She has a history of tunnel vision when it comes to pools and she is in before we can stop her.
 
Here is an example of what they can look like:

Hayward 3/4 Insider Hydrostream (SP1421D)

See the "ribbed" ring? It is threaded. That allows you to loosen it from the pipe to move the inside part this way or that way. It can be taken out all of the way as well.

Things to ask to learn:
-How to set a schedule.
-How to set you freeze protection.
-How to use your fancy valves.
-How to close your main drain.
-How to close your skimmer.
-How to have only the spa running without the overflow so you will not lose any heated water when you get to use your heater!
-Take pics and write notes about what he says. Go in right away to put the notes with the pics asap.

We can/will help you figure anything out you forget or he does not tell you. We have a good write up on how to clean your DE filter with pics for when the time comes.

I am glad to hear Penny is learning the does and don'ts! Smart girl there. I wonder if you got a nylon harness to put on her to "signal" to her she can get in the pool? My dogs know when I put the harness on them it is time to go to the river with the Seadoo. Man do we get some happy dances for that!

Oh and get this guys number and permission for call on him if needed just in case LOL

Kim:kim:
 
Pool looks Awesome! Great color choices!!

Your plumbing looks very familiar! Pacific pool plumbing does a high % of the SoCal pools from what I hear...those guys sure know what they’re doing and do first class work IMO.
 
Kroezer95 said:
Pool looks Awesome! Great color choices!!

Your plumbing looks very familiar! Pacific pool plumbing does a high % of the SoCal pools from what I hear...those guys sure know what they’re doing and do first class work IMO.
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Hey, thanks! Yes, Pacific did the piping, I was really impressed with their attention to detail, speed, and design. My builder mentioned them as being the best and only uses them for his builds.

I take it you had Pacific do your piping as well? If so, is it all holding up well?
 

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