Waxahachie, TX Owner Build - A race to beat the baby!

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It has to be easy to get also. I can get my chlorine for a little bit cheaper at the *gasp* pool store BUT it would be an extra trip just to get. So I get it from the ACE Hardware down the road from me that is almost on the way home. IF I am going to be running around town AND I need chlorine I will take the truck and get the pool store chlorine.

Kim
 
Chlorine Price Per Ounce Calculator


Above is a calculator that lets you enter in the data to give you a breakdown of just what you're paying. This was created by a member some time ago but is still one of the best I've found. Also, with WalMart being so close you may also want to check back by their pool supply sections. Frequently they have 2 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine for right around $6.50. Works out to be slightly a better deal and in my experience is just as fresh.
 
Leebo said:
Chlorine Price Per Ounce Calculator


Above is a calculator that lets you enter in the data to give you a breakdown of just what you're paying. This was created by a member some time ago but is still one of the best I've found. Also, with WalMart being so close you may also want to check back by their pool supply sections. Frequently they have 2 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine for right around $6.50. Works out to be slightly a better deal and in my experience is just as fresh.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Leebo. That looks like the calculator I had come across in the past. Very helpful.

I'll have to check out the pool section in our Walmart to see if they carry the higher concentration chlorine with as good of turnover for freshness. Thanks for the tip!
 
It looks like our concrete decking repair/spraydeck application might start as early as tomorrow, Thursday at the latest! The company just wants to get it done with the stretch of good weather we have this week before rain starts on Sunday. Once the decking is done we'll just wait for a window to do the final plaster. The one concern I had about scheduling this way is the possibility of the deck getting marred by the plaster process, but the plaster guy reassured me that they take extreme care, plus, since it's the same company doing both jobs, they will make sure to fix anything that gets messed up by the plasterers. So that gives me some peace of mind. It's good to be able to take advantage of the beautiful weather this week to move things along a little.
 
Hi Jamie... it has been a long time since I have spoken with you... I guess you just decided to abandoned me after my part was through... LoL
I see things are actually happening... Holy Moly 30 pages worth of things... Haha I just sent my daughter this thread... she is also pregnant and wanting to start her pool build right away... I doubt that she will read all of this but you have a special way of bringing out all of the pertinent info from everyone... Good job and I can't wait to see what the final pictures look like...!!!!
 
JELPoolEngineer said:
Hi Jamie... it has been a long time since I have spoken with you... I guess you just decided to abandoned me after my part was through... LoL
I see things are actually happening... Holy Moly 30 pages worth of things... Haha I just sent my daughter this thread... she is also pregnant and wanting to start her pool build right away... I doubt that she will read all of this but you have a special way of bringing out all of the pertinent info from everyone... Good job and I can't wait to see what the final pictures look like...!!!!
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Hi John! Time flies when you're having fun (and/or pregnant and stressed out, as the case may be in my situation!) ;-) and I had intended to send you a link to this thread once there was something tangible worth showing, but then things got busy and I forgot! But I'm glad you tracked it down and that it may be of some help to your daughter. Is she doing an owner build? Did you help her design her pool?

The concrete repair and prep for the spraydeck happened today, with the actual spraydeck scheduled for tomorrow. I think it's going to look great! Unfortunately we had one coping piece damaged by a hand grinder that somehow got away from the guy using it, leaving a ~12" curved grind mark on it. But these guys work for the same company that made and installed the coping, so it should be easy for them to replace it. Should be... I hope I don't have an issue with that.

The electrician also came by to reinstall the cord to the power center for my salt cell and wired it all up for me so I can register the new cell as having been installed by a certified contractor. It occurred to me that if I did it myself, although easy enough, wouldn't actually qualify for the extended warranty, so I made sure to get it all hooked up at the same time.

It looks like rain on and off all next week, so it won't be until at least after that that we can do the plaster. But that will give me a little more time to get my chemicals in order, and some longer hoses if I want to try to fill the pool from all three hose bibs on the house instead of just the closer 2. Would using all three bibs instead of two make that much of a difference? I don't think we have especially high water pressure here. If we do use all three, I'll have to send the kids to grandma's house for the time it takes to fill the pool, because there won't be any water getting to the inside of the house for the essentials of daily living! ;-)

I'll post pics of the spraydeck once they are done tomorrow.
 
Jamie do you want me to tell you it will go faster with all the bibs going so you HAVE to send the kids to Grandma??????? LOL

But yes it will go faster but I am not sure how much faster. Have the kids do an experiment.......5 gal bucket and a timer. One bib fills __ fast, two __fast and three __ fast. Might as well make a lesson out of it.

Kim
 
Thanks, ladies! Now that you put it that way... I just might consider having the "pool filling day" be my little vacation. :) But, as fun as Grandma's is, I don't think the kids would go for me sending them off while the plaster is being done... That's just too exciting to miss!
 

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Well Jamie, yes I am helping her design her pool... but I don't think she is going to do the owner build thing. She is having pool companies come in and give her estimates. She actually lives in Midlothian so she isn't too far from you and may encounter some of the rock issues you discovered upon excavation. I hope she would read some of your adventures and I tried to make them sound like a lot of playful banter but she is quite busy doing interior design work... she has her hands full. It is good to hear from you and I am proud of you beyond belief... the way you get out there and make those guys do things correctly... the yard drain especially brought a tear to my eye... knowing what we went through to make a good plan for your less than ideal situation, it would be so typical for them to fudge it up so that it didn't work properly. Big props to you and your breakfast burritos....!!!!
 
Thank you, John! Your sweet note made my day!

Today they finished the spray deck. It took them 3 days for everything. The first day was sanding the whole thing and then applying the underlay/skimcoat of concrete. Second day was texture and first coat of color. And today was the second coat of color. We really like how it looks and how it ties in our decking with the existing concrete under the pergola. I took some pictures, but it was overcast by this point and the resolution isn't that great. We went with a light tan color called Kahlua Cream. There are leaves on the deck in some places, those aren't blemishes in the surface.




A guy also came out today to prep the pool. I was told we could work around the rain next week to fit plaster in, but I don't want to risk it, plus it's a busy week for us and I'm just not psychologically prepared, or actually prepared with supplies, to want to go for it. So it will probably be the following week.

Tomorrow, someone is coming out to do my mastic. I was told they will use tan, which should hopefully match. I just hope it's not too dark. They typically apply sand on top which I think looks good when paired with flagstone coping because it adds to the natural look, but I'm not sure I want it with our cleaner looking precast concrete coping. The guy is going to show me now it looks before he applies the sand so I can decide what I like better.
 
Our mastic is a plain gray. Though since it looked 900% better than the pink foam, I was thrilled with the look. But it's nice that the guy will give you the option to apply sand as the top layer to make it blend in.

Deck looks fantastic! Aren't you glad they messed it up the first time?!
 
bmoreswim said:
Our mastic is a plain gray. Though since it looked 900% better than the pink foam, I was thrilled with the look. But it's nice that the guy will give you the option to apply sand as the top layer to make it blend in.

Deck looks fantastic! Aren't you glad they messed it up the first time?!
Click to expand...

I can imagine grey would look waaaay better than pink! Our foam was grey, and now it has a coating of spraydeck color on it, so it doesn't look that bad. I just like the look we have now, and a darker line separating things would not be ideal in my mind. But I don't think there is much I can do since I need the mastic, and this is the closest color. I'll just have to see how it goes tomorrow.

Thanks on the deck... Yes, you are definitely right about our being glad about their mixup at first. It had me anxious at first, but it turns out better than I could have planned. God works in mysterious ways!
 
Mastic guys showed up at 7 am. I thought I had another hour and slept in for once! :p They are just prepping everything by putting sand in the voids before applying the mastic over top. By itself the sand actually blends pretty well, but I'm still going to have him show me the mastic with and without the sand so I can decide.
 

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