Filling Has Begun !!!!!

16 Sep: THE POOL IS FINISHED! The plaster and finish are in place and the filling has begun (Anyone want to help on a water bill? Anyone? Anyone?). It was huge mess on the last day, but it looks nice. Unfortunately, time again has stopped while it is filling.

Looking across the pool. It is a big difference from the earlier pictures.

Look across at the swim outs and hot tub.

The hot tub turned out very nice. We love the details in the diamond tiles inserted in the plaster and finish.

A final look across the pool. The girls are counting seconds until it is filled and the chemicals are safe. It appears cement turns the water VERY acidic so our pool guy needs to dump lots of chemicals in to get things in balance.

The Screens are Up !

12 Sep: The screens are up around the pool. At last, we are seeing the finished product. You can see the view we now have off the back porch, regardless of the dirty cement pool.

Pool and screen looking off the back porch

The pool and screen towards the back of the house

Another view. You can see the child safety fence required by Orange County. A pain in the neck but we can see the safety it will bring if a family with small children come over.

Another view of the child safety fence (and dirty pool).

First Day of School

The girls' first day of school. We both agree they can stop growing at any time.

Emily's first day of middle school. It was dark since Orange County has middle schoolers leaving at 6:55 in the morning. High schoolers leave at 9.
Nicole heading Dr. Phillips High School
Kaitlyn's first day as a Senior.
The big girls. Notice the pain in their faces from being subjected to having their picture taken.

The Joy of Construction

30 Aug: This is a bit off track, but it describes the joy of any major project. We had two water breaks caused by trucks and construction equipment. The first was the sprinkling system, the second - our neighbor's water main to their house. I didn't take a picture of their leak as it was no fun repairing the pipe at 11 pm at night. However, this is a picture of the mess found by the break in the sprinklers. You can see the great job done when the house was built as three of the main controllers were underground in the center of the yard! When the bobcat ran them over - crack! We had to cut them out of the system, and reroute the pipe using a quickfix to restore water to the house.

In the end, I had to completely repipe this mess. I also chose to put back in the entire sprinlking system back around the pool. It was three solid days of work but I now know where everything runs and saved a ton of money.

The Deck is Poured

27 Aug: We now have a deck around the pool and the sand is no longer being tracked into the house. While we are now very excited to see the finishing, it is also apparent that time has stopped as we wait for the pool to be finished.

Looking back at the house. The deck is also color topped in the picture (missed getting pictures of bare concrete). The topping goes all the way across the original surface the porch which makes things look nice.
Looking back at the house. What a change from the previous pictures!

Our hot tub. All we need now is water. A nice clean look.

The Tiles are Set !

5 Aug: At last, we are starting to see some of the finished product. The tiles are in place around the hot tub and the top of the pool. The color turned out better than we expected - sort of blue/greeen/grey. At least we now can see the color of the pool (besides the blue of the water).

The hot tub is starting to look nice.
Looking across the pool at the hot tub. The two steps are "swim-outs", required by Florida law as a replacement for a second set of steps.
The tile along the top of the pool
The entire pool. Notice the muck is gone from the bottom. That was soon to change as Tropical Storm FAY came through and filled the pool.

Another View !

2 Aug: This is a quick picture from the roof of our house. It shows the general shape of the pool and the hot tub. We decided to put in a "sports pool", one where the deep part is in the middle (5 1/2 ft) and the ends are the shallow parts. You can't see it in this picture, but we squared off the opposite corners so the diagonal is exactly 30 ft (10 yrds) for lap swimming purpose.

Piping, Piping, Everywhere!

31 July: Even with 10 years in engineering on a ship, I couldn't follow where all the piping went. There suction lines, return lines, vacume lines, blower lines, and others going everywhere. Bottom line - we passed inspection so I am glad Rick knew where things went. I know the pictures are sideways but I couldn't figure out how to turn them on the blog. Just lay on your side to look at them.

The piping running from the pool to the back of the house.
The hot tub probably accounted for 3/4 of the pipes.
This run of pipes is along the back of the pool.
Here is the main run heading to where the equipment will sit.
These lines will be hooked up to lots of fancy equipment I assume.

We have a pool - Almost !

27 July: The Shell is poured - and filling started (sort-of). The process is interesting as they blow the concrete against the wire and paper backing. It is then shaped by hand. These are actually about a week after it was done so you can see how Florida weather wanted to get our poll filled.

Looking down into the pool - and the muck in the bottom.
Rick, our pool guy, is getting ready to dig trenches for the piping. You can see how large the hot-tub turned out. It sure looked smaller on paper but at least we can fit the entire family at one time.
A close up.

The Dig !

13 July: In two days, we went from partially dug grass to this, a huge hole in the ground with lots of re-bar and forms. It is remarkable how fast things go. Seems like lots effort surrounded but many days of waiting. There was one concern - the rain came right after these pictures and started to partially collapse the hole. It wasn't bad but if it had been a few weeks later when HANNA came through, the entire thing would have fallen in and they would have to redig again.

This was a few pictures I put together to show the entire hole.

Looking back over the hot tub towards the porch.

Looking across the hole. What a mess!

Another view.

Digging Has Started

3 July: The grass has been removed except for the middle area. The people were kind enough to pull up some of the sprinkler system, so I had the honor of digging the rest out. I saved the pipes but it was lots of work.

The grass is gone. I used the red recycling bin to cover the ends of line I had to cut and cap so I could find it later.

Our Pool - The Beginning!

Here are some pictures of the back yard prior to starting our $44,000 hole in the ground project.

Looking back towards the porch. Notice the dead grass from the previous owner. Not a big loss as you will see in later pictures.

Looking from the back porch to the back yard.

The Beginning

Here it is at last! We have established our Blog so enjoy.