FILL 'ER UP!

After 56 days of construction, it's time to fill 'er up!

They started filling it at 3:30 pm Wed. July 25.

The above picture was taken at 5:30 pm

7:15 p.m.


9:00 a.m. Thursday morning, still about a foot from the tile line.

Still at 9:00 a.m., view from above.

Micah and Leah relaxing in the new chairs.

3:00 pm Thursday, and it's just about full!

I guess it needs to be about half way up the tile (flagstone) line.

(The shadow in the pool is from a palm tree.)

July 25 - Plaster!

Today they plastered the pool! Hooray!

It took 6 or 7 guys about 4 hours to do it all.

It was neat watching it shoot out of the hose.

Here they are filling in around the mosaics.

Leah and Micah loved watching the process.

Here's a good view from upstairs.

They did a nice job of getting it smooth.

This is what it looks like right now. The color is white plaster with blue & green 3M Quartz mixed in. I can't wait to see what it looks like with water in it. Speaking of which, they left the hose in it when they left! It should be full by tomorrow (thurs) morning.

July 19 - Concrete decking poured

Not much happened to the pool while we were on vacation, but a lot has happened in the last week! The concrete decking was poured...

The color is called San Diego Buff. It dried much lighter than what it looks like here.

Above is the last picture I took.

Coping is Complete

They finally finished the coping and it looks great. They also added the two jump rocks in the deep end. They did all the electrical wiring yesterday too and hooked up the keypad inside our sliding glass door, which will control the spa, pool, heater, etc.

Not a lot has changed visually though, so I'll just post some pictures to show you where we're at in the process. Our concrete guy is coming tomorrow to put in drains and start laying out the forms for the deck. We also have a fence guy getting us a quote on replacing the back fence and gates. After that is all done it's just the final inspection and then they do the plaster! And it's not even July yet! Remember, they started this project June 1!

These are the jump rocks right after they were cemented in.

The mortar is still wet around the edges. The picture doesn't do the color justice though.

Close-up of the spill-over of the spa. The kids will love playing in this.

A view from the other side of the yard.

The fun mosaics the girls and I ordered to go on the baja shelf (big step).

Close-up of the flagstone coping on the face of the spa.

Coping Continues

The guys doing the coping are great. They've done such a good job. They are quite skilled at breaking/sawing the flagstone into the best shape and fitting it all together to form a great look. It's hard work. They were even here today, Saturday, working on it.

You can see here that they finished the top of the spa and have started on the front face of it. I love the look of it.

Flagstone Coping

This is earlier in the morning as they first cut and placed it.

This is when it's wet.

Close up of it wet.


Here it is starting to dry again.

This is my favorite shot :-). This is Trevor alongside the coping after it has dried.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I heard a saw buzzing at 8:00 am this morning, my first day to sleep in since school has finished :-). No worries though, I was so excited to see that they had started cutting and laying out the flagstone coping, that I didn't care!

I'm so excited about this. The flagstone quartzite is beautiful. It's full of different oranges, browns and greys and it sparkles in the sunlight. Marc hosed it down when he got home, and after he washed away a lot of the saw dust, we got to see the real color. It looks a lot darker when it's wet and then it dries to various different shades. I love it! Now we can decide what color we want the concrete decking to be.

I assume that tomorrow they will finishing laying it out and then install it with grout/mortar (?) We are also using it along the waterline, so maybe we'll get to see some of that tomorrow. I imagine it will take most of this week to finish this project, including the front of the spa.

Overall, though, I'm surprised at how fast this project is moving along!

Next Step

The next step is the coping around the edge of the pool. We chose a flagstone quartzite that can be used along the water line too (instead of tile). We couldn't use regular AZ flagstone because of our saltwater system. Here is a picture of the sample board with the one we chose. I'll post more pictures when they begin putting it in, hopefully this week!