Pool Progress: August 22 - Grotto

We are getting to know every square inch of our pool thanks to the watering down process we have to do several times a day. Thankfully, it's been relatively cooler and a bit cloudy so it's not too bad standing out there for 20 minutes at a time. Actually it has rained the past couple nights so old Mother Nature has been helping us keep things watered down.

Although I never saw them, early Wednesday morning someone came by to mark the grotto location on the newly poured cement. 

After lunch the grotto crew showed up. At eight men strong, they were the biggest crew of any so far and very interesting to watch. They looked like ants crawling all over the "hill" they were slowly building. They seemed to be having a good time, joking around with each other while they worked. 

They started by drilling into our new cement. Soon rebar was sticking out all over the place. Within a few minutes they were standing on the newly created rebar structure.

Then a bit later you could see the slide! The waterfall was there too, but not as dramatic to see as the slide. Once they had the rebar skeleton they started to cover the whole thing in wire mesh.

When they left for the day you could see just how big this will be! It pretty much blocks all the equipment from our view, which is what we wanted.

You could also see some of the details. Like the steps and, of course, the slide.

They will be back tomorrow to finish up and coat/fill the whole structure with cement.

Pool Progress: Shotcrete

Today was the day our pool officially started to look like a pool! It isn't just a dirt hole anymore! We lucked out and got home from our second round of dentist appointments just in time to see them start.

They set up what looked to me like a super-sized surgical field before they started to spray.

The cement was poured into this machine that pumped it through the hose and sprayer. 

As one guy sprayed the others smoothed and swiped slowly covering the steel frame with cement.

The first cement truck left and another backed in. In the end, three loads of cement were sprayed.

I like this shot because it shows half the pool cemented and half of it still dirt!

In this photo you can really see the cement spraying. The guy working the sprayer is standing on a board because the pool is about 7 feet deep on that end.

They used levels, trowels of all sizes, and brooms to perfect the walls and floors. Pretty much as soon as they were done smoothing it they were able to walk on it. It's not as loose as cement you see poured for driveways or sidewalks.

They formed the benches and the steps. Then using a tube form the created the table base.

In the picture above you see... The first small step into the pool, then the over sized "baja step" with a hole for an umbrella, and a final step down into the pool. The baja step is going to be Annabeth's zone! :) A bench curves around the table base and the floor of the table area is raised so your feet have something to rest on while you sit. The table/bench is going to be my zone! :)

They finished about 3pm or so. Now our work begins. For the next 3 days we have to spray the whole pool down 4-6 times a day so the cement doesn't crack. 

Next up: Rock Grotto Slide

Pool Progress: First Inspection

Pool Progress: August 16 (A Little Snafu)

Thursday, August 16th, was electrical day. The day started out rough when Annabeth got up an hour earlier than normal. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal but three of the boys had dentist appointments which meant she was going to miss her morning nap. Ugh.

We were finishing breakfast and getting ready to leave for the dentist when the electricians pulled up. I didn't talk to them before I left and half expected them to be gone by the time I got back. I figured the wiring was going to be one of the least exciting parts of the whole pool build.

The trip to the dentist was uneventful. No cavities! Yay! Annabeth was a little crabby and the waiting room thermostat was set to high for my liking, but we made it through. We pulled into the driveway and saw the electrician was still here. I hit the garage door opener button. Nothing happened. I hit it again. Nothing. Hmmm... it worked when I left? Duh. They must have turned the power off. So we left the van in the driveway, unloaded everyone, and went in the front door. I set down the fussy baby and walked out back to see what was going on.

Our superintendent was here because the electrician had called him with a problem. When he opened our electrical panel he didn't like what he saw. I'm no electrician and apparently the guy who installed our panel wasn't a very good one either. I felt a bit like a dog must when listening to humans but instead hearing "blah blah blah walk blah blah blah treat" I heard "blah blah blah bad wiring blah blah blah could have started a fire".

Okay, so now I have no electricity which means no way to cool my house or cook my kids lunch or get on Facebook to complain about it all. My baby is super tired and fussy. I can't even just tell the kids to watch a video and stay out of my hair for a minute. Not to mention the fact that my house could have burned down at any moment. Turns out the superintendent had called Jerry to tell him there was a problem and Jerry left me a nice message explaining the situation on our answering machine but, of course, I didn't get the message because we had no power!

The electrician said he sees a lot of wacky stuff when he's installing pool wiring but he doesn't normally say anything because that's not what he's there to do. In this case he felt he just couldn't, in good conscience, leave without explaining the situation to us. After talking with him he said it won't even be that much to fix it so we, of course, gave him the go ahead to fix it. He finished what he had to do as far as the pool wiring but has to wait on a part before he can fix the panel problem. He did a temporary fix to hold us over until the part comes in.

So after all this what do I have to show you in pictures for today's progress? Well, here's some new wiring. Exciting, huh? Zzzzzzzzzzzz. Sorry, I dozed off there for a sec.

 Here's the control panel.

And here's the pool light! Yay! That's a bit more exciting.

And here's our troubled electrical panel. You'd never know it has so many issues just looking at it, would you?? The silver tubing running along the house near the side walk is new wiring.

Yesterday, Friday the 17th, was supposed to be our inspection with the county. The inspector never showed up. Our superintendent wasn't sure why. He said some inspectors don't like to come after it rains*. Seriously. It definitely didn't rain enough to fill the trenches or pool with water so I don't see how that would have been a reason. Who knows why he didn't come, but I'm not happy about it because we were supposed to get our shotcrete (sprayed cement) on Monday and now that isn't going to happen.

[*You Wisconsin friends can have a good laugh... people here are weird about weather. When it's sunny 300+ days of the year any change is exciting even it's just blowing dust or rain. We seriously can't figure out why they even pay the meteorologists here, we don't ever watch the weather. Real weather is one thing Jer and I both really miss about Wisconsin. We are adjusting though... cloudy days are now special and a few times we've thought it "really cooled off" only to look at the thermometer and see it's 96 degrees!]

Next up: Shotcrete (if our inspector ever shows up)

Pool Progress: August 15

Tuesday, August 14th, the steel guy arrived bright and early. He got here earlier (7:45am) than anyone else so far. I was under the (obviously) mistaken impression that construction workers started working early in the day and therefore finished early in the afternoon.

I can't believe one guy did ALL this buy himself! He plugged in his radio, perched his water jug on the edge, and worked hard all day. He bent rebar to create the forms that the cement will cling to when it is sprayed onto the wall and floor. The steel was carefully bent around all the curves of the benches and steps.

I don't know if you can see them in the photos but there are also lots of little cement supports keeping the steel from laying flat on the dirt. He had to work around all the newly installed plumbing.

Speaking of plumbing, I thought the plumbers were finished when they left on Monday, so I was surprised to see them back out there on Tuesday morning. They must not have had too much left to do because they weren't here very long. Before they left they installed my two favorite pipes (yes, I have favorite pipes!). You can see them on the far end of the pool: one will supply the water for the waterfall and the other will keep the slide wet. Nothing worse than a dry pool slide! Ouch!

They finished some pipe installation over by the pump/filter and heater, then they spray painted all the PVC to match the filter.  Nice touch!

This is the heater. Here's to a longer swim season! And high electric bills! It will be worth it.

This is the pump and filter. Don't ask me to explain anything in this photo. I have NO clue about any of it.

I did see this gauge though. Apparently I need to clean my filter already?!

You'll notice in the background of the above photo that we emptied our temporary pool. Let's just say it was a lot easier to fill than it was to empty! The hose didn't fit on the drain hole so we had to duct tape the hose in place. The drain hole is about 6 inches off the ground which meant that after 2 days of slowly draining the pool through our redneck duct tape contraption we still had 6 inches of now really dirty water left in the pool. The boys stood on the edge while Jerry lifted up the side to drain out the remaining water.

We emptied the temporary pool for several reasons. 1) We don't have a vacuum and it was getting dirty. The water was clean but there was dirt/dust settling on the floor. 2) Since it wasn't fenced we didn't want it to cause any issues with the upcoming big pool county inspection. 3) After last weeks record setting temps it was not even refreshing anymore. 4) We started school. 5) Absence makes the heart grow fonder and not swimming for awhile will make it seem all the more fun once the big pool is done!

We might fill the temporary pool back up when Roz comes to visit. Unfortunately, she is going to miss swimming in the big pool by just a week or two! Major bummer!

Next up: Electrical

Pool Progress: August 13

Monday was plumbing day! The two man plumbing crew got here mid-morning and worked until about 7pm. They laid all the PVC pipes for the in-floor cleaning heads/drains and installed the skimmers. They also brought our big equipment: the pump/filter and heater. The cream pod is the filter and the big black thing is the heater. I don't know how many feet of PVC they used but it was a lot! They dumped a big ol' pile of it and used it all.

Next up: Steel and Electrical