Recently in Pool Category

Things have really picked up in pace over the weekend here. Just how big of a change? This big - The view of my backyard from the attic window this morning.We were left on November 3, 2005 with this for a backyard. It sat like this from November until this past weekend. Then a flurry of activity began as the weather had warmed up enough to be able to continue the construction process. These guys work fast.An electrician was scheduled for friday. He was a no show. The plaster guys were to come on Saturday. They went to the wrong job first. The water guy called he was on his way. Had to cancel. About two and a half hours later they were finished.Finally the plaster guys show up at 7:22am on a sunday morning. WTH is up with that? Where I come from no one does work on Sunday morning. It never fails to surprise how you can get just about anything done in Northern Virginia on a Sunday. Even a doctor appointment. Yes! How surreal for me. The plaster was pretty much considered dry but it is the water that actually cures it. It is all done in the same day.It took three of these beasts filled with water to fill the hole in the ground. This truck brought 5000 gallons of water. Another truck brought two loads of water at 4300 gallons a load. It takes longer than you think to empty a truck.That is somewhere in the neighborhood of 13,600 gallons of clorinated city water works water. MUCH longer.About 3 hours later the pool was finally filled. The girls sat out by the pool every minute possible anticipating the moment that would come when the pool was finally full of water. They saved everything from last summer to have on hand immediately without having to look for it.These two were bound and determined to get in as soon as the water was in. The water temperature was below 60F.Did I mention what the temperature was yesterday? Don't let all of that sunshine fool you. Official temperatureYes, you see correctly. Tomorrow I must tell you about the shoes the plaster guys wear.

Where to start? Writing is going slow and I am behind on my predicted word count. I will try to post what I have written after I proof read and spell check and all that good stuff. Stay tuned. My doctors appointment went well. We had a nice long pow wow in the beginning. I told him how I was treated by my last doctor and how I expected to be treated this time. If he had a problem with me tell me now and I would find another doctor not wasting any more of his time or my money in his office. He was super interested in my having been a surrogate and had lots and lots of questions. In the end he said he felt we would be just fine together and he looked forward to seeing me again. A construction company that had been sub contracted by the pool builder came out to pour the concrete around the pool. The salesman and I measured out about another 125 feet of concrete area for a patio for my tables and chairs. When the foreman got here he started measuring and figuring and told me we had measured out 233 extra square feet and he needed a check for $3000+ before one stitch of concrete would be poured. I got on the phone showed my ass with the builder and salesman. I mean I was mad as hell. There is no way the extra was double what we measured. This is how people get ripped off! I paid not one red cent, the concrete was poured and the extra was more like $500. Honestly I wonder if people look at me and see 'fool' written across my forehead. This has been a pain in the ass experience with building a pool. However, it looks great and I can't wait until next spring and we get to actually use it. I'll take a photo and put it up tomorrow. I made fresh pumpkin pie this week. These people who live with me have eaten two pies. I will post the recipe on my recipe journal and get a photo up of it as well. If you haven't seen this -honestly can you read it and watch the film clip without laughing in some manner? I am behind on folding laundry. It is piled high in the laundry room. I am going to try and get that under control today. Steven's mother is coming to take the girls out to a movie and dinner tomorrow. If the weather continues to be lovely mid day maybe we will get to work in the yard and put out the rest of the mulch. I am thinking we should have ordered more. We'll see next week. Thank you all for the lovely comments on my Thanksgiving theme. I just like different looks and one look all the time bores me. And how will you spend your weekend? ***Updated*** Part 2 is posted. Find it under Nov. 2 or over in the sidebar under the NaNoWriMo participant logo.

Blackbird wanted to see what we are wearing for Friday Show and Tell. I am wearing maternity clothes. When you have seen those you have seen them all. Instead I am showing you more of the pool construction. The photos in today's post of the work in progress on the pool took place over several weeks. Each step in the work was completed by a different crew. Once the hole was dug two guys came out early one morning sometime between six and six thirty and started putting in the iron frame work that would help support the plumbing and give the blow gunite something to hang on to. Also the ironwork keeps the gunite from cracking due to changes in temperature. This pool comes with a lifetime gaurantee to hold water forever or they fix it for free. They worked quickly for a two man team. I went out just at lunch time to offer them drinks and sandwiches and they were packing it in to go. In less than 5 hours they had run this entire network of iron. On another day a crew of men came out and started the rough in of the plumbing so that the crew contracted to sculp the pool with gunite could work. This is the gunite crew. It was fascinating to watch these guys work. The gunite comes out of this hose with such a force the man holding the hose had to brace himself and then workers on either side support him until he gets a good grip and grasp of the power coming out of the end of that hose. As the gunnite is blown to a depth of at least 14 iches thick the rest of the crew, except the guys controling all the machinery on the trucks, use a wide variety of tool and begin to hand shape and smooth every inch of the pool walls. This guy hand cut the steps. He did not use a template. Homemade scaffolding as you can see. Nearly finished. Look how smooth it all is. This is the crew that did the gunite work minus two other big trucks that came in with more water and gunite about half way through. We have been very please with the work crews who have been here working on the pool. They have been very polite and kind men, mostly immigrant workers. The crews that were here before 7am and worked until 4 or 5pm really put out a lot of effort. I cooked a noon meal for each of these crews. Several reasons behind the logic: 1. We live so far out it would take them about 2 hours to go get lunch and come back therefore either extending the day or requiring them to come back again 2. Show your appreciation to those who do work for you and they do an extra nice job in the end to say thank you. The next crew that came out was the plumbers. It took them two days to complete their part. They ran all of the water and drain lines. They installed the pump and filter. They also dug and put a 500 gallon LP tank into the ground and set up the heater. Yes, this pool will be heated to extend the swimming season. With the price of gas these days who knows if we will actually use it but we have it if we want to. The next crew that came out were the tile and coping installers. I chose smooth red brick for the coping. I love the smooth bull nose. There will be no snagged bathing suits! I chose the tile from the Island Breeze collection. The tiles are 3x3 and are called Carribean Blue. I think the blue looks really nice with the red brick. Because of the curves of the pool this man had to cut nearly every single brick to a custom fit. This is what the tile and brick look like at the end of the day. This is not even near being finished. We still have to wait for the men to come and plaster the rest of the pool (I chose a white plaster with blue sparkles); the crew that sets up and pours the concrete patio and the walkway around the pool; an electrician who has to come run all the wiring, the people with the start up pool water; the people who install the safety cover -Who know how many steps are left. I am a very impatient person lately. Everything is in the "hurry up and wait" mode. With the weather down in the forties at night now I know we won't get to use the pool until next season. Nonetheless the kids are all excited about it. Ready to plan a pool party for next summer? Put your name on the guest list.

I signed the contract for our pool to be built in July. I was quoted an estimate of 6 weeks in good weather for completion. It was 4 weeks later with perfect weather and there was no construction. I called the company and told them to cancel the contract. There is no way we would get to use the pool this season at the rate they were going. At the prospect of loosing that kind of money the company owner jumped on the phone and begged me not to cancel. She would get work started ASAP. On Colby's first day of classes the excavation crew showed up. This was one month ago. We still are not near completion and unless the weather stays warm until Thanksgiving we will not be enjoying our pool. The design layout for the pool is my own design. I have never designed anything like this before. It is very exciting to see it unfold. First they skin all the grass from the building site. They drive stakes cut of rebar to outline and measure each twist and turn of the design. Next they use this smaller version of a backhoe to dig out the hole. I was surprised by the amount of earth that was moved. By the time they finished it was nine (9) dump truck loads of dirt. As the backhoe digs deeper the men have to manually cut the smooth shape of the pool with spades and shovels. These guys really worked hard in the heat of the day. I made many pitchers of iced tea and water. It is also nice to feed a work crew. They do really nice finish work when they are appreciated. The depth of the pool is seven feet. I have chosen not to have a diving board so there was no need to dig eight foot or beyond. I mean every foot of water costs money! At this point the hole is nearing six foot deep and they have been working almost 7 hours. By four o'clock they had finally finished. I sent Gracie into to the hole to get a better idea of the depth in the photos. The pool is sort of kidney shaped -wider on one end than the other. The general dimensions are 15ft x 30ft. It begins at a depth of 3ft and goes down to 7ft. It will be heated. I also opted for the automatic sweeper/cleaner. It is also fully lighted. It has a staircase in the shallow end and a bench seat. On the opposite side of the pool are two more bench seats. I designed it this way so the kids can swim out to the deeper end and have a place to rest a minute. I do not like to see young swimmers struggle and begin to panic when they think they can't reach the opposite end of the pool. We are at week 8 since construction contract began. I am thinking I should demand some type of discount or refund considering they are far beyond the time frame quoted.