swimming pool!

At last, the patio cover is done! We love it. It has louvers that can move to either totally block out the sun or let it in, powered by a solar battery.

And we have palm trees . . . .

And here are the stone veneer and walls

The noodle finally got a spin around the pool and has decided that it was worth the wait. And the float has been out also. It was named by the Wall Street Journal as the best float in an article that I saw today! So thanks to everyone responsible for them.

There are still a few more things to finish before we can really say the pool is done.   Then comes the pppaaaarrrrttyyyyyyyy.

The moment has arrived–the pool is filling with water! It took about 5-6 hours to plaster the inside of the pool this morning. It was another one of those messy jobs with lots of dust/dirt thrown in the air from cleaning the pool out before applying the plaster. The color is gray which makes the water look blue. It apparently also helps heat the pool. Once you start filling the pool you can’t stop until it is full or it will leave marks on the plaster. Looks like it might be full in the middle of the night so we will have to keep monitoring it tonight. For two weeks we have to brush the bottom and sides down to get rid of plaster dust so that it doesn’t permanently get stuck to the bottom or sides, making it very rough. Of course, the weather took a turn and is much cooler tonight, probably in the 50s. We’re looking forward to the first dip.

Here are some pics of it beginning to fill:

water at the bottom of the deep end

  hard to see but there is water in the deep end

Lots of activity this week.  The flagstone is almost all grouted and then it will be washed with muriatic acid.  The pop up pool cleaner heads have been installed.  Target for doing the pool plaster is either Friday or Monday.  And the water goes in  immediately after the plaster so we should have a pool very soon.  Had a little scare as the filter was not holding pressure–it could have meant a leak somewhere, but it was just a minor problem with the filter–all fixed.  So we are coming down the home stretch!

Here’s another shot of it with all of it’s wiring wonders–still looks like spagetti and is not all hooked up.

Pool progress comes in fits and starts and we’ve had a lot of activity recently. Yes, the rest of the tile has been installed along with the coping. Coping is what goes around the pool and decking is what is around the coping. The coping looks like this (and you can see the tile on the wall):

The decking will also be made of arizona flagstone like the coping, but it will be in large random shapes and it will extend out from the coping.  The dirt is lower now to allow space for the concrete which goes under the flagstone decking.

Most of the extra dirt in the yard has been removed and the workers are starting to layout the footings for the decking, path and patio. So it is starting to look more like a yard again. The pool people are testing for leaks in the pipes that go to the pool so any can be fixed before the decking goes in. I’m still hopeful that the pool will be done by May 1, but hard to know. In the meantime, we are coping . . . . .

Other recent pictures:

Yesterday the track for the pool cover was installed on top of the sides of the pool.  Nothing else happening here.  Still waiting for the rest of the tile to come in and for the guys who will be smoothing out the dirt around the yard to be available.

Went to a presentation about a local lavender farm today.  Seems like a good plant for around here–doesn’t like water and can withstand low nighttime temps.  AND it is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and you can even spray it on cats and dogs to get rid of fleas!  Not to mention its soothing qualities and uses in food.  The world needs more lavender.

Before I retired, I used to tell people that you had to go slow to go fast.  You go slow in the planning phase so that you can go fast once the planning is done.  We thought we were in  a waiting phase, but yesterday we got the call that things will begin soon.  Soooooo, Monday the contractor will be here to go over the site and we should be able to start soon thereafter digging the hole!  But we are still planning the landscaping since the prices came in too high and we have to cut some things or change some things to bring down the price.

Today was one of those nice warm days when you could imagine that you could be swimming–even in January.