Plumbing is In!

It's Friday and it has been a great week of progress. The plumber came out today and it seems like he got his part done. It's hard to tell, though...Now that the steel and plumbing are in, the next step should be inspection. Hopefully we can get that knocked out Monday so we can move forward with the pool. Here is the latest picture -- it's looking good!

Another Rain Storm

April is obviously the worst month to have a pool installed...but we are doing it anyway. We had our 2nd big rain storm since the pool construction started. While there wasn't any hail this time, there was a lot more rain. Here is a picture of the freshwater pool. It's probably about 3 feet deep. Luckily, the steel guys came in the day of the storm and got that portion done just in time. So while we really didn't lose much construction time. The steel was put in, the rain came in that night, and the plumber came the next day to take a look and get started.

Some Progress...

Well, we finally made some progress on the pool. After 1 week of nothing since excavation, they have finally moved the gravel from our driveway to the pool. They also installed a pump in the ground that is supposed to drain out any excess water...I'm not sure it's working though. The pump is attached to our garden hose and no water is coming out. The hole has filled back up quite a bit, and it's covering the gravel. The gravel was intended to provide a solid ground for the steel workers to walk on when installing the steel frame for the pool. The steel guys are scheduled to come out this morning, but will have to drain the pool since the pumps aren't working. My guess is that it will push them back another day - even the old pump isn't working and I can't figure outwhy! At any rate, here is a recent picture.
My next priority: get the irrigator and plumber BACK out here to fix our neighbor's sprinkler system and pool backwash pipe. It's one thing to take a long time to get our pool done, but when it affects someone else, that's when I start having to stay on top of things to make sure they get done.

1 Week of Construction

I'm not sure I can actually say it's been 1 full week of construction. They started digging the hole for the pool last Monday, and today, not much more has been done. For the last several days, we've been struggling to keep the water low, even after a hail storm. Plus, there's apparently some kind of stream behind our yard which is causing it to constantly fill, so we have to keep the pump running to drain the water out. It's lower though, so today, they're filling the hole with gravel and putting a bucket and pump at the bottom of the pool to drain the water automatically. This way, we won't have to keep the water draining out into our yard and the neighbors' yards. Here is a picture of the pool with the water drained as much as we possibly can.

Crater?

Well, it's a week after the first day of excavation for our pool, and there's still a big hole in our backyard...that does NOT resemble much of a pool. I took a few picture - needless to say, these were BEFORE the big hail storm came in that night. The previous night the pool had filled up about 3 feet high, so we've been draining it out. We were happy to see it was this low in the morning, but it wasn't low enough to get the steel put in.

Notice how the left side of the hole is soaked. In an attempt to not bother our neighbors by flooding their backyards, we were searching for a place to drain the water. Well, we ended up having to flood our neighbors just a little bit because otherwise, the water came right back into the hole, and the side would have caved in.

Construction - Day 2

Day 2 - Excavation
The digging crew came back out today to finish digging for the pool. They got a late start on Day 1 so they spent today finishing up. The pool area looks much bigger than I thought. It's funny how a spray painted outline on the grass looks so much smaller. We talked to a few neighbors today; they have been very supportive of the mess we've made in the neighborhood (well most of them)! Here are some pictures of today's progress.

Construction - Day 1

Day 1: Excavation
So, the construction on our backyard started on April 14. They'll be digging for the pool first and get that pretty close to done before they even start on the patio. Today was a little difficult. Our yard is a mess - a lot more of a mess than I ever could have imagined. I didn't even consider that our front yard would be affected, but seeing that the Bobcats have to go through our front yard to empty the dirt they dig from the back, I guess it makes sense. But it sure is hard to see. Here is a picture of the progress made on Day 1 of construction.


Now, here is a picture that shows what our front yard looks like. :(


Can you believe how deep these track marks are?? They're supposed to re-sod the grass later on. Let's hope so!

Backyard Before Photos

As I follow the progress of our backyard construction, I thought it would be fun to post the "Before" pictures of our backyard.

Backyard Oasis

A while back, we decided we wanted to have our patio covered. That's where it all started...a nice covered area to enjoy year round. Then, we saw pictures of outdoor fireplaces, so that came into the works. Our new dream - a large fully covered patio with a stone fireplace set in the corner. So we interviewed several companies (and I mean a lot!) over a couple of months. One of the companies really stood out. We had them plan out the future of our backyard so if we ever wanted a pool, none of the work we wanted to do now would interfere. So, he brought the master plans and we fell in love with the pool design - actually, the entire design! So, after much discussion, we decided to go for it! We chose Creative Backyards to transform our backyard - we'll have a large covered patio, a stone fireplace and a lagoon style swimming pool. I thought it would be fun (and therapeutic) to track the progress of the construction. I'll be taking lots of pictures to document the progress along the way. So to start...here are some 3D drawings of our future backyard! Let us know what you think!

My Very First Blog!

So, I'm finally catching up with the world of bloggers. We have a lot of new stuff going on in our lives and I thought a blog would be the best way to keep everyone up to date on progress of our projects and lives!

I'll try to keep them short and informative....but to start, I'm now working from home pretty much full time. As a consultant, I work with different clients and meet with them on an occasional basis in person, then come back and work independently. I'm really enjoying it; it's challenging and fun!

And....I designed my own logo. My "company" name is called The Bowers Agency.