melmar02

After a week of being on the schedule then a week of rain delays, we have a pool full of men this morning getting ready to shoot the gunite. The crew showed up at 6:45 and started taking off the tarp around the edge of the pool and adding one on our fence. They started to put one over the opening to our patio when I got this first photo. I'm not sure I'm going to get progress photos because the second photo is my view now. We turned on our security camera, hopeful that we could glimpse at the progress, but it's a little low. It is oddly similar to watching the deck camera channel on a ship though, so we're going to leave it on.

We went through this with one of our cancelations. There was a form we had to complete online to receive the 125% OBC, otherwise it would have been just a refund. You only have a certain amount of time to complete the form.

I wonder how often this site is updated? There seems to be some outdated info. For example, on the Costa Maya page it says a new pier will be built in 2018 and you have no choice but to purchase an excursion through the ship. ?

Hopefully not any creepers! Everyone and their brother can already see into our back yard, I don't need anyone peeping through the windows. That's actually been the one major downside to the whole project. The side where the fence is down is one of the two major streets in and out of our neighborhood, and we are in a very active walking community. Lots of families with strollers walking the dog with kiddos on bikes. I just wave at everyone who stops to look and close the blinds before it gets dark.

While it was still dark this morning, I heard the plastic moving around like it was being blown around by the wind. It went on for a few minutes before I finally realized someone was out there moving it. I quickly got dressed and went outside but had missed what I assume was the project manager removing the cover for the inspection. It was about 20 minutes before the sun was up, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't the inspector anyway. Regardless, I was able to get a couple better pictures.

Our builder uses a website that is supposed to show the dates of all the steps. It could be a really great tool...if they actually filled in the dates. It does have all the steps listed though, and I counted 6 inspections. Belly steel, gas, p-trap, bonding loop/deck, pre-plaster, and final inspection. We asked the project manager the other day how long it takes to get an inspection scheduled, and he told us that our city is so small that they don't have an inspector - they outsource it to a 3rd party company. He said quite a few cities in the Dallas area use the same company, and it's usually just a day or two wait. He called them while he was here around 2 or 3pm yesterday and got our steel inspection set for today.

The plumbers showed up just before 11:30 this morning, and they were done about 4 hours later. These are just the pipes that will run through or under the gunite. They will dig the trenches and connect to the water some time later. It was cool to watch them use a heat gun to bend the pvc in places. The crew kindly recovered all edges with plastic (even though we don't have any rain in the forecast until Sunday or Monday I think), so these aren't the best photos. The project manager stopped by while they were working and scheduled our inspection for tomorrow. Gunite is next!

It's a Texas blizzard! Well, this is what blizzards look like in the Dallas area anyway. It's been snowing here for over an hour, and there is no accumulation. Shouldn't affect the schedule. 20210110_135623.mp4

Agreed. Our state requires masks as well; however, we can still gather so weddings are still on. No one but the wedding vendors are wearing masks when I show up to deliver. My venue owners, planner, DJ, and photographer friends say just a few guests wear them (usually the grandparents), and social distancing doesn't exist beyond the ceremony. The only reason it happens then is the venues are setting seats in groups of 2 and spreading them out. Once people get to the bar, everyone's hugging everyone else. And forget distancing a bunch of drunk groom's men on the dance floor.

I didn't get out the t square, but it is oddly satisfying to look at their near perfect grid lines.

@Matt Hopefully the end of March or the beginning of April...your invite is in the mail.

I agree. No swim up bar, but I have been eyeing this... Good point. A 6 ft avalanche of dirt and rock would be no fun. No one is here today. We got a little more rain yesterday evening, so that may have delayed things. We're supposed to get more rain and maybe even some snow over the weekend. We're pretty laid back about the schedule since it's winter, but it's a lot more fun to see the work happening than to look at an empty work site.

It really is! I think it's a lot easier to see the shape with the rebar in, and you can tell what feature is supposed to be where. I'm dying to get to the far side to see what it looks like, but there's just no good way to get over there right now. Thanks. DH is an engineer and he was sure the plumbing would have to go in before all the steel, but we learned that they put the rebar in first, lift it up with bricks, and then dig and thread the pipes through the openings. It's been interesting to watch for sure!

We got our rebar Tuesday. The crew worked until after it was dark with head lamps to wire it all together, but they finished in one day. I don't have great pictures because it's been raining again. I went out there and started sinking in what I was sure was dry land. I've definitely had better mud baths! Hopefully the plumbing will get started tomorrow.

It was a long week with nothing really going on. The project manager stopped by this morning. He said there was a little minor erosion here and there, but nothing major that should hinder the timeline. We should have the plumbing started and maybe even steel in by the end of the week!

Walk to 7 mike beach from the ship. Yes, it's walkable, but it was miserably hot when we tried. Then everyone was so grumpy that no one wanted to stay.

2020 just turned '21 and is already drunk.

Happy New Year!

It finally stopped raining this morning, and we wound up getting 3.5-4" of rain. The water that has accumulated is draining well on its own. The benches and ledge look to be intact so I think we're ok. We should be on track to start plumbing and put in rebar next week.

Not a lot going on with the pool today. They placed a tarp on the edges of the pool late yesterday, but most of it blew off. DH and I got out there and replaced it, weighing down the tarp with rocks leftover from the dig, and it blew off again. The project manager stopped by this morning to look and said they would come back out this afternoon to work on it. We're not supposed to get any snow now, but they have upped the rain estimate to 4-5" for our area between tonight and Friday morning.

@JLMoran Wow! I wonder why the police car was there? Inheritance properties can be a nightmare. My sister and I inherited some old rental properties that my mother inherited from her parents - she grew up in one of the houses. They were falling apart and hours away from us. We were able to sell them, but the proceeds barely covered the realtor's fees. We still have a lake-ish property that we can't seem to get rid of (a couple streets over from a marina, not on the lake). I don't even know if there's a house on the lot. I can't get a realtor to call me back about it, and the survey I have (that my grandparents had done in 1962) is only of the land . Taxes say there's an improvement, but it's only valued at $250. ? If anyone is looking for what I'm sure is a lovely piece of land in east Texas...

7 hours of digging and we have...a giant hole in the ground. The edges are covered with plastic in anticipation of the rain and now maybe even snow too.

Hopefully my BFF Google can help clarify here. On any fence that can be seen on a street, we have the poles and supports on the inside of our yard; those panels will not get the extra bit of wood at the support as who cares if we climb out of our yard. I have these marked in red below. However, we share the fence with 3 neighbors. One directly behind us, one on the side of our house, and a small section with the neighbor that is behind and slightly to the side of us (marked in blue). The poles/supports for the fence sections marked in blue are all in the neighbors' yards. I just have the 'pretty', flat side of the fence on those sections. The extra bit of wood will have to be added to the shared fence on those 3 neighbors sides to bring the fence to code.

Here's a photo a neighbor posted on Facebook. It just gives a slant to an otherwise flat surface. I am pretty sure a teenager would still be able to scale it, but that brings the fence to code here. @teddy I'm about an hour from Grapevine. February is cold here for us southerners. Well, we've had our first issue. Fortunately it seems pretty minor. They were setting the forms for the concrete pad on the side of the house where the pump will go and hit a water pipe. The sprinkler system was off, but they hit the line that diverts water from the main to the sprinkler system. It's off now, but we'll have to get that pipe fixed, in addition to the sprinkler lines that were torn up in the dig, before we start watering in the spring.

Yes, they took 2 panels of our fence down to get in. That side of the house has a retaining wall that runs the length of our yard with the fence posts set into the wall. They cut the post between the two panels and will weld it back together when they put the panels back up in a couple months. The fence will stay down for most of the project. The excavation includes haul away for every company we spoke with, so there are a couple dump trucks taking turns getting filled and taking the dirt away. Excavation, closely followed by gunite, was the biggest part of the total bill. We didn't get a cover as we don't really winterize pools here. No sales guy has even mentioned one to us. We'll be able to swim without a heater from the beginning of May through the end of September, and we'll add a couple months to both sides of that with the heater. We had a cover for the pool I had growing up, and we hardly ever used it. We'll just skim the leaves and the the Polaris work its magic in December and January every year. Here's a better picture of where they took down the fence. It's starting to take shape.