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A Hole in our Yard - Another Not a Cruise Live Blog


melmar02

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There was rain in the forecast Monday, and they didn't want to chance a storm messing up the plaster. Tuesday morning we received a text from the PM that the plaster crew would be there at 11am, and they were half an hour early! 

They wasted no time, and 8 men crowded into our backyard with all their equipment. They started by covering the tile and coping with plastic and also laid down tarps over the deck. Then they installed a some ropes over the pool so they could hang the sprayers and not have the lines drag through the plaster.20210803_110526.thumb.jpg.d8905852a59908720d7ae0f360092202.jpg

They had one guy working the spa, one guy in the truck loading the plaster into the hopper, and the supervisor was running around getting everyone else what they needed. The remaining 5 guys were all in the pool (the 5th man is down in the deep end). 

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We went with a plaster that has little pebbles in it, and when they first sprayed and troweled over, the surface was smooth. They rinsed the surface which exposed the pebbles, then troweled again, rinsed, troweled, rinsed... We were all huddled at the window saying, "oh, pretty!" Then sadly, "aww," as the little stones were covered back up. Here's the smooth versus exposed (on the column) next to each other.

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Someone mentioned that the crew would be wearing special boots. After working from home for the last 8 years they look more comfy than heels to me.

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They finished up by uncovering everything and power washing the coping. Their job was completed in just under 3 hours. 

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This morning, a two person crew came to acid wash the plaster. They added dawn and muratic acid to a watering can and washed the entire surface. 

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Then it finally happened! At 10:04 this morning they started to fill the pool!

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The barrel that the water is running through is full of chemicals, so once it's full tomorrow, we'll be able to get in it right away. The spa will be full before noon today, and the pool should be finished in the morning. DH has to go into the office tomorrow, so we're going to wait for him to get him for our inaugural dip. It's a good thing the kids have dentist and speech appointments tomorrow morning! 

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The pool took 25 hours to fill. They came to turn on the pump yesterday afternoon and unfortunately said they were going to have to add more chemicals this morning. So we waited. 

They were here at 9am, and we were cleared to get in the water at 10am. We have our own Perfect Day (North Texas).

 

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The system is in service mode for the first week. We can't turn the water features on, but they are apparently on a timer because they just kicked on by themselves. 20210806_182029.thumb.jpg.29663e208d4ee0dffd8b4a41863c6c70.jpg

The water was a lot more green initially than we expected. The pool chemical guy said that was just our tap water here in North Texas, and as you can see, it has really cleared up.

There are a few things still left that need to be addressed in addition to the sprinkler and sod repair which normally take place at this time in the process. The biggest issue is that the deck is still torn up around the firepit, and the edges of it still need to be ground. After all the problems we've had, I hope we use the heck out of it this fall and winter! We can get in the water though, so it feels like the project is complete. 

Thanks for following along in this journey. Fortunately there are real cruise blogs to read now! 

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2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

It’s really stunning.  So glad to see you’re on the last lap.  Good timing !  I hear you guys are having a heat wave !

Some might call it a heat wave; it's really just how August goes around here. To be honest we're in better shape this year than most. We usually have nothing but 100+ degree days most of July and August, but we've only been in the upper 90's.

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The pool looks amazing! I also want to see a pic of it lit up at night. Is that something that is also tied to the 1-week service mode run?

Congratulations on finally getting this big project (almost) completed. Hopefully those last few bits will happen quickly and without further incidents.

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Thanks for sharing! It is really beautiful. ?  So glad you get to enjoy it during the summer season.

What an experience any kind of major home improvement can be! We had a neighbor’s tree fall on our attached garage during a freak wind event, and the ordeal of an engineer redesign of our roof structure, having it stick-built, along with all the necessary repairs, whew!

Went right into a major master bath upgrade immediately afterwards. Figured we were in that ‘reno mindset’ already. Couldn’t get much more painful, right? ???‍♀️

Went around quoting The Money Pit. “Two weeks, two weeks!” ?

 

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4 hours ago, JLMoran said:

The pool looks amazing! I also want to see a pic of it lit up at night. Is that something that is also tied to the 1-week service mode run?

Congratulations on finally getting this big project (almost) completed. Hopefully those last few bits will happen quickly and without further incidents.

Thanks! I think so. Only the pool lights (in the water) came on last night. The waterfall lights didn't come on. I'll post that picture when I can get it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/7/2021 at 9:59 AM, JLMoran said:

I also want to see a pic of it lit up at night.

Finally got some pictures of the lights.

We had our "pool school" yesterday, and the system was taken out of service mode. We had lots of fun playing with the led lights and turning the jets and waterfalls on and off from an app on our phones. The plaster is still curing, so no heat for a few more weeks. We really won't need it until the end of September anyway. 

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5 hours ago, Neesa said:

@melmar02 So beautiful, much family enjoyment to be had. What was your time line?

Contract signing?

Dig date?

Completion?

Thanks so much for sharing your journey! So appreciated! 

Too long! ?

We started calling pool companies in the beginning of July 2020. We started with a list of 8-10, and only 2 ever got back to us. Those two came out to meet with us the first week of August. We received the proposals back a couple ofweeks later.

 

We decided which we wanted to go with pretty quickly and signed the contract/paid the deposit, and started the refinancing process on our home so we could pay for the project. That was the beginning of September. I used to be a loan processor, so they had all the docs they would need right away, but it still took a while because the they were so busy. We closed mid-November and once we had the cash in our account, we told the pool company we were ready to schedule. 

Our dig date was December 28, 2020, and we were able to finally get in the water on August 6, 2021.

We were originally quoted 3-4 months by both pool companies, but now they are quoting 7-12. 

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@melmar02 WOW! We signed in early April after meeting with 3 that seemed responsive. I just cut the grass because even after site visit June 3 they were of course backed up. They called and said our dig date is "sometime next week" but definitely not Monday lol!! Bracing myself for the long haul, again I appreciate you sharing. Enjoy it! Do you screen it in? We are on a pond with gators, we had to cage it in so we can keep our visitors out, they sometimes wander into my bushes, I sure as heck don't want to swim with them. Their names are handbag and suitcase!

 

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@Neesa I hope your project goes smoothly. The worst part for us was not really being able to use any of our backyard for so long. I couldn't just throw the kids (or dogs) outside to play because of all the trenches.

We just have the 6 foot wood fence around our backyard. It has to have a spring close and alarm per code. The pool itself doesn't have an additional fence or screen. I wouldn't want to swim with handbag and suitcase either, so we would definitely have something if we were in your area. We haven't had any visitors in our pool yet, but we would get ducks, frogs, crawdads, and even raccoons in my parents' pool.

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1 hour ago, teddy said:

Gators in the pool ?

I’ll take snowstorms and subzero temperatures over that, thank you very much. 
 

? 

I was born and raised in Florida until I went to college here in NC.

We would swim in the ponds with gators, crazy because I wouldn't let my daughter do it nowadays.  Back in the 70's that's just what we did.  

 

@melmar02it is beautiful!!  Thank you so much for sharing this with us.  It was great to have something to look forward to in the Live Blog! 

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  • 1 month later...

@WAAAYTOOO asked for an update, and everything is (almost) complete. The decking around the firepit (where it was torn down and rebuilt) was fixed, and sod and sprinklers are in place. We have French drains between our house and the neighbor's which the landscapers covered with sod, so we're waiting on them to unbury the drain grates. The landscape company cut our internet line while digging for the sprinklers. Internet company came out to fix it the next day, but the internet guys cut the backwash pipe when they buried the cable. 🙈 They ran to Home Depot for pvc and fixed it right away. Otherwise everything is done. The pool company provided glass for the firepit - our choices were blue or black. I'm going to take about half of the dark blue out and mix it with a lighter blue and a gold. The pool company installed an alarm on our back door late last week. The final step is for the city to inspect that device is installed. 

MIL came to visit the kids and see the pool at the end of August. It's gotten too cold to swim in the pool, but we've enjoyed the hot tub now that the weather has turned. At this point, I'm calling the project done. Just in time to get serious about our cruise in February! 

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On 8/21/2021 at 9:43 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

I think the gator thing is a myth.  We have been here for nearly a year now and never seen one !!

?

 It’s not a myth. Last week while my daughter and her friends

relaxed at the pool we had a gator chilling behind them in the pond. Got to love Florida! 🤣

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  • 3 months later...

April 8, 2021 contracted our pool and thanks to @melmar02 I knew what to expect. 8 months later we have made some headway, here is what we started with and I will post the finished pool if and when it ever happens. Back orders and covid staffing issues are given as the main culprits..... we purchased this home seeing the potential. Lots of work still needs to be done. But that yard. Oh my word, horrendous!

 

 

 

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