Post-mortem

We were so busy with the pool fun, that I did not have time to post any more comments. It must be a good sign? Well, indeed it is. The pool was ready for swimming in July 25th. Right after we started to work on planting our backyard. It took some time for the landscape crew to prepare the soil. Then we went to the nursery and picked some plants. By early September everything was planted beautifully and we started to have pool parties. 

The whole project would not be real, however, if there were not at least one "but". Our "but" is that even though everything seems to be great, our final permit has not been received. Why? Apparently there was a new regulation introduced by our city that the pool builder needs to provide a receipt to the city proving that all the soil was dumped into a special designated place. If there is no such receipt, then the city will issue a $1000 fine to the company. I suppose nobody wants to lose this money, and so our pool builder seems to be stalling time and dragging things. Will they find a way out? I don't know, but our patience is coming to an end, and at some point we will need to contact the city with a request to investigate what is going on... I still hope to avoid this, because the pool company guys were all great to work with.

I will take pictures of the end result and post them some time soon to put a period at the end of the story.

First spillover

Yesterday the pump was turned on to start water filtering. This includes a wonderful spillover of water coming from Jaccuzi down into the pool. The acidifcation process that took place earlier made the pool dark blue, and the water looks gorgeous. The pool manager already started to alcaline the water, and mentioned that we should be able to have our first swim this weekend. So excited!

Pool and Jacuzzi are filled with water. Concrete curing process is taking place

Yesterday, July 13th, Mike, the pool manager, came to put acid into the water. He showed to us how to brush the pool 3 times a day for 2 weeks from now on. Philippe is doing this happily, though hardly staying away from jumping into the water to swim.
Next step: arbor to be built starting from Friday. After that we will move to concrete sealing and landscaping.
We have already ordered a barbecue machine from Internet. Waiting for the shipment.

The pool is full of water!

It took 30 hours to fill the pool with water. Next hour and a half - jacuzzi time. After that we will start the acidification process to reveal the quartz colors.

The pool is filling with water!

And finally: the pool has been plastered and is now filling with water! The plaster crew arrived around 11am and worked for 4 hours. It was an interesting process of shooting blew "cement" and leveling it while walking in special boots. Now our pool looks very blue. This, however, will change through the acid process that will take place once the pool is filled in. Apparently the blue mass already contains the mosaic of navy and white sparkles which will be revealed in several days.
Today Rocco, the contractor building the arbor, also came and took measurements. We should have the arbor built over the weekend.

Mike, the pool manager, came to check the project condition. We agreed that the pavers which got misplaced by the bobcat would be fixed up this or next week. We did not even need to worry about that since this item was included into the contract.
So the bottom line is: we will need to work on the water condition for maximum of 2 weeks, and then - swimming time!!! :)

Ready for the last phase

On June 30th the baby fence was re-installed. This time it was the right fence, but a couple of noticeable spots on the concrete got damaged. Oh well... We did talk about this to the fence company owner and she said they were willing to come and fix. 

The pre-plaster inspection took place the day after. When the inspector came into the backyard, he was preoccupied checking the alarms, because apparently he did not notice our fence. We were pleased by the fact that the fence does not stand out from the whole picture that much.

During the past week our jacuzzi walls were also fixed up by the pool company. Looks like everything is ready for the plaster scheduled for July 11th.

Looks like nothing can be done well from the first time...

Today we had a baby fence installed. The man was very nice! He drilled the wholes, suggested to us about the gate opening, and then put the fence in. And what do you think? The fence was not the one that we ordered. So he took it all out. The company owner called us and apologized. Our fence will now be installed next week. Luckily, for us it is not a biggy, because we would not plaster for another couple of weeks anyway. But still... Could something be done correctly from the first time?