Masonry work started

Today, Tuesday of April 26th, after 10 days of triple daily pool watering since the gunite was completed, masonry work has kicked in. A crew of two people came over in the morning, brought coping stones and started to position them around the pool and jacuzzi. Interestingly, it appeared that it will be one-piece coping stone on the edge of the pool, but two-piece coping stones on the edge of jacuzzi. It is hard to understand what I mean here, but pictures should help me out. Frankly speaking, for now it seems to me that the color of the coping is too grey. My husband says he likes it, though. So basically it is good, but I will definitely look into reconsidering the concrete color for the patio not to make everything too grey.
Today I also went out and talked to the masonry guys. They told me that coping should be finished tomorrow, and then on Thursday they will start to put tile and stone on the jacuzzi walls. The manager (he me very well be an owner) asked me if I could give him a stone sample to make sure he brings the stones that have the shade we want. This was very professional of him. As per the tile, we picked a custom one, and I am very glad we did. It has dark and light blue, as well as brown colors and should bring life and brightness to the pool. When it came to the tile pricing, I need to admit that John, just like he always was saying, did not nickel-and-dime us. He gave the price he mentioned in our conversations, even though the price list eventually showed $.50/sq ft more. He just keeps his word, and has our deepest respect for that.
Besides, I have noticed that the pipe that had been placed incorrectly before (I mentioned this in one of my previous posts), is already fixed. I did not even notice when this happened. Very nice surprise for me. Now the cement needs to be filled as well, and we should be good.
Overall I need to say that till now everything is happening as promised, on schedule and within budget. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!

One-day transformation

On Saturday, April 16, as promised, the gunite crew came to make the pool body. We left earlier in the morning not to hear the roar, and it was the right thing to do. When we showed up to pick something from the house, it was loud. Men were walking around the backyard in masks, the pool area was all surrounded by plastic separation not to damage the house windows. The guys were shooting cement through a powerful hose, and the pool was growing under their arms magnificently in minutes. 1, 2, 3 and the Jacuzzi was there! 4,5,6 and the stairs to the pool shaped out. It was an amazing transformation process of wire skeleton growing into something impressively big.

Like always, my hubby went outside and checked the result of the job. He found that a drainage in the hot tub was placed incorrectly. He called Mike who confirmed he was aware and that the plumbing and gunite crews were already scheduled to come back to address it. So far I see that this company does care about the quality of the product they provide, and this makes me feel safe. Fingers crossed...

Neighbours - human factor

I thought I would separate this short story into a post as, I think, it may be interesting and useful.

Since tomorrow we are getting a loud gunite job done in our pool, and it will be Saturday morning, I decided to walk around the neighbourhood to warn people about potential 4-hour constant loud noise. Let me tell that we moved into this place only 3 years ago, and have not had a chance to talk to every neighbour, yet, so for me it was almost first time ever talking to some of them. I need to say that everybody was very happy to hear about our project and sounded quite supportive and understanding. People were extremely appreciative of me taking time to go and warn them about the inconvenience. Each of them, regardless of the reputation (you know, we all have reputations among our neighbours), thanked me for that and said it would not be a problem, since they understand it needs to be done, and especially because it is a one time thing. Every neighbor told me a short story about their life, about when they moved into the neighborhood, about their relatives, family, occupation. I enjoyed time we spent together on a porch of each house. Very lovely.

Now returning to the pool... I was pleased to hear from one of the neighbors that the pool company we have picked built a pool for her relative about 40 years ago, and also for another relative just recently, and that everyone is very happy with their work. Isn't that amazing?

First inspection is passed. Pool structure and water piping are approved

The pool inspection has passed unnoticeable. We did not hear when the inspector was even there. The pool crew came to check/correct some lightening position in the pool and jacuzzi. Mike went over bench sizes for the jacuzzi with us. He even had me sit on a chair to make sure we get the height we will be comfortable with. The next step is pool gunite - a very loud 4-hour long process to make the pool body. It will happen tomorrow.

As I understand, here is the list of what will be happening after:

- After gunite, the pool will stay untouched for a week, and we will have to water it 3 times a day for concrete not to crack.

- Then coping and tile will be put. Again we will have to water everything for a week.

- After that gas and electric will be done followed by inspection.

- Then concrete work around the pool and patio will be done. Again need to water.

- The last phase of the pool will be pool plaster.

- Then we will get to the landscaping.

Steel and plumbing

Eight men at a time were working on our project yesterday and wrapping up today. These were 2 crews: steel and plumbing. Now our future pool is full of metal wires, and backyard full of pipes. An electrician also came to check whether our electrical panel has sufficient amperage. Apparently the amperage is OK, but there is not enough breakers space. The panel will need to be replaced. We have discussed it with John, and he promised he would take care of it without extra cost.

Inspection is the next step. It is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

So far I need to say that even though project cost is an extremely important factor, ability to trust your contractor is far not the last thing, or even as important. One should not go without the other, or otherwise the project will be a torture, rather than pleasure. And this is applicable to any type of work. How to know whether you can trust a contractor? These are my lessons learned: talk, check, read reviews, ask ex-customers, talk, check, read reviews again, ask many questions, do not be afraid to be annoying, talk about every little detail. We did all of that, and whether the choice was made correctly I will write at the end of the project not to jinx a thing ;)

Excavation is done. Pool facing is chosen

When excavation crew came to finish work on Saturday, they noted that more water was in the pool and this is why deeper excavation had to be done and gravel put. Apparently it was extra work for which we needed to pay beyond the contract. We were prepared for that because John had warned us that should a rock be found that needs to be removed, or something like that happens, extra work will need to be done and paid for. What did not seem to be right was the price. I am glad I went out and negotiated it. We did get a discount and I think this was reasonable and fair. The job was finished in the afternoon. As per everyone in the constructing crew, once the pool is excavated, there should be no more surprises with extra fees.

A little later John came over and we discussed further steps. At this point we had to make our mind for coping, tile and facing stone for the pool and hot tub. What a tough exercise! With help of two reasonable man, however, John and my husband, we did make a choice, otherwise I would not be able to decide for another month. Many times did I tell John that we are so afraid to make wrong decision on the design, and he reassured he would not let us make a fatal mistake. Sounds trustworthy :)

Tomorrow, April 13th, we are anticipating both, steel and plumbing crews. Things are moving!

A bobcat in our backyard

Today, April 8th, was a big day. At 8am the crew showed up, as promised. Our neighbor ran out with questions about what was going to happen. Michael, the crew manager, pampered her right away with nice voice and a business card asking to call whenever she feels uncomfortable (note: apparently you do not need to get neighbors' permission to do remodeling, only city or county permission). The guys removed a part of our fence, and a bobcat started to navigate through our backyard. I could not imagine how fast everything that used to be grass could disappear. In minutes no more grass was left from this wild, but cute animal's jaws. I could not understand how they will know where to excavate the pool, because all the drawing from the day before yesterday disappeared. Michael told us not to worry, that the bobcat will first level the ground, and then the pool will be re-drawn and marked using wooden boards. As I wrote yesterday, we wanted to change the shape of the pool a little bit. Philippe edited the lines and e-mailed the new drawing to Michael yesterday night. Today, however, when it was time to mark the pool, Michael was not there, and Philippe noticed that it was being done according to the old design. He went outside and corrected the mistake. I was about to get upset as to how come the crew manager could let this happen. However, minutes later Michael called his crew and told to stop doing anything till he is back, because the pool design was different than what they think. That was a relief for me, as I did not want to realize that we could not trust our contractor. Soon after, the pool was marked all over the place with metal strings and wooden boards. Once we confirmed we liked what we saw, the excavation started. The bobcat was running back and forward, removing soil and taking it to the truck outside of our fence. I also need to say that the guys put plywood on the pavers we have in front of the fence, and also our contract says, that should pavers become ruined or misplaced, they will fix them up. The underlying layer of the soil appeared to be clay, most probably because we have a creek right behind the backyard. Mike says it is the most complicated type to work with for them, because water is coming. But it is not a stopper. Several concrete panels were found during excavation. Mike called the concrete removal guys to break those down. That team showed up right away. By 4PM our pool, together with the hot tub (did I even mention there would be a hot tub as well?), were excavated almost completely. The crew will come tomorrow at 9am to finish.

During excavation we realized that our current irrigation system is going in the middle of the backyard, and thus the pipes got broken. This is not a big deal, though for some time we will have to water our front yard manually. For the rest - no complaints so far. Fingers crossed!

Pool drawing

Yesterday, April 6th, John and Michael came and drew our pool on the grass. Michael measured everything, then drew the borders using pinkish-orangish spray. First it appeared to be very small to us. Well... 83' perimeter. But then when I started to walk "inside", it did not look that small anymore. A friend of mine has 120' pool, it is definitely much bigger. But 83' is not bad. So the drawing is now supposed to stay there for us to look at it and confirm that we like the shape. Philippe, my husband, has re-measured everything today. Somehow the pool on the grass appeared to be 2' smaller, than it should be. Good catch. I also do not like some curves which looked good on the paper, but do not look good on the grass. So Philippe will re-draw with new lines. Michael called today and said they will be coming tomorrow morning to put borders along the perimeter and then to dig. It should take one day to dig the pool out. Isn't it fast? I also asked if we could get the pool building schedule for a couple weeks ahead of time. But apparently pool projects do not have hard schedules, because all simultaneously running projects depend on each other in terms of equipment and weather. So we basically can know only 1 step ahead. Till now it has not been a problem as everybody is communicating with us very well.