In Memory

My father passed away last Wednesday at the age of 66. He was at home and had a probable heart attack that took him almost instantly. I am not thoroughly comfortable writing about this subject here but I feel the need to let the people that I communicate my happenings with via this forum know. I am doing fine as is the rest of my family including my brother. My stepmother is having a hard time of it as expected. There is so much to say about my father and my relationship with him but seeing how he was such a private man this is all that I will post about him.

I love you, Dad.

1 Week!

Yesterday marked 7 days of work into our pool project. It was also the day that the plumbers showed up and installed all the piping for the pool, hot tub and equipment. I think we are now on hold until after the new year when they will shoot all of the gunite. Heck we might be swimming by February 1st. Not really. But damn these guys are fast!

Weekend Steel

Saturday morning two guys showed up to install the rebar for our pool. They worked all day yesterday and came back this morning for two hours or so. And they are done. The hot tub now has shape and the entire steel structure is done. Symphony Pools, our contractor, has impressed me so far!




The deep end.


The hot tub.

Done Digging

After 3 days of excavation we have a hole in our yard. It's big! And it's cool. Steel and concrete are up next.




Jamie standing on the Baja shelf in the deep end.

Houston, We Have a Problem

The excavation continues as we begin day three with a wimper. Apparently the soil is too soft and sandy for the bobcat to dig much deeper than the photos below. There is an issues of spinning wheels and a stuck bobcat. My choices are to stop digging now and have a five foot deep pool or let the excavation crew continue digging by hand at an additional $250 per hour to get to the planned seven foot depth. The order has been to given to dig it by hand!

All projects of this magnitude have cost overruns and hopefully this will be the only significant one. My contract even has a clause for just such a contigency...how convenient! And so it begins. The estimate is six hours...you do the math.

End of Day 1

Here's what you can accomplish in one day with a Bobcat and a plan.






The Bobcat at the deep end. The excavation crew will finish digging out the pool and the spa today.

Let the Digging Begin

We are adding a pool and tomorrow is the first day of excavation. The design process was fun once we picked the right contractor. We had everything living removed from the yard except for our orange tree and the dog and cat. The hot tub was sold and the swingset was demolished and hauled away (good thing we made that choice to as there was lots of rot in the support beams just under the surface). The concrete patio that was installed along with our addition in 2003 is also coming out. When it is all said and done the only thing original in our backyard will be our orange tree and the side fences. The rear fence will most likely be replaced during this project. Here is the before picture of the yard. I will try to post photos after siginificant milestones or changes occur.