That's gonna be one huge,fun pool. Maybe it's the perspective, but that baja step/tanning ledge looks really big - what are it's dimensions?

Looks great!

Final picture for today. It's starting to get too dark out. Brought in the sump pump and finishing up that one corner with bench.

The tanning ledge is a 2 tier. Probably why it looks big. They actually cut the first step really short so I'll have to try to catch that tomorrow when rebar goes in. 10' x 8' the another 2' wide step below that and then a little step out into the pool.

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Ask for a dry well. It will cost but will be worth it later.

Scott

Well it's been interesting. The pool was filled with water all the way to the tanning ledge this morning. Plumbing and rebar crew are on site. They are now digging the pool deeper and installing a gravel bed and a trench leading to the side yard. From there it will be a pump that will send the water out a french drain to our front ditch. It looks really messy and a bit of chaos right now. At least we know the water line will always be below the gunite level.

Glad our builder is explaining everything to us each step of the way. Also glad that the crews understand English pretty well. I think I need to spend some time learning a bit more Spanish. No new pictures...just mess right now.

The plumbing crew has been the most difficult to communicate with so far. Got everything laid out and got 3 deck jets located but the 4th isn't plumbed. I'll have to go back out in another hour just to make sure. Anyhoo here's some updated pictures. Pool was full and they dug the pool deeper, dug a trench from the middle of pool to the outside about 10 feet...deeper than the pool. Will put a motor in there that turns on automatically when the water level get's too high. Covered the entire bottom with gravel. Now rebar and plumbing crew are at work. I'll get a final picture after they all leave. We lost a tree and a lot of grass. They have also started to smooth down some of the area.

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looking great ftwpoolgirl. can't believe you have so much ground water where you are at but the last picture looks like a bunch of progress was made with the water issue.....keep the pics coming, BTW, that's a huge pool!

Thanks ajones.
The pool is a little smaller with the rebar in it now. Until the electrician gets here, the pump is running off an extension cord. The crew left late after feeding them pizza :) I went back there and checked. The bottom was starting to fill again with water. Hopefully the pump will work and kick on like it's supposed to. Guess we'll know tomorrow morning. The guy working on the bottom two drains was soaked. Looks like they forgot one deck jet. They're coming back early in the morning to cover the pipes so I'll bring that up. If I miss it, oh well, not that big of deal. My poor yard is shot! Hopefully the backfill with good dirt will help it look better :)

Here's the pool with gravel in bottom and rebar/plumbing in progress
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Here's a close up of the slide/grotto area.
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Have a good night and hope to have some gunite pics to show tomorrow.

We have the gunite in. Had some drainage issues today but the pump is working again. Will have to patch some holes where ground water was coming up through the bottom. The slide is just framed out. There will be rock and stone built up and around it for the waterfall and grotto. I'm so tired and stress levels were pretty high today. Going to bed early. Blessings to you all out there in internet land :)

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I may have missed it earlier in the thread, but what part of Ft. Worth are you in?

like travis i'd like to know what area of ft worth you're in as well. looks like in the pictures your lots are nice in size!!!!!!! looks great BTW, love the slide and as you stated, lets keep that pump working to keep the water out! although the wife and i went through some stress, not sure it measures up to what you're currently going though. it will all work out, just keep the faith!!!

love the design and the slide as well, keep the pics coming!!!!!!!

travis & ajones -- we are in unincorporated Fort Worth. Haslet area really but we have Ft Worth zip. They just want our taxes :) Put in a new underground pump yesterday and it worked through the night. What happened is someone unplugged the last one and the water level rose too high and got inside the motor of the pump, killed it. So until the electrician gets here to hard wire it...extension cord has to stay plugged in. The white plumbing is from my downspout into the pool...so the deck area hopefully won't flood with the forecasted rains.

The only part I'm worried about is where the drains are as the constant water has not allowed the gunite to dry there....if the pump is off, water comes in pretty fast. They said that they will drain it as much as possible and patch all the weep holes and near the drain right before plaster and then start to fill it. Gosh I hope that works. They know what they're doing, I sure don't :) So far it's still in the ground...that is a GOOD sign!!! Doesn't look like any activity until next week. The electrician may come today or tomorrow but not sure.

I don't really understand why the retaining walls were not framed with gunite the same time as the pool but again, I'm not a builder so maybe that will be the deck crew's job.

Thanks for keeping me sane to all of you :))

Wow that is one big pool. That slide and waterfall is going to be great. Hopefully the rains will come and go fast and work can continue on.

For your drawing it does not look like you have alot of retaining wall, not sure why they didn't just shoot it when they did the pool. We had over 80' of wall and they shot it with gunite as well as the steps. Maybe with less linear feet of walls they use cinder block?

Hope your pump troubles are over soon. We have a pump in the bottom of ours right now to pump out the weep water that is still coming in some, maybe 2' per day. I just plug it in in the morning and train real quick. No where near the amount of water that you are seeing at your place though. Looks like you guys have it under control with the steps taken.

Looks great! You're gonna have all the kids in the neighborhood crashing your pool all summer!

Oh how I needed to cry today. Finally broke a little bit ago and just cried and now feel better. Pool Builder called to check on me and that really, really helped. Hubby has been out of town and won't return until late tomorrow. There's just nothing anyone can do until the rain stops. :/ I do feel more calm after talking to the PB so look in shock as I did at these pictures. Water, water everywhere. Wanna Swim :)

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garageworksguy - forgot to mention the retaining wall. They will form those when they prep the decking. We are also building an arbor to the left of the pool that needs footing and have to decide based on slope how far that left retaining wall will go. I think it will turn out nice when all said and done. Need to breathe, relax, it's gonna be okay. I think they'll start back Monday or Tuesday of next week. Will give me a nice break to wind down from all the excitement. Freezing temps tonight and the next couple of days forecasted.

Changed from dry stacked to veneer on the raised beam. Main two reasons were when the flagstone was on it's side you lost a lot of the various colors, second reason was due to spiders loving the nooks and crannies of the dry stack. :) The flagstone is all dirty and you can't really tell what it'll look like once it's cleaned up. Can you see our salty water! That's the natural water and it's hard water with lots of calcium. That should be fun in keeping balanced. My FAS-DPD test kit came yesterday. So I'll be sure to test the well water first before filling so we'll know more what we're up against. Yard still looks messy but here's an updated shot.

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I can commiserate with you on the water! It has been non-stop rain, our gunite is to be shot on Tuesday and all day rain is expected..on a better note, maybe you didn't have to hose it down as often had we had a dry spell??

We're pumping out what we can, water is still running out but the water does not seem to go down much....which tile did you choose?? I like the blue color...I'm still trying to choose tile and it's driving me nuts.

Keep your head up and know that this will all be passed soon! :)

Tara

Tara - like you I sincerely try to put a positive spin on things. You're so right, we did not have to water the gunite as much. Here is a picture of our tile. I chose this because we wanted contrast and not an entire brown pool, we wanted several shades of blue, some shades of brown, and hopefully it'll match the pebble sheen of Prism Blue. This is Master Tile SOLBELAZU6.
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It's all a little to "busy" for me right now. I like the many colors of the flagstone and I like the tile but it all seems a tad bright/busy to me. It rained some today and washed off some of the grit and dirt. Some of the darker colors came through thankfully. I think this color of flag will go nicely with our aggregate decking. Also then you add the dark colors of the moss boulders...you can see how I'm unsure how this will turn out... :) We all fret over color choices for the stone, plaster and coping!!

We went to Home Depot and bought our own submersible pump. A Flotec. It has done excellent. I'm really wondering how the Plaster crew will get all the water out in order to complete their process????? I mean water has been over the drains, including gunite completely over one of the drains the entire time. Are you posting your pool build here? I'll have to follow yours too. I love watching the outcome from paper to swim :))

we went with the same tile have and have flagstone coping/decking with Midnight blue PT to be installed this week. It looks great. it does not look busy once you put it up. I will post a pick when they install the pebble this week.

terryibra - I can't wait to see yours and I also can't wait for plaster :) We also almost chose Midnight Blue! How funny. You're about a week ahead of us. Do you have your decking yet? That's the next phase for us.

I deleted most of the previous pictures so the thread would load quicker.

The pool still has an odd shape to it without the retaining walls there on the sides. The deck crew will be forming those. Our PB wanted them separate from the pool shell. Never would have thought of that but I guess it'll allow them to move/settle without disturbing the pool or vice versa. Less cracking due to natural ground movement and settling.

We have rain today so I doubt any work until Wednesday or Thursday and then it's a small chance of rain on Wednesday...Ahhhhh. Oh well. Our pool is filled to the 3rd step this morning with the storm we had over night. We'll let it get to the first step and then start draining some water out. Anyone want some sticky/muddy clay dirt :)

Hey your pool is coming out great!

Don't delete the pics. People will review this thread in the months and years to come. It's a valuable reference.

We studied threads both new and old before we built our project, I suspect you did the same. People need to see the pics!

John

our pool is in forum under "thanks for everything"....I should of put it under something more descriptive but I was thanking all the great people on this site. today we are planting junipers in between the rocks on the waterfall. I will post some pics today,

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pools/msg0120430918962.html

I really like that tile!! I had the hardest time choosing, we are using our pool for summer camps/swimming lessons for foster kids so I wanted something fun/cheerful but not dolphins everywhere...my colors will probably blind some people! :) I went with 2x2 Empire Inca (NPT) and my coping is light champagne, deck is potomac blend pavers (Belgard bergerac)...they are all three completely different colors...so no blending on my build...it will be all out in your face contrast...oh well...:) I had no choice on paver color, got it about 75% off...and wanted a blue for tile..so we'll see how it turns out! :)

We just bought our pump from Lowe's hope it's working, we still have it plugged in and there's still water! :) We got snow today so who knows what will happen! :)

My build starts with Goldfinch Stables...hope to follow yours so we can see when to add salt, start pumps etc.! :)

Great job so far on your build!!
Tara

Well got some grotto work done today. Looks pretty neat. Really like the way the steps were faced with boulders and capped with flagstone.

Enjoy.

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Glad they got some work done today, looks like we are getting snow tomorrow!

I am so ready for summer. We only got to use our pool for 6 weeks last year as we built late in the summer.

Hi paradigmdawg...yeah this is what our local weather said: Cloudy with a slight chance of rain or snow in the evening...then rain or snow likely after midnight. No snow accumulation. Lows in the lower 30s. Southeast winds around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent. Then for tomorrow: Snow. Snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches. Highs in the mid 30s. East winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 100 percent.

How often do you see 100% on anything? That is awesome, you got to enjoy your pool a bit and now you'll get to live it up the whole summer!!!!

the steps look awesome! I love how the large boulders look on the face and the sides. great work!

So weird today. A noisy neighbor waltzed right into my backyard without even asking. When I confronted her she said she just wanted to get my builders number and was highly interested in our project. Then she had the balls to ask me how much we paid. I was in shock...like who gave her the right. She was trespassing. I'm still mad that I didn't tell her to get the heck out of my yard. I don't know her and have never seen her in our neighborhood. She pulled up and went to our side gate that was closed and walked right on back. She thought I was rude for not giving her a welcome party and being secretive about how much I paid! I felt so violated. Would have been different if she just called first. How weird. You guys have any experiences like that? What would have happened if my big dogs were out and she got attacked!....Ugh....stupid people do stupid things. Dang noisy neighbor!!!

Why was she being so loud? :0)

haha travis. Yeah well spell check didn't get that one. She was just too damn curious for her own good. Still don't see snow on the radar here in Ft Worth but they say so....we'll see. Nighty night by backyard oasis friends :)

I sense a new fair weather friendship in the making.

Scott

ftwpoolgirl, we had the same thing happen when we did our first pool build. Came home from work one day to find three people just standing in our backyard looking at the construction. We are getting ready to begin pool #2. I really like your tile choice and will probably use something similar. We, too, are trying to avoid the "all brown" pool. Please keep posting pictures; they are so helpful. We are in the middle of a blizzard (DC metro), so it will be a while before construction can start!

Scott - yeah lady was trying to be friendly to get the info she wanted. I bet she tries to sneak back in my yard. What's funny is we're all curious. So it shouldn't be that big of a deal but it so caught me off guard and rude of her to not ask. Who knows maybe I would have been a snob and said go away :)

to-the-beach - What in the world did you do with three people there? Did you politely ask them to leave? It was hard for me to remain calm. It's none of their business! I listed the tile above in a previous post. There are some beautiful all brown pools. We wanted to be a little different...so hopefully it'll work out. I'll keep posting updates. Need to dry out so they can start the decking. My brother lives in Fredericksburg and works in DC. It is a lot of snow there for you guys! Snowing here right now...weird....but so pretty on the steps.

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Yep, we have a lot of snow falling on the West side of Fort Worth too.

I am pretty certain that every single neighbor I have, went into my backyard during the build. I would look outside and there was always someone out there. Funny how the neighbors that have never even waved at me, became my friends once the pool was done. Some of them came by during the build and helped me with small projects, they are the ones that got invited over last summer.

Love the snow!! Sorry about the curious folks out there! I haven't had anyone come up to my pool yet, but I had a sweet lady come to my front door and ask me if her husband could help me with my brick I was having loaded (they were actually 15 pallets of pavers..) she was pregnant and had a 2 year old with her....her husband doesn't lay pavers only does brick work so I couldn't help her..it just made me sad that so many are out of work right now or that construction has slowed so much that skilled laborers are having such a hard time. I am going to try and have him build a mailbox for us with leftover brick...try to give them some work.

I think it's a regional thing...here in the deep south (well, for most natives, lots of transplants wouldn't have this reaction!) if someone came into my backyard we'd have them in for a bite to eat and some sweet tea...then you talk for 30 minutes and realize they're actually a distant cousin! :) I have been known to walk up to strangers and ask if I could see their backyard because they had an incredible landscape design..when I did that, he pulled his golf cart around and gave me a 2 hour tour of his 5 acre backyard pointing out where each daylily came from and which trees had started out as saplings...we became fast friends and I eventually shared some daylilies I had in my garden with him....it's just a different way of thinking down here! :) I'm sure it makes outsiders feel very uncomfortable, but we really mean no harm, we're all family down here...stranger or not! :)

Can't wait to see your finished pics!!!

Tara

Have had a number of neighbors come over, but all of them came to the front door first. I'm rather protective of my property and house and my neighbors and the kids in our area know this so don't have any issues.

Few weeks back we had a semi hauling cattle tip over about 1/4 mile from my back area. Poor cattle were scattered and within a couple of hours their were people on horse back scouring through the woods and creeks around us looking for strays. I office out of the house and looked out the window and see two guys open up my back fence and walking around the backyard. They were met with a double barrel shot gun and asked to leave. They said they were just looking for some rope. I could not believe that they just unlatched my gate and walked right in and looked all over my yard for rope. They were lucky to walk out, had it been dark I'm almost certain that I would not have asked questions, the first shot is in the air, the second is in the tail as they get over the fence. Our home sets back from a major highway, by about .5 mile. We own all the property behind us to the hwy. If people are on that part of our land I can deal with it, come over or through the gate/fence and you may have just made one of your biggest mistakes.
Later in the day I did get a visit from one of the Sheriff Dep. about the guys trespassing and he actually apologized for his helpers doing what they did and thanking for me not taking serious action on them. He stated that they had direct orders not to go in any ones fenced in yards or to cross any wire fence lines...hope the two guys learned a good lesson, the next Texas landowner may not hold up.

I now have put bolt locks on all the gates, needed to get those on there anyway with the pool so hopefully we wont have any more uninvited guest. I am a very laid back dude, any and all are welcome...just come to the front door first.

Now we just need this 6" of snow to blow out and dry up!

Hey garageworksguy,

Not to derail the OPs thread but I think I read some where that you are into car racing? I used to be into some serious drag racing. Is that what you do?

Used to drag the back roads of Arlington and Fort Worth back in high school during the mid 80's. Have had a few muscle cars come through my garage, currently have a 66 Mustang Coup and a 68 Cobra Boss that I restored with my 9 yr old over last Spring and summer. Wanted to show him how to work on them...can't do it with the new cars today.
Here is a couple of what I have now and the other one I have in the works at the moment. The 66 was a barter deal with a guy to do his place.

Actually what I do is Garage related and is in my "My Page" I just don't want to do any promoting here on the board.

Sorry fwtpoolgirl, won't high-jack the thread anymore with car talk. :)

I will look up your page and contact you from there with pictures of some of my toys.

Sorry fwtpoolgirl, won't happen again.

Love your pool!

Very excited that we had deck work done yesterday and this morning they pour. The plans were a little off and we had to move the arbor due to the plumbing being in the way of a post so now we have 1,362 sq ft of decking. The footings were dug for the retaining wall. Will get some pictures when it gets light out this morning.

They poured the deck yesterday. It looks really good but still a little grey in areas. It's aggregate. They will acid wash on Tuesday if it's not raining here. Just to make sure we like the color.

Here's the rebar stage. Starting to really take shape.
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You can log onto Facebook and add me as a friend to see all the pool build photos. I'm under Tina Baker Crawford. There's 50+ photos :)

We are getting closer to complete. Waiting on arbor, grill, plaster n fill, slide to be redone, sprinklers, grass n plants and acid wash the deck and walls, then wet sealing the stone.

The slide has turned out not very pretty. The grotto is cool. They stained the slide to look like rock. I do not have a photo of it but they are coming to look at it today to decide what to do. Just glad that they're working with us.

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The deck looks good! That's exposed aggregate correct? Is the concrete colored or is it the aggregate that makes the deck look tan? I like the color in the first pic.

martmo-in the bottom picture...bottom left near the roof (pic was taken from upstairs) you see a bright patch. That was a test patch on acid washing the deck. The deck is not finished. Yes, it is hand seed aggregate. There is a lot of concrete that you can still see which is the grey cloudy looking areas. The acid wash clears this and you see more of the stone giving it a nice tan/brown look. It is 1364 sq ft of deck. Was a LOT of concrete!!

Earlier in the thread you were asking about plants that can survive the heat and arid conditions of our summers. A friend of ours who lives in Coppell ordered from the website below for his pool area and was very pleased.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yuccas and other drought and heat tolerant plants

Love the swim out step... what material did you choose to use on the slide's surface?
I cant see how the deck isnt going to get soaked when the wf is on. It's probably just the angle of the pictures.

getting close! congrats

Natural_one: It's the angle. It'll be fine. I don't know what materials they used on the slide. It is sooooo smooth. We're about to destroy it though. Hopefully they'll be able to get the smoothness back. Right now the colors are just not right. We're going to remove some of the yellows and grays and darken them. Our weather is not cooperating so we're still waiting on plaster. That seems to be the longest wait other than having our yard back to some kind of normal.

Here's a picture of the slide. The colors are just too busy and not what we were looking for. Their is also too big of a drop from the top down into the slide seat. They broke the top and created a step down so the kids can slide. Waiting on good weather to strip the slide where it is yellow and green/grays to change those colors a bit darker. We may end up redoing the whole thing in a solid color. Right now it's just really ugly to me and I've hardly taken any pictures since.
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Here is our grill they finished. It was a small 8 ft area but worked out perfectly for us :)
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This is the first half of the arbor. We are building another one right behind it that goes into the ground to support the entire thing. The second arbor will be for a hammock...totally can't wait.
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Looking from under the arbor back at the house. You can see our iron fence for the dog run is up and hubby got his Longhorn emblem made into the fence.
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A little path to our pool equipment behind the slide.
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I actually like the slide pattern. I am used to seeing vinyls and plain grays. That is so different. If you can find some fake grass to set behind the W/F area just temporarily, you'll see a closer idea of the wonderful contrast it will present. The bare ground makes it hard to see.

Maybe someone with photoshop can select the ground and change it's color so you can see what I mean.

The golden grill is really sharp looking. You might want to mount a utensil hanger on the left wall since the counter space is going to be needed for the platters of burgers, chops, etc... that are waiting to be cooked or just coming off the grill.

Scott