We have start-up!!

16 years ago

Many, many thanks to ALL for the VERY helpful information and advice provided on this site!

We had startup on Monday!!

Still have some finishing touches to come:

12' palapa

6 natural gas tiki torches need to be installed

LOTS of landscaping

refurbing the ugly fence

and of course deck furniture!

Specs:

42'x 23' freeform

120' perimeter

3'6" shallow end

7'6" deep end

7' spa with six Waterway jets

18' gunite slide

grotto/waterfall(artificial panel rock/natrual rock)

baja shelf with umbrella sleeve

Cameron Brown flagstone coping

Stonescapes Tropics Blue mini-pebble

aprox. 900 sq.ft. natural concrete deck, acid washed (may stain later)

Equipment:

Pentair Intelliflo 4x160

2 Pentair 2HP pumps (one for spa, one for waterfeature)

Pentair 100 sq.ft. Quad DE filter

2 Pentair 500W pool lights (plus one spa light)

IntelliChlor - IC40 Salt generator

Intellitouch I-7 In house control (plus spa side control)

One picture to look at:

The rest are here:

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb287/dogpaddle_album/

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (16)

poolmissy
16 years ago
WOW - Very inspiring! What a huge transformation. Can I ask how long this project took from excavation to today?

Celebrate and Enjoy!
ron168
16 years ago
I love it! I am in the process of designing and getting PB bids. I may "steal" some ideas from you.

Great pictures.
Enjoy it!

Ron
Related Discussions
Help, its January and my Daffodils have started to come up!!
Q
Comments (7)
That's the beauty of the daffodils: their tips peeking out remind us of the show to come after the long winter. And don't worry -- they know what to do!
...See More
Please help.... we have closed and now the issues start
Q
Comments (12)
We sealed our bonus room (over the 3-car garage) floor, knee walls, and ceiling with foam, and then insulated with cellulose. My daughter and grandson sleep there, and it's the warmest room on the 2nd floor. Be sure they seal EVERY crack between the garage ceiling and the MBR/bath floor with the foam. In my previous home (a condo), I had a long wall crack and some tie rod form holes that had popped leaks sealed with some kind of soft white goop--done by a company called Mr. Sponge. Their web site is mrsponge.com, but they are only in Michigan. They have some kind of proprietary sealer that they inject, but maybe if you look at the Fox News explanation posted on their web site, you can figure out what to ask someone in your area about for your leaks. 25 years later, when we had to take out the finished wall paneling to fix a different leak, these patches were still as dry as a bone, and the goop was just as resilient as the day it was put in. The walls are repaired from the INSIDE. Our present master bath is on 2 NW facing outside walls plus a garage wall, has a 9' ceiling, and is too cool for me--it's also at the far end of the heating run from the furnace. We just use a small space heater sometimes in Nov-Mar, and it is fine. However, with your "HUGE bathroom with very, very high cathedral ceilings", if a space heater doesn't solve the problem, you may have to make a choice between tearing up the floor tile and putting in radiant, or dropping the ceiling down quite a few feet. We put radiant in our lower level bathroom, since my mother was supposed to spend several months down there. As it turned out my daughter uses that bath to shower, but even though it can be cool during the winter (we're still in the process of adjusting our ducts throughout the house, since when we use the woodstove it throws off the house thermostat), she doesn't use the radiant since it takes a while to warm the floor, and she doesn't pre-set it. We got a Brookstone sleep therapy machine similar to the one linked below to block out the noise of our 3 very young grandchildren (early risers) who live with us during the week. Maybe something like this might help you adjust to the noise from your garage door opening under you. You don't have to spend this much--DH likes his gadgets! We chose a New Age sounding music from the 12 choices, and like that it goes all night. I can empathize with how tired and discouraged you are right now. We were owner-builders, so when we moved in, there were quite a few things that still needed to be finished, and we certainly had our share of unexpected things to be fixed as we went along. We've been in for over 2 years, and our list is getting shorter. Life is finally getting to be more enjoyable now that we're past our major hassles and most of the extra little jobs! The unexpectedness of your need for some major fixes, plus having to spend more money after saving for so long, when you thought you'd move in and love it must be a real downer. I'm sorry you're having to go through this. Part of the difficulty and discouraging part is not knowing how to fix everything. Good luck with it all--they are fixable problems, and I hope some of these suggestions will work for you. Anne Here is a link that might be useful: Brookstone sleep therapy machine
...See More
Have started painting cabinets - 3 questions have come up
Q
Comments (2)
You are definately on the right track by preparing the surface properly. I would not put the paint on thick, always do nice even coats and you'll probably only need 2 coats. Unless your cabinets are oak, then you may need more. What's so great about oil is that it self-levels, so apply a nice even first coat, lightly sand and do your finish coat. Once you do your "distressing" you may have some touch-ups. And, always make sure the front of the door looks its best. I would prop the door up (maybe a paint can or some other item to keep it off the surface. Then, you can spin the door as you paint getting a nice clean edge -- no drips (or fingerprints). And, if you lay the door on a flat surface, the painted edges will stick to whatever it lying on. I always paint the flat surface first, then work my way around the edges, making sure to "feather" along the sharp edges making certain there are no drips. Sometimes, a smaller artist brush comes in handy. Also, I think 5 coats of varnish is overkill, but do what you are comfortable with. I did my china hutch black with a distressed finish a few years ago and it gets better looking all the time!
...See More
We have officially started! (pic heavy)
Q
Comments (24)
Skimmton- Great question! I bought beaded inset cabinets that are 13" deep. If I use 3.5" window trim then I will have 1" between the cabinet and window trim. One aspect that really bugged me was not having enough room to do an angled, corner upper cabinet. I'm really not thrilled that the cabinet closest to the window faces the side of the cabinet between the window and slider (it's not shown in the rendering) but my only other choice was to put in smaller windows.
...See More
K Jensen
Original Author
16 years ago
poolmissy: Thanks! Our dig began March 28th and startup was June 9th. Our PB said to expect 3-5 months as we had so much going on with retaining walls and artificial rock. So we are very pleased to have our pool in just over 3 months!

ron168: Thanks! Feel free to "steal". I stole a few ideas from this site as well. It is so helpful to see what others have done and to hand your PB a photo and say "Here, do this please." Best of luck with your pool build!
beachdiva
16 years ago
dogpaddle - it's just beautiful! Your waterline tile looks great, btw. Your pool is one of my favorites! Now you can jump in and enjoy :-)
K Jensen
Original Author
16 years ago
beachdiva: Thanks! And many thanks for your helpful comments while I was having my tile crisis! I ended up going with a tile that was similar to the PB's suggestion but with a little more gold tone to it. I'm REALLY happy with it and sooooo glad I made the decision to change it out.
vegasmom
16 years ago
Gorgeous pool! Great design. We're doing ours now but have no where near that kind of space. Enjoy :)

And because I'm still planning my deck, may I ask what you chose? Looks like concrete..what finish?

Thanks!
K Jensen
Original Author
16 years ago
vegasmom: After originally contracting for colored stamped concrete in the end we decided to go with plain old natural grey concrete with an acid wash finish. I'm very happy with it. The acid wash took off the top layer of cream and left nice sparkly gold flecks. It's very slip resistant and have noticed that it stays fairly cool on the feet compared to the coping stone. Down the road I may try staining it. Thanks for the compliments and best of luck with your build!
vegasmom
16 years ago
Ah, ok. Acid wash..I'm hearing a lot about it lately but haven't found photos where I can tell. I'm trying to learn the diff. between acid, sandblasting, and salt finish.

My precast coping sample didn't pass the heat test. I'm trying to find a way to cool it down...

Thanks for your reply and the good wishes :)
zumo
16 years ago
Beautiful pool!!!!We are just starting our pool. What is your slide made of and would you recommend it? Also did you insurance go up for having a slide. My kids want one sooooo bad! Ok maybe I do too!:)

Thanks!
K Jensen
Original Author
16 years ago
zumo: Thanks!! Our slide was dug out of the hillside during the pool dig then lined with steel rebar like the rest of the pool and shot with gunite. Then the guys who built our artificial rock waterfall finished the slide with a smooth layer of cement. My husband and I love our slide! It is long (about 18ft.) and fast. Our kids aged 6 and 3 are a little leary of it but I'm sure will come to love it over time. We wanted it BIG so they could grow into it as opposed to a tiny slide they would be tired of after one season.

One thing I like most about the way we disigned it is that it is hidden behind the waterfall so we don't have a big monstrosity of a slide to look at all the time. I did read a thread a little while back in which (I think Brent from Caltropic Pools) described his prefered method of building this type of slide. If you decide to go that route you might want to do a search for that thread. When I read it we were too far along in our build to change... hopefully ours will hold up. As far as insurance goes...don't know ... we have not yet informed our insurance company that we have a pool let alone the slide... I better get on that :) Thanks for the reminder!
K Jensen
Original Author
16 years ago
zumo: Sorry it wasn't caltropic it was t-square who describes his prefered method of building a gunite slide but says he doesn't recommend them in the first place.

Thread title is: Are cracks normal in a gunite slide?

t-square says: "Unfortunately, the site is not always adequately prepared to accept the weight of a gunite slide and differential settlement between the pool and slide, or from one end of the slide to the other, can occur.
Personally, I do not build gunite slides (or any slides or diving boards) for liability purposes, but if I did, I would build them such that they are structurally separated from the pool with a bond break and expansion joint between the bond beam and the slide.
Aside from the issue of differential settlement, there is also the issue of normal expansion and contraction with hot/cold cycles. Imagine the slide sitting in the sun and then suddenly having cold water rush down it. Just like a car window, this can lead to bad things.
The white in the cracks is probably calcium and other minerals from within the gunite. Salt could also be a factor, I don't know, maybe not."
banana_fanna
16 years ago
Your new tile selection turned out great! I've been wondering how it would all turn out in the end. It's terrific! Congratulations.
K Jensen
Original Author
16 years ago
banana fanna: Thanks!! And thanks so much for giving your .02 during my tile crisis! I'm really happy with the tile we went with in the end. BTW, anyone want the 2x2s that didn't work? I've still got four boxes of the stuff!! ;-) Really nice tile... just didn't work in our pool.
kajones2
16 years ago
I knew it would be gorgeous!! Glad everything worked out. Wish I could have that slide of your's!! Enjoy.
osorry1
16 years ago
Your pool is wonderful....I hope you enjoy every minute of it!!! Love the grotto!!
beachdiva
16 years ago
dogpaddle - I meant to tell you I really like your new tile selection. I know how stressful that decision was, but it looks like you found a fabulous solution. It really compliments your beautiful stonework nicely.

We have start-up!!

Comments (16)

poolmissy

ron168

Related Discussions

K Jensen
Original Author

beachdiva

K Jensen
Original Author

vegasmom

K Jensen
Original Author

vegasmom

zumo

K Jensen
Original Author

K Jensen
Original Author

banana_fanna

K Jensen
Original Author

kajones2

osorry1

beachdiva

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

We have start-up!!

Comments (16)

Related Discussions

K JensenOriginal Author

K JensenOriginal Author

K JensenOriginal Author

K JensenOriginal Author

K JensenOriginal Author

K JensenOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

K Jensen
Original Author

K Jensen
Original Author

K Jensen
Original Author

K Jensen
Original Author

K Jensen
Original Author

K Jensen
Original Author