Hi Julie, Love to see you are sharing the pool building process on Houzz! For someone who is getting ready to remodel our existing pool (in Monrovia), it is very helpful to see the process and hear the firsthand stories. I am going through the builder quote process now and it has been very frustrating! Finding a builder that I like/trust and doesn't have a ton of bad reviews has been challenging. I will look into Masterpiece Pools - do you have any other contractors that you liked? Thanks in advance, Eric

I completely understand, Eric. So far, that has been the hardest part of this project.... selecting the right vendor. Our 2nd choice was California Pools, but I'm really glad we chose Masterpiece in Yorba Linda instead. I've heard mostly good things and a few bad things about CA Pools, but even putting the bad things aside, we wouldn't have gotten as much for our money with them. We were focused on finding a quality builder that we could put our trust in, and still afford. We nixed some of the lesser expensive builders because the experience or the reviews weren't what we wanted to see. Masterpiece is run by old timers who want to shun technology, which made it difficult to find reviews for them. It's too bad because I think they'd win a lot more work with a bigger online presence considering how happy they seem to make their customers. My husband & I collaborated with 3 other local families to find our PB, and we even had group meetings with the PBs so we could collectively hear the same answers. This was immensely helpful and we are all still collaborating during the various stages of our respective projects. We all came together through Houzz and Nextdoor.com, and we learned about Masterpiece from another Houzz user who used a different PB but watched her neighbors have a great experience with Masterpiece. These online sites are a Godsend in situations like this. You're welcome to join us offline if you'd like. Just email me at julieleekimura@gmail.com and we can share materials and findings with you.

Thanks so much for the info Julie. I will email you right now.

Okay...so not fair! Where were you when I was building my pool?

Hi animallover5. We are just getting to the discussion/forum section of Houzz so sorry for the delay. Read your post and it sounded like you went through a painful process but glad it was completed and you are enjoying your finished pool. If you ever need another pool/spa build, we'd be happy to hear from you :)

I'm glad you spoke up so Eric and the other families from our group that haven't yet signed a contract can check you out. It's good to have options!

Thanks Ultimate. Loved your site...I may have to move just to have one of your pools!

Week 3:

This week we got a bigger gas meter installed by the gas
company, were told by the city’s Water & Power Dept we need to move the
mast on top of our house that the power line from the pole attaches to (an
unexpected cost), started electrical for the pool/spa, got the trenches filled
in (yay!!!), had the coping framed out, and began building the waterfall
wall. Pablo’s still hogging up space in
the backyard though.

We’ve been wetting the shotcrete at least 3x/day since it
was shot, and the PB’s guys have been wetting it too since it was shot as
well. There was one guy on site the day
after shooting to do the wetting all day long, very thoroughly, which is the
most critical time for wetting it I’m told as it’s when most of the water is
absorbed in the walls. I see a lot of
PB’s have the owners do all the wetting, so it was great that Mike had his
experienced ppl do it during the most critical time period.

The landscaping sub keeps trying to remove Pablo’s stump and
has been here multiple days for that effort.
He has gone through 2 chippers (blew the motor on 1 of them), and
several blades for his chain saw. Hardly
made a dent with the ax. The problem is
that the Bobcat dug up the stump and all its deep roots from the ground,
leaving it teetering on top of our lawn waiting to be chopped up. It’s sitting on top of a big stump chunk that
the Bobcat put the root ball on top of, so it’s not in a stable state, and of
course it’s way too heavy to move. When
the guys tilted the chipper upward so it can be pushed downward through the
root ball as is the norm, the oil gathered on one side of the motor instead of
streaming throughout the motor, thus causing the motor to blow. So now they are using chainsaws and not only
is it very slow going, but they’re ruining their blades. If the root ball had stayed in the ground,
they could have used the chipper the way it’s designed to be used (without
tilting it) and they wouldn't have removed the entire root ball, but enough to safely prevent the roots from growing any more. From what I understand that’s how tree
trimmers would do it too, however my friend’s arborist said leaving a root ball
in the ground can cause rot or disease problems down the road so I’m glad the
whole thing is out of the ground.

We also started electrical this week, even though the city
inspector mistakenly already signed off on electrical before it was done. In addition to the normal pool electrical that
needs to be done, we need to upgrade our panel from 100 amp to 200 amp. It’s an old house (1940). That part couldn’t be done because the city’s
Water & Power Dept didn’t unlock the box when they were supposed to. Both parties are working on getting this done
soon.

While they were building the waterfall wall we noticed they
hadn’t included the notched out parts on either side. Our PB came by to help rectify the problem
but the subs were very easy to work with and we got it fixed without the PB
needing to be here. We wanted the 6”
drops on both sides of the waterfall wall to have a bit of flair and not look
so blunt. We figure we can put vases,
tabletop fire bowls, potted plants or something in those notches. Originally we wanted columns on both sides,
and a taller wall, but it was cut as a scope reduction to get the price more to
our liking. I hope it turns out nicely.

We were so focused on the waterfall wall that we didn’t
notice the frame for the coping between the pool and the perimeter wall wasn’t
widened to allow for us to walk on that side of the pool. The pool is set 8’ from the wall, instead of
the minimum 5’, to allow for walking and privacy trees. After seeing the coping error, we decided to
add more decking to the plan and will talk to our PB about a Change Order for
that purpose. It seems to me we only
need a 2’ wide pour to make for a comfortable walking path (combined with the
coping) and not interfere with the privacy trees. I’m not sure what the standard width is, but
it must vary on the design.

Last, due to concerns about excessive noise, we
decided on using the sheer descent waterfall devices instead of the rainfall
versions. We watched a You Tube video
highlighting the differences between the 2 and were stunned by how loud the
rainfall version is. It seems you’d have
to almost yell over the water in order to have a conversation. I think the noise from the sheer descent will
be more relaxing and fit what we have in mind.
Since I’ve never seen either version in person before, if anyone has
input on this detail I’d love to hear it.

Week 4:

Finished most of the coping, and framed the decking. Have an inspection next week, then they'll come back to do tiling & pour the deck. They still need to finish the coping on the notched out areas on either side of the waterfall wall. And the electrical upgrade from 100amp to 200amp started this week. The electricians can't finish the job til they schedule another meeting with the city to do the actual cutover, but they're ready to go. Gonna be glad to see the wires moved from over our heads to buried underground.

Wow it is really moving along and looking good. As to the sheer decent or rainfall. I love my sheer descent. It is very peaceful. I have not heard a rainfall one, so I am not sure what that it. Will it be on the main high wall? That would be far enough away that it would not be very loud. That is my thought.

I love the sound of the water though!! My sheer descent pushes out about 10 inches so you can hear it and it feels good out in the yard. I love the way it looks too. When I heat the pool and swim under it... the warm water fall is wonderful. ;o)

Well, I'm glad you pointed out that since the rainfall devices will be on the far wall that it might not be so loud because we ended up sticking with the rainfall version. I was too late in asking our contractor to switch to the sheer descent and after discussing our concerns we felt it wasn't something that needed to be sent back. Mike pointed out that since our waterfall wall is so short (only about 18" -- we cut it down in height during the scope reduction), the water doesn't have a long drop and will be less noisy as a result. Plus, he pointed out what you pointed out about the wall being on the far end of the yard, away from our primary seating area. We also have the spillway from the spa into the pool but that's not a rainfall device and I understand it's not noisy at all. Does anyone agree with that? If it's peaceful that'd be perfect because of where it's situated close to the seating area.

Overall, it's moving along at such a good clip. I think the perimeter wall is going to be what trips us up and causes delays. And Pablo is still sitting in the yard! LOL. He's attracting flies now so I'm going to be glad when he's finally gone. Mike is bringing back a Bobcat to move him out after his guys ruin more blades trying to cut small chunks off so he can fit through the access point.

You can see how far my sheer jets out. My wall is also only 18 inches high. It is not loud at all. That will probably be the same on yours. The spill over does not make very much noise at all. To the left is the seating area and it is no problem hearing over either. Can't wait to see more of your pictures.

Thank you. It's good to get confirmation the spill over doesn't make much noise. Your sheer descent jets out very nicely! I like that it's not too close to the wall. I'd better ask about that for our rain version since we have travertine on the face of that wall. I imagined our water jetting out beyond the travertine so it doesn't get ruined/discolored. Fingers crossed that's what happens considering they are already installed now.

Julie, this is a great informational blog on your pool buildout. Who is your PB that you went with, can you share some of the pros/cons of going with this vs. the others? We went through a bunch of PB quotes and reviews, one of them being CA Pools; but have not yet broken ground on our project, am still looking around. Thx.

Hi Dukelosia,

We are using Masterpiece Pools and Spas in Yorba Linda, CA. CA Pools was our #2 choice, but we got a lot more for our money with Masterpiece and they were more responsive. As far as CA Pools knows, I'm still waiting for them to give me a final bid. I've heard good and bad things about CA Pools but ultimately I think they'd do a good job... just with more delays and it will cost you more money.

And to be fair, we did have a blip with Masterpiece during the bidding/negotiation phase. They made a hefty mistake on our quotes but thankfully did a very good job of making it right for us which saved the deal. I didn't know what to make of it at first. Is it a ploy? Is it common for them to make such a mistake and then seek more money as a result? We almost walked away because of those concerns, but our gut instinct told us to see how the mistake could be fixed before walking and give them the benefit of the doubt. Glad we did because this worked out really well for us, and we thoroughly believe now it was an innocent mistake that upset the owner as much as it did us (apparently he hadn't made such a big dollar mistake before, but like I said, he made it right and fair after identifying it). And now that we've been building with him for the past 4 weeks, it's clear to me he's not a "nickel and dime you" kind of guy. We'd describe him as trustworthy, calm, very experienced and fair.

Let me know if you have more questions. I'm happy to help.

Week 5:

This week's activities included: started tiling, passed inspection to pour the
decking, ran into a big problem with our exterior walls, and briefly contemplated another
change order – this time for the interior of the raised spa.

We chose
travertine for the waterfall wall set on a diamond pattern and I love it. We chose a blue/tan tile for the waterline to
offer a bit of color, and we are doing a faux stacked stone look on the outside
of the raised spa. That last part hasn’t
been done yet, but the travertine got grouted yesterday. It’s taking them more time than I thought it
would to do the tiling part of the job, but it’s because they are being
meticulous.

I’m having a real hard time with this next topic – the perimeter
wall. Bottom line is it’s ugly and has
cracks, some of the cracks are big, but it’s a strong ugly wall that is not
going to fall down. We knew it was too
short in certain areas to meet code so our plan was to add a wrought iron
topper and then hide the “ugly” with privacy trees. However, the city inspector feels differently
and is insisting we replace these walls (we've tried reasoning with him on multiple occasions).
One side is worse than the other so I asked if we could replace just the
1, to which he said he could kick it down with 1 kick (delusional… I thought he
was supposed to be an expert). Our PB
talked to the Senior Inspector at city hall but he stands behind the field
inspector. Long story short, it looks
like we have to replace these walls, which I think might total about 120 feet,
and I’m really concerned about the can of worms this might open. We will likely need a new permit for
replacing them, I was advised by a friend to get a surveyor out beforehand (approx.
$500) to ensure there’s no encroachment, work with neighbors on picking the new
material (why?), and there’s an electrical pole in our neighbor’s yard right
behind our yard that I’m afraid might somehow become our problem if we remove
the original wall even though we have no easement on our property. That last concern seems unlikely but I’m thinking
about the worst case scenarios.

The encroachment issue is strange to me because there’s
already an existing wall separating the properties. At some point, when the walls were built, it
had to be determined that they weren’t encroaching on anyone’s property. Why do it again? And ours is aligned with all the other walls
for all the neighbors on this street so why would there be any doubt? I’m also a bit confused when people talk
about whose wall it is. It looks like
prior owners of our house built it because it’s the same material surrounding
our property, and the material beyond our property changes for the other houses. So if it’s our wall, why do others have to be
involved in picking the new material and perhaps even contributing towards the
cost? I’m hearing that as something we’d
want to keep in mind and again it just doesn’t make sense to me. The only reason for calling it a shared wall
is because it’s on the shared property line (we assume) but since our house
paid for it don’t we own it and therefore it’s our responsibility? I don’t know what to expect other than an
additional unexpected cost of roughly $5k.
We’ll see how it plays out.

Also, while playing in our new reinforced fort (a.k.a. the
empty raised spa), I realized we need a bench that is higher than the rest so
we were considering a change order until this wall thing became a big issue and now we are
pulling back on extra costs. But something
for others to think about when you get to your build is that our raised spa has
a smallish 18” wide step on the inside so you can step into the spa. But it’s the only elevated spot to sit on when
you get hot inside the spa, and it’s a bit too high for that purpose. I would have preferred to figure out a way to
have steps of varying heights going into the spa without taking up too much
room and too much of the floor. I think
our configuration is normal so if you don’t say anything early enough this will
likely be your default as well.

Here’s a pic of this week’s progress with most of the tiling
done.

Hi Julie,

Sorry you are having to deal with this wall thing now. If you take the wall down, but leave part of it up and reinforce and rebuild the wall that may alleviate the having to get it a new permit. Ask if that is the case. IF you remove it entirely you will be getting a new wall and that needs a new permit.

If you don't ask. you won't know. If you rebuild the wall and it is 6 inches over on someone else's property...they can sue. It won't be grandfathered in. I would definitely revisit the property line. Any wall that is a dividing wall is a shared wall. Check with your hoa if you have one. Your neighbors will benefit from a new wall so they should have to share the cost. (of course they may not be real happy with you) New wall new rules....

love the tile and the spa. IT is really coming along. I put a step in my spa to pull out on and I wish I had put two in. Good luck Julie. I hope you get through this soon. Keep posting pictures!!

Hmmm... hearing you say you wished you had 2 elevated steps in your spa is making me think we should try to squeeze that into our blown up budget somehow. I'll be pondering that. Like everyone else, I want to do my best to get it right during construction because there's no going back. After they put the travertine up and the blue/tan waterline tile, the color choices reminded me of something Ralph Lauren would have produced (albeit with more flair). LOL. We put practically zero thought and effort into the waterline tile because we suck at picking tile. So we just looked at limited options the PB brought to our house and chose one. I like the way it turned out but I wish I had a designer's eye and could have done something better. It'll do though. I really like the travertine and I know I'm going to love the stone we chose for outside of the spa wall when it gets set.

I did ask the inspector if we could repair and reinforce the damaged parts of the walls but he said no. They both have to come down. One of the walls hardly has cracks but he's insisting it's compromised. He's ridiculous. We are going to see if he will approve us building a fence inside the existing walls instead of tearing down the existing wall, hauling away tons of block, hiring a surveyor, pulling another permit, angering the neighbors, etc. I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out. Thank you for your good wishes.

Oh, and we don't have an HOA, so that probably makes things a bit easier. If you have other ideas, keep em coming. Thanks again.

Week 6:

There wasn’t much activity or progress made this week as we waited for our PB to contact his engineer and the city’s inspectors regarding the wall issue. I did have another fence company come out to give us a bid and he also gave us a referral to an engineer/surveyor since our own leads have not gone well. The city inspector said he'd need a structural engineer to vouch for the wall in order to change his mind, but finding one is proving difficult at best. We'll keep at it, but our hope is the city will allow us to build a fence inside the existing walls so we don't have to do the demo, haul away, surveyor, annoy the neighbors, etc. Some bright news is we met someone who just finished their build in Pasadena and she said that they have to do a gate fix but in the meantime they are allowed to use their pool for 6 months while they work on the gate issue. I thought our fence thing would prevent us from filling the pool, which means holding off on the finish, until it was fixed. So that was nice to hear.

Some other good news this week is that Pablo’s root ball was finally completely removed from the backyard, once and for all! And we got some tile pieces replaced for more likable pieces on the walls we’ll be staring at the most. The waterline tile we picked had more variations than the sample could ever prepare us for, and certain pieces on the waterfall wall with too much brown were grabbing our attention. This week's slow down ended up being helpful in this respect because we got to look at the waterline tiles for almost a week during a time where they weren’t grouted, which solidified our resolve to get certain pieces replaced. That was easy to do since they weren’t grouted at the time. After swapping them, the crew finished grouting everything. We are now thinking about adding trim tile to the steps and umbrella sleeves with caps in the decking. So I made some quick visits to tile stores to try and find trim options. We hear this is a safety issue for white finished pools, and we’re doing a white quartz finish.

I believe next week will be pouring cement (the deck and maybe building up a bench in the spa), and possibly get the ledger stone installed on the outside of the spa. Of course we’ll work to make headway on the walls too.

Here’s the latest pic. Not much has changed from last week but I do like the waterline tile on the waterfall wall better.

Weeks 7 & 8

We made some headway in the past 2 weeks while we still work to figure out a
solution for our perimeter walls, albeit it’s been slow going due to the focus
being on a fix for the walls. My PB built a little elevated seat for me
in the spa and I’m really happy he did! I know it looks a bit awkward,
but I don’t care. The functionality of it is going to please me a lot so
I’m fine with the way it looks. This part of the process is a lesson for
others in the design phase though. We didn’t think through the interior
of our spa except for the light placement.

We also picked tile for the trim on the steps, had 4 umbrella sleeves with lids
cemented in between the decking and the coping, and poured the deck. Still
have to do residual tiling (trim on steps and ledger stone on exterior of
spa), the electrical isn’t done (including moving our overhead line), add an
umbrella sleeve on baja step, quartz plaster, put a new gate up, alarms on
sliding doors from the house, the perimeter wall fix, and a bit of landscaping
(privacy trees, uplighting, bubblers, level the lawn area and new sod). I
wonder how long it will take til we get to swim!

Meanwhile, I think we might have a solution for the perimeter wall problem.
The city’s chief inspector came onsite to see the walls himself. He said
that while they are in fact compromised due to the 45 degree cracks in both
walls, because of the exposed rebar he’s comfortable with a work around fix
that will reinforce the walls. He doodled what he had in mind and our PB
will sketch it up and submit the plan for official approval. Fingers
crossed it works and we can move forward with the build without having to
replace the walls. It’ll still be a $3k unexpected cost, but believe me
it’s better than having to replace the walls. And really, we always knew
about a possible $1,400 additional cost to build up the height on the walls to
meet the required height minimum. We were just hoping we didn’t need to
spend the $1,400, much less $3k.

FYI, during the past couple of weeks I’ve talked to 3 random structural
engineers. I was hoping to connect with one through a referral since we
know so many engineers but that didn’t happen. Anyhow, they all had a
similar approach to our wall problem which would have involved deconstructing
the walls in several areas to prove they have consistent rebar and footings,
then paying the Structural Engrs a hefty fee to write a report and submit a
drawn plan to reconstruct the walls in a reinforced fashion. I’m really
glad we were able to avoid doing this between the chief city inspector offering
his suggestion and our PB creating a sketch for city approval. I’m
putting that out there in case anyone else finds themselves in a similar predicament
as maybe our experience can help.

So happy to hear about your wall fix. 3K is a small price compared to what you could have been faced with. Sure looks like you are coming along. Your deck is great. I think the in spa seat is a perfect solution and you will get a lot of use from it. If I had to do this again...two spa seats and more jets in the spa...and a different PB ( goes with out saying...)

Yes, the $3k is really a gift, I feel. Plus, we avoid angering the neighbors this way, which is important to us. Every time I look at your pictures the entire backyard looks so perfect. You have great taste! And your details were so well thought out. I'm realizing the placement of our pool is a fun target for the birds that sit on the wires above it. Ugh. Gross. Not sure if we will need a solution once the pool is filled, such as some kind of cover. Right now we keep scrubbing the mess off the coping every couple of days.

We only have 6 jets in the spa. Hope it'll do the trick cuz we're going to be in there a lot. I don't think we have enough decking to have lounge chairs, but we knew that was likely going to be a sacrifice since we wanted to keep as much of the lawn as we could.

Animallover5, how long did you have to brush your quartz finish before you could swim? I forgot to ask our PB.

Weeks 9 & 10

It looks like next week is go time!
Fingers crossed we are allowed to do the plaster next week. It all depends on the inspector’s findings in
2 days during the pre-plaster inspection.
We will see.

This past week saw the completion of the perimeter wall
fix with a wrought iron specialist reinforcing the existing walls by concreting
posts every 30” along the worse of the 2 walls, and including a dotted metal
screen above for privacy. They also installed
some of the rods around 2 diagonal cracks on the other wall as instructed by
the city’s supervising plans check engineer.
It doesn’t look horrible, I guess.
LOL. My hubby and I will paint
the block wall white and then the privacy trees will be planted in front of the
back wall. We changed our plans for the
side wall and instead of privacy trees we want to install a cheap white vinyl
wall in front of the block wall. We
think it will look cleaner and we don’t want to provide a home for the critters
(i.e., birds, lizards, squirrels, spiders, etc.). In front of the vinyl wall we can place a few
potted plants.

Our overhead electrical line was relocated from behind
the house to behind the garage and the electrical was completed on the pool and
spa. They also installed the remote
device inside the house so we can operate the pool and spa without having to go
outside. Yippee! But, they weren’t able to get the city’s
power and water dept to meet them on site for the overhead electrical line and
that means the city hasn’t brought out our new meter yet. That’s great because we are getting free
electrical until they bring out our new meter, which was required because we
upgraded from 100 amps to 200 amps to run the pool. But it’s bad because the city sent us a
letter saying they were going to shut off our electricity if we don’t get the
meter back on within a certain time period that is quickly expiring. I’m sure this is going to be a headache… but
free electricity in the meantime will make it worthwhile!

The other thing that was accomplished this week is the
vinyl gate was installed. We opted for a
high quality gate (read: expensive) because we have a cheaper one from Home
Depot in the back of the house which is really weak. This darn gate cost us $955, and although it’s
solid and we definitely like that, it has a ridiculous locking mechanism. It’s a key-latch that requires a key to
lock/unlock from either side. So you
need a key when you go into the backyard from the house, which is
annoying. The worst part is that the
mechanism is on the outside of the gate so I’m worried our security is
compromised. I’m hopeful our PB will
find a solution for us. For $955… I
mean, come on.

And on top of that, we got the ledger stone installed on
the outside of the spa (I love it!!!), and the trim tile installed on the steps
of the pool and spa. Oh my gosh, I didn’t
know I was going to love ledger stone so much.
Now I just want to have them build 2 curved planters made with matching
ledger stone on either side of the garage door in the backyard right now. But, that’s not part of our build and we will
have to wait for the planters and building out the patio area. Darn!

I hope my next post is telling you the plastering is
done! Speaking of which, our PB is
suggesting we just go with regular plaster, not quartz plaster, because he
doesn’t think it’s worth the value. He’s
always been hesitant about the quartz. We are doing just a white color and he
feels going with quartz for white won’t give us anything. No sparkle like you’d see with a color
finish. We don’t like pebble, we don’t want
a color finish and we were going with quartz because we’re told it lasts longer
than basic plaster. But upon his
recommendation this week, we are just going with a white plaster. Any last minute thoughts on that? PB said the life of the plaster really
depends on the maintenance of the pool, and we do maintain our home and
belongings. That’s the argument we used
to convince ourselves to just go with plaster afterall, but I’m a bit nervous
about it.

(Tica in her Ex-Pen going potty. We hadn't had a gate for all this time so we weren't able to let the puppy run free in the backyard).

Moving right along Julie.....so happy for you! Your gate looks great. I am sure the white plaster will look great. They have experience with that color so I think here you should listen to them. or go to the site on NPT.com and look up the white plaster vs the quartz white plaster. If they are saying to save the money...don't argue the point.....;o)

I have a question, that perhaps you can ask your PB for me. How many inches per week should the pool water line drop each week in a small pool? Mine is still dropping 3 inches a week. They said it is evaporation...I don't believe that is possible.

I will ask him. He's trying to reach our city inspector and will call me once that's done so I'll ask him then. Fingers crossed it's not a bad thing for you -- that seems like a lot. Also, are you a member on TroubleFreePools.com? It seems to be a more active community and you'll get a response immediately from the members and the pros there. If you want me to pose the question for you since I already have an account, I can do so. Just let me know. But I'll surely ask Mike as soon as I talk to him and get back to you.

Yes please do!! Thank you.

Here is what an expert recommended. I'll email you a link so you can monitor the discussion cuz I bet others will offer advice too.

"That's quite a bit of water for a week but possible. Do a bucket test. Anchor a large bucket on the pool steps by putting a rock in the bottom of the bucket. Fill with water to match the level of the pool. Wait a week or a few days and compare the bucket water level with the pool. If they are still the same, no leak. If the pool level is lower, there is a leak. "

Hi Julie,

Thanks, we already did the bucket test, but did it only with the equipment off. I am told you need to do it both ways. Equipment on could be plumbing. We turned the equipment off and it stopped dropping. Equipment running it is down 3 inches in about 2 to 3 days. They found a leak in the spa and fixed it...still dropping though.

Over the weekend we found a cap over the pool jet that was supposed to be removed. once we removed it the water started to flow and then the pool was no longer dropping. now the water level is all the way up to the middle of the coping and ready to overflow....other than shutting off the pool, does any one know what it the reason for the sudden overflow. Nothing is on that I can see. I have been leaving the barracuda pool skimmer in...but they said that was okay to do. I don't know what to try next.

Week 11 & 12

We have water! The pre-plaster inspection passed, which means our nightmare walls are now in an approved state and shouldn’t cause us any more problems during this project. Huge relief. We did go with the basic white plaster afterall. I can see how a darker blue would have matched our other design selections better, but what can I say… we simply like white plaster the best. We like being able to see so clearly through the water and the smooth feeling of plaster. So we’re happy with it. PB had us pour Startup Tec in the pool and spa during the 1st 2 days which apparently really helped reduce the plaster dust. We brushed the pool as instructed for 4 days before we got the green light to go in the spa. The next day we were able to use the pool! I gotta tell you this is great timing because we are having another heat wave! I’m so glad we were able to use the pool during the Labor Day Weekend. We had family come over for BBQ and a swimfest to celebrate the holiday.

A favorite part of our new pool and spa is the color LED lights. We added them on as a last minute option because we went with a white plaster and knew the colors would show up nicely with a white background. They are fantastic! Love the vivid and bright colors to choose from, and it’s nice that the lights have various light show programs that are themed. Those light show options change colors automatically on its own. I think they better in person than in the pics.

A disappointment is how loud our rainfall descents are. We need to hear what sheer descents sound like in person for comparison, but we’re pretty sure the sheers are not as loud as the rainfall descents. On the 1st day, the noise was certainly overwhelming, but we are getting a bit more used to it now that we’ve been living with them for a few days. Still though, we can’t use them at night because it’s quiet in our neighborhood and these are really loud – which makes us talk even louder. Our backyard butts up to our neighbors’ backyards and I don’t want to annoy either household. It’s a small pool but not a small backyard. And the waterfall wall is only 18” above the water, so you wouldn’t think they’d be so intrusive. We have 2 rainfall devices on their own dedicated ¾ hp pump, along with a deck jet that we have shut off right now. We are pondering ways to make the sound not so loud, such as sawing down the dividers between the rain holes so that the whole unit becomes a makeshift sheer (they are on an adjustable knob and we have it on a low flow so adjusting the knob is not going to be the fix).

While the guys were here plastering, we failed an unexpected inspection for the electrical overhead line relocation and panel upgrade. I really didn't want the inspectors here at the same time we were filling the pool in this drought, but it's not like we were doing anything wrong. I just would have preferred to not have the inspector here at the same time cuz they like to find trouble. The electrical to the pool was passed a long time ago, but this inspection was for different aspects of our electrical work. So our electricians have to fix the items that were called out on the Correction Notice, then pass inspection which will be scheduled simultaneously with our final inspection for the pool. Then we will finish the landscaping! Can’t wait to get grass back in and get rid of all this dirt! We are so over the dirt! It’ll be nice to see how the privacy trees and shrubbery will look in front of our ugly walls too. You may notice in the pics we painted the reinforced wall white to match the wrought iron work and I swear it looks like a prison right now. LOL. But the trees will take care of that. And we are still considering privacy and aesthetic options for the other wall but are getting close to figuring it out. Landscaping, that one wall, and window treatments for our back windows will finish up this project and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

My raised seat in the spa that we added on is awesome! So happy we chose to add this seat. Everyone wants to sit on it even though the step can be used for the same purpose.

Ugh, the dirt!

Prettier in person. Many different colors too. This will help light up our dark backyard at night.

HI Julie,

I am so happy for you and your family to finally have a beautiful pool to swim in and cool off!! It looks fantastic. Lights look great as well. My favorite is the Caribbean l love the blues, turquoise and green shades it goes through.

I know you think that the rainfall is too loud, but I think that once you put some plants around the back of the pool it may buffer some of the noise. I would live with it for a bit before you rip it out and spend more money.

Enjoy it for now...I am looking for a BBQ builder now!! these construction companies don't call back. Any suggestions or recommendations?

You should most definitely talk to Mike and Ron at Masterpiece about the hardscaping you need. They do that too, and you already know they're a reliable and fantastic outfit to work with. Did you get the overflowing water issue fixed?

I thought they just did pools. I had asked them for a quote last year on some things, but they disappeared and never gave me one. I recommended them to you because they did a great job on my neighbors pool. Great quality!

West coast concrete finally called back and they are coming out Friday night to give me a quote...We shall see.

The overflow has stopped....but we have no idea why it started. We turned the pool and water off for a week...two inches has evaporated so we are not in danger anymore. So we turned it back on and seems fine...fingers crossed. It is tapped into our sprinkler system without a separate shutoff valve...I don't understand that!

Isn't it on a separate timer for filling the pool? Ours isn't done yet and we're discussing options on what kind of autofill we want, but I figured if it was tied into the sprinklers it would at least have a separate timer.

And you're right about giving the rainfall descents some time. The 1st day was horrendous, but we're getting more used to it... during the day. It is definitely too loud for evening use in our quiet little neighborhood. Perhaps the noise of the rainfall descents wouldn't be too intrusive for our adjacent neighbors, but because it's so loud for us we have to talk at practically a yell, and that would be bothersome for them I'm sure. I would advise against the rainfall versions for anyone who is interested. The hit on the water below is pretty, but too loud. Go with the sheer versions instead.

I can't wait to see what you do with your BBQ project!

Finished
We are done! In the past 2 weeks we had
a vinyl wall topper put on top of one of the walls which looks great, and the
landscaping has been completed, and our PB came out and brilliantly turned our
noisy rainfall descents into sheer descents!
What a difference! We use the
sheer descents all the time now as they are truly much more tolerable than the
rainfall descents. The PB took a
handheld circular saw an hung upside down off the bond beam wall to cut all
those little rainfall holes into a continuous line, essentially turning it into
a sheer. Then my husband spent some more
time perfecting it with a metal file.
I’m so glad this didn’t turn into a nightmare fix by breaking open the
back of the bond beam wall, pulling out the descent devices, ruining the coping
and tiles, etc. We actually were
preparing ourselves for that in case we couldn’t come up with a fix. Who knew how easy it’d be to do this homemade
conversion.

Getting the landscaping done really gave us the “Ta-Da”
feeling. We can’t pry ourselves away
from the backyard now. It feels like a
small resort back there with the nice pool & spa, gorgeous lights and
greenery. Very glad to have grass again! I love the pathway lights we have that look
like something you’d see at a nice hotel.
We also have a lot of uplights in the trees and shrubbery. They gave the small section of grass a lovely
slope to accommodate its natural lowered level.
This slope makes it so people won’t trip or stub their toes when
navigating from the grass to the concrete around the pool which can be hard to
see through the grass. And everyone is
complimenting the vinyl wall topper, thankfully the neighbors we share that
wall with are thrilled with how it turned out too. The other neighbors didn’t get so lucky with
the “prison” wall we built, but thankfully they have trees in front of the wall
to soften the view. Now all I need is to
clean our windows from all that construction dirt.

There is one last thing we have to do in order to
consider this project complete: new
window treatments for the back of the house so our view to the beautiful
backyard isn’t obstructed. I intend to
have the treatments open most of the time so I’m leaning towards roller shades
that tuck up under a small valance.
Definitely something slim that doesn’t take much space when in an open
position as the old verticals that came with the house are so voluminous that
they block our view when they are pulled back.
And I want the option to close the treatments on the rare occasion that
we want privacy between the backyard and the living room. It’s pretty private in the backyard now so I
can’t imagine this being the case, but we want the option just in case. Any suggestions on window treatments?

Julie,

Your yard looks fantastic from every angle. I am so happy for you. You must be over the moon with excitement!! The lighting is great the grass looks amazing and the sheer descent is perfect. I am so happy you and Mike were able to work that situation out. I hope you spend many years just zoning out in your new back yard listening to your sheer descent!

Me too. And thank you so much for all of your help! Your influence is all over this backyard, and even though we were strangers, I can not imagine going through this process without you. My sincerest thanks.

How's your BBQ coming along? Did the possible leak get fixed?

You are so sweet! I feel like we are old friends now. Love the chairs!!

My BBQ is not done...it is turning into a full blown deck and hillside and BBQ make over. I am getting bids and working things out. I now think that the deck is going to be the priority and then the slope and then the BBQ in that order.. The BBQ is going to cost me more than I expected! I spoke with a guy named Tom at Earth patterns, I like him...trying to work out some pricing.

I will send pictures once I get underway....The leak stopped leaking and the overfilled stopped once we uncapped the plugged pipe in the pool...fingers crossed that it stays!

So glad the leak and overfill are stable now. Make sure to send pics of your new remodel. I can't wait to see it! And I have to tell you that I get compliments on those chairs you told me about all the time. People love the chairs, umbrellas and the vinyl wall topper. I'm like... what about the pool?! LOL. You were right about them giving a nice pop of color and I love that they can go inside the pool too. We do that a lot, but since I had our Baja step built deep (18"), they float if someone is not sitting in them which doesn't look good in pictures. The functionality is great though, as is the aesthetics outside the pool and when someone is sitting on them in the pool.

Thanks for all the info Julie. We are at the other end of the Valley (Woodland Hills) and have been following your posts. Did Masterpiece do a design/build or did you hire a landscape/pool architect?

thanks in advance.

Hi Frank. Masterpiece did the design too, which ended up having approximately 3 revisions before it was perfected. This was done during the vendor evaluation phase before we signed a contract. I was glad they understand customers want to have the design and approve it before making a choice on the builder. Besides, how are builders supposed to give you a bid without having a design to price out? Most of the vendors we met with did this, except 1 fancy-pants builder who wanted us to pay him $500 to come up with a design. That didn't appeal to us.

For the landscaping side of the project, it was done by a company that is owned by an employee of Masterpiece, Ron Bond. Ron is the designer and salesman for Masterpiece so we put in a lot of hours with him and knew him well. Technically the landscaping was done by a different company, but in reality it was seamless and is easier for me to say the whole project was done by Masterpiece due to the relationships. I paid Ron's company directly for the landscaping work and he has good prices and of course intimate knowledge in the entire project scope.

Let me know if I can answer any more questions for you. We are really happy with our pool, spa, landscaping and the whole build process (minus the city inspectors... LOL). There are 3 other families in our little group who have signed with Masterpiece too and are in varying stages of their builds (we got to know 2 of these families through Houzz - 1 during our vendor eval process & the other from this specific blog -- Houzz is so helpful!). I'm very happy for them and for Masterpiece because our new friends are in good hands with Masterpiece, and Masterpiece has earned my respect and appreciation so I'm glad to see a healthy backlog for them too.

Good luck with your project! I'd love to follow you so please let me know when you get started.

Hey Julie - is there some way to speak offline? I have some specific questions that don't need to happen online. Since the switch to Houzz, I don't see a PM or email contact. Thanks in advance again.

You bet. Please email me at julieleekimura@gmail.com and we can exchange phone numbers via email.