Very exciting and congratulations! LED lights are amazing. There's another thread here about how many to put in. I'm very surprised they are only suggesting 1; it's easy to put them in first but impossible afterwards. They shine a great distance but not around any corners or blockages so dark spots can happen. Doesn't your spa need some? My pool builder was concerned over where you would sit so he placed the LED lights on the wall where you sit and directed the light away (if that makes sense). Great plan to light up from shelf to grotto wall.

Another person on this forum had horrific problems with baja shelf bubblers so read that thread before installing.

You could have one person walk around with a stick/longpole with various marked 12 - 18 - 24" measurements to see how the different heights will affect the view while sitting down. Even though this forum is not particularly "active" there are still tons of valuable posts you can search through for helpful advice.

we are trying to figure out what kind of lights can actually go on the baja shelf as our builder says there are really not many options with the shelf being so shallow. I plan on doing the shelf at 9 inches. He says light will streak. I am trying to research as I feel there must be something we can do that is cost effective. I asked him about Led bubblers, they were crazy high priced.

Interesting. My shelf is 15" (18" to coping) and I really wish I had light up there. Everything it lit so beautifully, but the shelf is completely dark and feels left out at night. :( I would force some innovation here.

Our 3 lights are 11-12" above a 16" deep in water bench (not including waterline tile and coping in these measurements, only the water). The 2 that are only on the bench work great and if all 3 worked the entire 45' length would be properly illuminated. We "changed" the industry standard and used a 6" very shallow baja shelf (which we love by the way). Our PB had not built one that shallow before. The one light on the shelf sits basically at the very bottom and only displays a weird short "halo". So most of the shelf is dark and the regular pool depth area beyond the shelf is totally dark. It would have been so easy to build an extra light on that shelf edge side to get that dark corner but like Michael said, were told impossible to add after the fact. I do not know what your 9" would do, since our 6" essentially failed and the 16" succeeded. Is it possible to install a light on another side? The LEDs are very small and unnoticeable, not like the old big glaring round porthole looking lights.

One light will not be enough... If your builder is using Pentair, you can use the globrite or led bubbler... The led bubblers are about $400 ea..

Well we are pretty excited. Sorry it took so long to update, so here is a big one! we broke ground 2 weeks ago. The dig was amazing. The steel guys were amazing. They all really know their trade. We think our foreman with Outdoor living rocks! We then had a little rain, so they came and put tarp on the pool....then we had to wait for a field survey to be completed as our town requires it. Once that was done the inspection was the very next day. Once we had our inspection the gunite crew were ready and waiting the following morning. So it ended up the pool was dug a bit too deep. There was also a little misunderstanding about where the depths should have been. At the end of the day kudos to our pool builder who never argued with us and did what they had to do to make it what we thought it should be. It required ALOT of extra gunite and so I know that they put our best interests first in making that decision to not make it a problem. So far my grade card for our builder continues to be an A+...praying it continues this way! Here are lots of pictures. A couple of the things we did change during gunite. We made our first step 24 inches wide, then our 2nd two steps 18 inches wide. We actually had the 3rd step at 12 inches but it was definitely not a good choice and they widened it no questioned asked. We LOVE them! Our steps are 11 feet long with a little wave in them and they are amazing!

Sorry about some of the pictures being doubled, I am not sure why that happened or why they are not in order, but they are here! :)

Gunite is done.....a week of watering and next week we move on to tile and coping!

What color plaster are y'all going with? Looks great so far! We are building one as well. Having troubling picking a plaster color.

We are going with Mini Pebble blue tropics. We picked it because we wanted a medium blue and this one was offered with the shiny shells in it without being an upgrade. We wanted to make sure we had no green hues. Sounds like next week will be coping, tile and electric and stonework. Today we picked some of the beautiful rocks they will use for the rear grotto and wearing wall.

Julie, I'm so happy that your contractor is involved and working with you in such a positive way. You're very fortunate. We also used a local knock off for plaster and wanted the same medium blue. Be sure to have your builder show you samples - as many as possible. The last thing I wanted to see was any green hue and made that very clear. We ended up with a green hue. :^(

Michael, was yours tropics blue? We actually chose that BECAUSE it doesn't have any green hues to it, I sure hope that is true. So far, they have been wonderful. Yes, we had samples to look at which is how we discovered that the tropics blue had the abalone shell in it that was standard and not an upgrade. At this time it is apparently the only color that it is not an upgrade, another reason we chose it. Our product comes from NPTPools.com. It is the Stone Scapes Mini Pebble. Can I see a picture of your pool? We just got another email...tomorrow they start tile and coping, end of the week the waterfalls and weeping wall. Our equipment is being delivered tomorrow, set on Wednesday and electrician on Thursday. I am almost overwhelmed! As much as I LOVE the progress It sounds like this next part is going to move fast. :)

Waterline Tile is done and equipment was all placed today....Tomorrow electric and the start of the coping.. and stone around the spa. We have chosen oklahoma flagstone coping and Austin Cream around the spa.....

Looking good Julie. I've included some pics on different days below of what is a "Catalina Blue" from a "Pebble Plus" product sold by the installer here in the Sacramento area (please excuse the unfinished deck & landscape as we wait for warm/dry weather and longer days to install travertine tile). Colors look very different depending on weather, surroundings, depth, and other factors. We wanted "Aqua Blue" in Pebble Sheen, but were encouraged to go with Pebble Plus with the sparkly shells. After we asked, and asked, and asked, our PB waited until the very last couple days before showing us two pools. We tried contacting the installer to look at more pools and they didn't bother to return calls. You can see that the color is blue, but certainly not the deep, rich blue we'd hoped for. I've also included a night image which shows the shelf off to the right completely darkened with no lights up there. A frustrating experience for us as far as some cosmetics, but the pool is rock solid and functions well.

what a beautiful pool :) I simply love your design and I don't think your water color looks bad, but of course you were after a certain look so I understand. I think we may have found our first couple of issues with our pool....we had moved our pool depth from 3.6 to 4ft and the designer didn't say a word about adding a step. Everything I read says 4 steps....we have 3 and they are tough to climb without water, but told it will get better. Fortunately our Foreman did catch the last step which was 18 inches which was huge. He had the gunite guys take up our floor 2 feet off the steps so that the step was 12 inches BUT they didn't go all the way across our steps that are 11 ft long, they just did the center of them so that the steps on the right side are so high that no one will want to walk up them. I am wondering how they will be able to bring that up now to correct the issue. Then I notice the light is not pointing exactly where I asked it. I noticed it before gunite but he never moved it and now it is there. It is fine IF they are able to adjust where it will be pointing. No clue, will find out today. They have been great to work with so far, but I think they are frazzled because they ended up pouring 17 EXTRA yards of gunite as they dug too deep but even thought they know this I think they think I changed the depth a little...um no. We literally picked our depths out in they yard :) Now, we are all human and we all make mistakes. So far our builder has taken the high road on the extra cost, although we were told about it and almost implied some of it was a shared overage but we will not pay for what we don't feel is our issue. They have not asked us to....yet, and hoping it does not come to that. We have been super satisfied with out builder so far.

Thanks Julie. I'm not sure if it's possible to add more mud to fix, but certainly much easier before plaster. If you think it will eat at you, it might be worth the cost to get it just right for peace of mind. Unfortunately, it's just another example of why we have to stay very involved throughout the whole process. I don't want to be the one looking over shoulders, but there are many assumptions made in this line of work - some known and many unknown. If you're not there to catch it, it's often too late. Even when you are there to catch it, it can be too late. I hope your PB continues to take the high road and you get what you want.

Pretty excited! The trenches are still open so tomorrow we will be dropping in conduit and on Saturday morning our electrician is coming bright and early to run wires before the trenches are closed up for the decking to be painted out. I am in awe of how fast everything is moving. Knocking on wood.....so far this experience has been painless!

Well our back wall is about 1/2 height now and the grotto is just beginning. Our electricians came today and they are running 120v wiring through the back yard to have 7 trees that line our backyard and then 3 future palm trees along with a mosquito control machine once the pool is complete. We also were blessed today as we were getting ready to go out and spend a small fortune on palm trees when someone in our neighboring area learned we needed them and they offered us 3 beautiful windmill palms if we can get them transplanted...they are 8 to 10 feet tall already....its been a good day :)

Lots going on here in the the mid cities of Dallas/Fort Worth....roll neck tile has gone on, they continue to build the beautiful waterfall wall and the huge grotto. We are hoping that the giant flat rock of the grotto will be here today, but will depend on if they get the area cleaned up and graded around the pool today, which is on the schedule :) Still waiting for the gas line, electric is done but coming back to day to put in the electric box for the near future gazebo. Still need to finish some of the stone around the spa along with its coping. We are loving everything so far....keep it coming! 3/4 of the way through and we are still impressed and happy with our builder.....praying that it continues to go so smoothly!

Wow this is really cool to watch, loving the progress pictures. I'd be excited too if I were you.

NOT sure why my pictures are going in with such a stranger order, but enjoy them anyway! Monday they are putting in the deck forms...gas inspection, deck inspection....and we are closing in to the end....so happy!

Love your rock work! For some reason out here in SoCal, they seem to use faux rock. And it was crazy expensive. We really wanted a grotto similar to what you are building. Can't wait to see how it looks lit up at night :)

Thanks for the update!

Decking has begun. So far they have done the steal and the deck drains. Just passed our deck inspection with the city and now they will pour the concrete next Monday....project is almost complete. Awesome...

Well we are coming to the end, we should have water in our pool this weekend and our Pebble done hopefully on Friday. I haven't posted lately as we have been very busy. Now that our yard is graded back to normal, sod has been laid, the gazebo from costco has been put together and is amazing, decking is done, sprinklers have been redone and they have cleaned up pretty well. We have a few minor things to still accomplish and landscaping. If you are in the Dallas Fort Worth area, I would 100% without a doubt recommend Outdoor Living Pool and Patio out of Denton on Teasley Road. From start to finish...great experience, great product! If you have any questions just ask! I will certainly get more pictures once we have some water, but here are some up until the last and final piece of the puzzle is complete.

Yesterday we got our beautiful stonescapes mini Pebble done and our pool is filling as I type. 2 days of hard labor and my husband and I got our landscaping just about done. Tomorrow morning we will wake up and the pool should be filled by mid afternoon.....so excited!

We have finished our project and are ecstatic! Here it is!

It is all very beautiful, enticing, relaxing, and love your dog! Did you put up the Costco gazebo yourself? I always wondered how these things are installed on concrete or pavers.

yes, we put it up ourselves. It is not difficult but REALLY time consuming since there are so many little parts, however the patients is worth it as our builder wanted thousands to build one of these and this was 1300.00.....it is FABULOUS!

We just put curtains up and got all the lighting installed, so now that part of our project is also complete. Bring on summer!

Julie, you are obviously very handy. What did you use to hang the curtains up, and how to install? (Is that a privacy type screen in back?) And how on earth did you install lighting on the front? I saw this gazebo at our local Costco and it was gorgeous but you have taken it above and beyond.

Julie. Congrats! I'm partial to the natural lagoon style pools Your backyard turned out great! Just in time for the summer heat that's hopefully coming soon once all this rain leaves us this spring. Enjoy!

5birdy, we went to home depot and got metal pipes to hang them. We had them cut to size there. We hired an electrician. We had our pool builder do the conduit over to the area and then the electrician wired it up along the inside of the sides with metal conduit that you can barely see. Fortunately the area where the front lights are had an area that was not totally solid, so he was able to run the wiring into the top of those cedar columns in front. Then he added an outlet for party lights on one of the top corners. He also ran the conduit very nicely for the chandelier. We added 3 switches...one for each of these lightings so they can be on separately if we wanted. We also added regular outlets on 2 of the back columns. I will take pictures and post this afternoon for you.

trhought, thank you! we LOVE our new backyard. We feel like we have moved and now never want to again! :)

Julie, forgot to tell you that after rereading your post and seeing your gazebo, I went online and found a suitable Costco gazebo for our hot tub. We've been busy assembling but I wanted to thank you for the inspiration. Now our hot tub cover is protected and it was much much less expensive than a custom model (although we do certainly understand now how much $$$ labor is involved!)