And fire in my backyard, too! Bless that young man from the pool company for his perseverance! I spent a LONG time last night enjoying the fire pit and my new solar lights.
I’m in there, basking
It was warm and pleasant outside. I could even get out of the spa, relax in a chair, and get back in.
Nice lighting
The sunset was very pink, which made the clouds before the storms look more benign. It was so relaxing!
It’s not eternal, but it’s a flame!
All that relaxing was great preparation for some busy times coming up. I worked like crazy today and had plenty of energy to keep going. Hooray! The Pool of Dreams is a dream come true.
Ode to my lighting
I even got my son to help me put my old rug from my knitting room in Austin on the porch to make more of an outdoor living room effect. It’s an indoor-outdoor rug so should be ok.
The highlight of the day today was getting more propane delivered. A lot. And since I’m apparently the family propane waster I’m now paying for it. Ka-ching. I’ll try to ration my fire pit use. But not the spa. I love it.
We are sort of battened down for a winter storm right now. Well, most of us are. Lee and the resident nephew went somewhere in east Texas to pick up a beautiful second-hand horse trailer and some mysterious “other stuff” that I can’t wait to see. I hope the weather is kind to them!
We dodged a bullet yesterday with the pool. I’d been wondering why nothing was happening in the planter area, so I brought it up to the Men at My House, and they said, “Oh, we found out that there will be no planter. It was one of the things deleted to bring the cost down.”
Retaining wall in progress
I was really confused, because I remember the planter and plants being in the contract. But, they said they’d talked to Kevin the Pool Guy. I went ahead and called Kevin the Pool Guy myself, and said that I thought something was wrong. He said yes, indeed, there was something wrong, and he was about to call us about it. The planting area IS in the contract and paid for, so we WILL get it.
Drainage for the sides of the patio
The mix-up happened when we made the pool bigger and the designer had to hurry with a design. He’d omitted the planter, because he was just showing the changed part. Everyone thought that was THE design. Um. Not good.
These look pretty to me.
My assumption is that the people who will be here today and start working on that, too.
Ready for the fire pit insert. It fits, by the way.
Speaking of those people, wow are they doing a fantastic and thorough job with the preparation for the patio area. We can’t stop watching. All the workers are so skilled and careful. There is a LOT of smoothness. I especially thought how they worked on the drainage pipe for the gutter that’s in the way of the patio. One guy (the very large man with the very high voice) has been pretty fixated on that piece.
A nice surprise came yesterday, when they put in some shiny blue tiles (what, a color? I didn’t pick that!) on the steps and seating areas. That will be pretty under the water, plus it will be a great visual reminder of where the steps are.
Look at those jets!
More than just patio work happened yesterday. They also installed all the lighting (except one, which needed a longer cord) and the fittings for where the water will come in and out. The jets already had their cool outlets. That hot tub will sure have plenty of jets!
You can see the little light bulbs in there.
It’s cool seeing the area around the pool take shape. I keep wanting to go sit on the patio! Here are some more pictures of the action.
More work got done on the poolside patios, but it got slowed down a bit because the Men spotted exposed rebar that happened when the workers chipped off the pool edges.
The beach are looks good, though.
So, they made some concrete and fixed it. They even dug up some areas to check. I’m sure that didn’t go over well, but it will make the Pool of Dreams last longer.
Fixed now.
I was impressed at how much work it took to build steps from one level to another. These are going to be STURDY. No corners are cut. And wow, they measured a lot.
Checking the stair measurements.
There was more pounding, including a manual pounder for smaller spaces. This patio ain’t going nowhere.
It does the job.
We were happy to see drainage pipes in the retaining walls they’re building. Lee approved big time.
You can sorta see the little pipes.
So, that was today. I worked a lot and then hugged all the horses. Ahh.
Even I got petted. A lot. I love Suna.
Enjoy more work in progress!
Working on steps
The edge. There will be a nice step down.
More repaired rebar
Beginning the retaining wall.
All the steps and walls start in a trench.
Working on steps
We had a beautiful sunset and moonrise to enjoy while feeding horses and planning future improvements. Ranch life is pretty good.
Whew, it was a whirlwind day at the Pool of Dreams, with deliveries coming and going, plus machines zipping and banging. It was the big day for preparing the edges of the pool for installing the pavers.
It sorta looks like a pool!
Trucks brought loads and loads of fine sand, which was then packed down as hard as possible by one of those vibrating things that packs sand down well.
The vibrating thing
More dirt
One of the men was zipping around on some kind of little tractor thing that dumped sand and smoothed it a bit. Let me tell you, there was a lot of dog barking, back-up beeping, and banging going on. Oh how I miss my office at the Pope house! But, hey, I’ll get a pool. That’s good.
Lee and his nephew have many opinions on what the guys are doing, so I can’t wait to see how that all works out. I was just impressed at how much got done!
Gracie thinks it looks really good so far.
Trucks also brought in the pavers, which look like they will blend in very well. I think they’re the color of the dirt here. That was a creative choice of mine…I guess. In addition, a decision was made to make little retaining walls, so some retaining wall blocks showed up, which I had not selected, but will look fine. I’ll not be complaining about that.
Color of dirt, but nice.
All wrapped up
Retaining walls, and the drain they put in
Penney inspects retaining wall material after climbing out of a stair trench
Even though I saw the outlines they drew on the ground before starting the work, I’m not a hundred percent sure what the whole outside patio and planter will end up looking like. I know there will be steps! And retaining walls. That will just have to do.
Penney approves.
I tried to do Apache’s schooling this afternoon after work, not realizing that the noise of the pool building might not be his favorite thing on earth. So, I got a lot of chances to settle him down and practice not getting all nerved out when he got jumpy. He simply would NOT walk over to the cones. So, I ended up running him in circles in the round pen and doing figure eights in the field and around the fencing pipes in front of the house. After that I walked him over to the cones and let him look at the workers, then I walked him around his circles. I figure that was a win in the long run.
No picture of Apache, but I thought Mabel looked rather pretty out in the field. She is looking much better.
I took so many pictures, plus Lee took some, so enjoy the process of building the paver foundation.
It took a lot of guys to do this.
They spent a lot of time getting things level
You can see how the entry to the beach will look. Bonus dogs.
More dirt.
Lee is on patrol for exposed rebar.
Here’s all the equipment they used today. Pavers are getting delivered.
Working on the left side of the pool.
Zipping along.
The far side will be raised pretty high. There will be steps.
This trench is the foundation for a step.
Details for Mandi and all the other people who ask for more construction photos.
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The Hermits' Rest 