Almost Day's End

Towards the end of the work day, I managed to capture a few more shots of the progress being made. The tile really sets off the pool. It is really beginning to look complete now. I'm ready to jump in. The crew have done a really nice job on the whole project.

Steps Receiving Their Final Shaping by Emir

The texturing on the pump house echoes the same "rough" texture on the house. After we get done painting the exterior, it will really look unified.

Fore and Aft Views of the Pool

Which Way is This?

Here's John showing how to do tiling the hard way - basically setting tile upside-down.

John Tiling the Steps

Now the steps really look official - their tiled edges just look wonderful.

Pool Steps Look Great

A view from our front porch of the pool. Our rubble pile will be moving very soon. Cody was moving it, but he was out yesterday with a touch of the flu, or something.

Upstairs View

The guys from Vasco Doors and Windows came yesterday, late in the morning. I wasn't expecting them till the afternoon. But, after some welding and grinding, the door fits great. Now, I just have to modify it (Isn't that the way it always is?). I've ordered a louvered window to fit over the grill of the door. I misunderstood John when we were discussing the door. Ventilation without any water getting in. Now I understand! That should be ready this next week.

Pump House Door Almost Completed

Would You Believe It? Yet More Work!

I will tell ya, turn your back for a minute or two and things change dramatically. Here's the pump house this morning, with the roof form almost complete for the concrete pour.

Pump House Floor Almost Complete

And, a little while later, after Dianna and I got back from town shopping for tile for the pool steps, they're almost ready to pour. All that's left is for the form sides to go up.

Agusto Prepping the Form for the Pour

Mariano and Manuel Confer

And here they're putting the sides up. Won't be long now.

Form Sides Going Up

If you noticed, there's a couple of pipes sticking up through the roof of the pump house. Those do two things - one is the water for the waterfall coming off the underside of the roof, and the other is for a solar heater for the pool. In this case, that would be a good, long length of black plastic hose laid out on the roof - which will be coated with SnowSeal before too long (courtesy of Doug and Twyla, who gave us their leftover SnowSeal primer and topcoat). That white-white roof coating and black tubing should heat up the water a lot. We probably won't need to use it year-round at all, but it'll be nice when we do need it.

Here's some more view of the steps. You can see John is standing in the form for the added step. It won't intrude into the pool much at all.

John Filling the Steps

John Working on the Steps

Here you can see the bottom step has been filled with concrete and braced with extra blocks.

Agusto Showing Steps All Filled

Cody is finishing a short piece of fence for Dianna so she can begin planting her herbs and some veggies she's been wanting to get to. Thanks to Mack for sending us a whole passel of packs of herbs - much appreciated. We'll take pictures of the progress.

Herb Garden Starting

Work, Work, Work - The Story Continues

Tuesday, the crew showed up and got with the program. Lintels are in place (pre-cast by John). Today, they're prepping the roof of the pump house. It will probably be poured by this afternoon.

Pump House - Waterfall Side

Pump House - Door Side

The walls have gotten their full quota of concrete now - ready for the ring beam to be cast on top. Here you can see John using his vibrator to settle the concrete into the holes. When he uses the vibrator, the level of the concrete goes down about 8 - 10" each hole. So, for strengthening concrete, it's really worthwhile to use one of those. It gets rid of all the air pockets.

John Using the Vibrator Tool and Manuel Pouring Concrete

Agusto and Manuel Pouring Concrete Into Block Holes

We had some rain the past few days. As you can see, we've got about 2" in the pool. Also, here's a view of the steps progressing. They've actually poured concrete in all the holes in the steps - I just haven't gotten a shot yet of that bit completed. John has added one more step at the bottom, which goes out into the pool. He felt it was just too much of a reach without it. It is going to look so cool when it's done.

Almost Ready for Swimming

Steps Getting Close to Being Done

I had some problems with the generator. The motor ran fine, but suddenly stopped producing current. Not a good thing. Anyway, I've been in touch by phone and email with DEK's tech folks (well, Brian anyway). He's been very helpful so far. I'm hoping it's just a component or two that is the problem. An easy fix would be nice.

So, this picture is of the control panel for the generator. The nerve center of the machine. Easy to get to and a nice clean and fairly straight forward layout.

DEK 5650EL Generator Control Panel - Behind the Scenes