Let's Build A Pool! Part 11: Finished!!

Let's Build A Pool!

Part 11:  Finished!!

I finally took some shots of the pool a couple nights ago. I'm just going to throw a few "Before & After" shots up and then a few more pictures and comments below. 

The Concept

The Finished Product

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Our yard has come a long way from the two acre shadeless field it was when we bought the place. The pool turned out great and along with the new porches and guesthouse really frames out the place. Nel says there were probably cheaper ways to cut down on the amount of grass I had to mow. 

The spa is huge - a lot bigger than it looks here, which is weird because I'm not the kind of person that's going to have 12 people over to go hot-tubbing. The reason we made it big is because I've been in other people's hot tubs and it seems like it's knee to knee if you have more than three people in there. No worries here. 

I ordered a bunch of Texas ceramic tiles and had them put on the steps and I also ordered this 24" Texas mosaic that's on the sun deck area. I had briefly toyed with the idea of making the whole thing Texas shaped, but that seemed a little too awesome. 

The fire pit and pavilion areas are raised. It just kind of adds some depth to the pool area and sort of creates different "zones". The pavilion was one of the surprises of the build. It was pretty cheap and I think fits perfectly with the design. 

The rock area (the pool company calls it a grotto but I don't think it qualifies) has a big waterfall all the way across it and two smaller ones on the small rocks to the left. The real fun feature is the three different fire locations. The flames are massive when you turn them all the way up.

While I may not be 100% pleased with our outdoor kitchen, we use it all the time. The lights are cool, the sound system is great for the yard, and the grill works fantastic. We even use the fridge. We added this 18 foot porch extension off the main house and it might be one of the best things we've done. Shade is your friend here!

The dry spa was the most problematic feature of the build. It's actually much bigger than it looks - probably too big. The swim up bar is cool and the seating area may turn out to be popular if we ever entertain, but it didn't turn out quite like I planned it. I envisioned it as being more of an "island" - sort of out in the middle of the pool. I should have made them enlarge the pool area by quite a bit around it to create that effect.

 
Not sexy, but important. We got basically every piece of equipment you could put on a pool. It's all automated - I can control everything from my phone - and the water quality so far has been great. When you get out it feels like you're getting out of the shower.

One final sunset on this blog post - everything about the design for the pool, from the flames to the landscape lighting, was done with the night time in mind. I'm a creature of the night, and I wanted this place to really be useable 24 hours a day. 

Our pool company, Preferred Pools, did a great job and were really good to work with and I would highly recommend them if you're considering putting one in.

That's it - I've got a few other plans for the backyard, but for now we will just enjoy our little pond and watch our trees grow.