Let's Build A Pool!
Part 10: Odds & Ends
At this point in the build, we were kind of in a holding period because the dedicated electrical service from the guesthouse wasn't hooked up yet. The pool company did a pretty good job of addressing some finishing touches before they could "start" the pool. Here's a run down. You won't see any finished product pictures here because...I haven't taken any. I'll get some this week and show you what we ended up with in the final post.
The Dry Spa
The dry spa (as it has been called for some reason) still had some issues. The steps had ended up too steep for one thing so the pool company re-poured them and added a step. Another issue was the sump. The dry spa has a sump pump in the bottom of it to pump water out constantly when needed (think of it like a float on your toilet - when it goes up the pump comes on). It was a real chore getting it to work right. This problem continued well after the pool was finished, but the pool guys stuck with it and eventually got it functioning correctly.
The stone guys came out and finished putting the travertine on the steps. The umbrella set up worked out great. We bought one and then had the base tube mounted when the concrete was poured. The umbrella is lighted as well and it's out of the way when not in use. We had some issues with the lights in the steps as well, but those are all in and working now too.
The Pavilion
We had a couple of raised sections around the pool to add depth and to sort of define areas. We decided to put up a pergola on this section on the side. The quotes we got from pergola companies were crazy so we saw this really nice pavilion with a solid roof that we liked at Sam's and bought it.
Sadly, it sat around for months before we were ready for it in our construction zone and it just got neglected. Fortunately it was just the boxes. My buddy Barry came over and helped me with all the the lifting part of the assembly. We put it together in two days.
Here are the two large roof sections assembled and ready to be hoisted up. Barry helped me put up the posts one day and then left me to do the ground work myself. He came back the next day and helped me put the roof on.
We got it up and then drilled the anchor bolts into the concrete. I'm happy to say that it survived Hurricane Harvey without a scratch. We've added some really cool lighting to it and I think it looks great.
Gutters
Not sexy, but really important. As I mentioned last time, we were having issues with the water flow on the patios. We had some gutter guys come out and put the big six inch suckers all over the guesthouse and main house - anywhere that water would flow onto the patio. It works great now and we have no drainage issues.
Outdoor Kitchen
One thing I would do differently if I could is the outdoor kitchen. We kind of got excited and bought one of these big setups from Paradise Grills (this exact one to be precise) probably six months before we were ready for it. It's fine, but for the money we could have gotten our pool company to build us one that was much cooler and matched everything in our pool. We asked about backing out, but Paradise is not about to give you your money back.
When we were ready for it they dropped it off. We had gas and electricity run to it and the thing is crazy heavy so it's not moving once you put it down. Unfortunately, the slate just didn't look good at all - it didn't match anything we had in our pool area.
I talked to the guys doing all the stone work for the pool about refinishing it. We had all of this leftover travertine from the guesthouse porch and they said they could remove the slate and replace it with travertine. They came out on a Sunday and did the whole thing in a day.
Trees - Trees - Trees
One of my favorite things we've done is plant a bunch of mature trees in the backyard - 15 to be precise. Big trees are pricey, but I want shade before I die. Mickey's crew came out with tree after tree and got them all in the ground.
Mickey guarantees all his trees. It's fortunate because a couple just didn't make it. This elm died for some reason, but he's already replaced it.
The other part of adding trees was to run individual sprinklers to each one. Every tree has its own private little trickle sprinkler head. It's important because I don't think I have a water hose that will reach most of these guys.
So we eventually got the pool plastered (we were out of town so no pictures of that) and filled up. I'll take some finished product pictures this week and finally complete the 'Let's Build A Pool' series. Samantha loves it - she's a waterbug for sure!
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