Pool Construction

This may be a long and boring post for some.

For the Smiths, though, it's an event that I would like to remember.

Hopefully this "hole in the ground" will provide us with many family memories.  

This pool was not a rash decision.  Rick and I had many talks about it, spent much of the last year thinking about it, and we reseached several companies before making up our minds.

Ultimately, I think our choice was for us, very wise.  It may mean that we take a smaller vacation next year.  But to me, that is a small sacrifice.  Quality time together (not in front of the television) is far more important.  

Therefore, I thought you might like to see the construction process.  Most of these photos were taken with my iphone (so I beg forgiveness on the picture quality).  Some were taken by my daughter (because I knew she wouldn't be embarrassed to take pictures while the men were working.  I however, was embarrassed.)

Large track hoes were brought in to dig the hole.  Since the pool is 9 foot at the deepest and 3 foot at the shallowest, the hole had to be exact.  Since the day Rick and I signed the pool contract, we were afraid that we would hit rock.  That would have required heavier equipment.  Which meant more "moola".  When we built our house nearly 8 years ago, we dug the backyard down 7 feet to make a walk out basement.  If you add that to the deep pool depth, that equals a whopping 16 feet in total!!!!  I'm still amazed that they didn't hit anything substancial.  Only small boulders that will make nice landscaping rocks.  

It's hard to see the scale in this picture.  The pool is 40 foot by 20 foot.  

This is the mountain of red clay that was dug out of our pool.  

This is a shot from the deck.  Sortof a different perspective.

This was my birthday, and I thought it would be appropriate to stand in the middle of my present.  

The next day they put up forms for the surrounding concrete.  They also put up supports along the upper edge of the pool.  

They installed our shallow end steps

They hooked up the plumbing and electric.  This is a picture of the bottom of the pool.  It rained some this day, so it made a bit of a mess.  It was much needed though.  The temperatures were over 100 degrees all week and the workers were spent.

This photo shows the steps in the deep end of the pool.  

Our backyard is an absolute mess.  Equipment, tractors, track hoes, bobcats, etc have been driving through the yard. 

The above photo shows our heater and salt chlorinator.  

When the pool finally dried out, they were able to put the pool sand in.  This is mixed with water then dropped into the pool.  The workers then smoothed it out before it dried and hardened.

After this was done I began to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  It started taking shape.  

The liner was then put in and the hoses were turned on.  Three of them poured into the pool for a total of two days.  

We had a crew come from Kansas City to put "Cool Decking" on the concrete.  This is just as the name implies.  It makes the concrete cool during the hot summer months.  

We have yet to get the cover (it's supposed to be here Monday) and our chlorinator and filters aren't running.  

We have lots of landscaping to do.  We plan on doing some this Fall but much of it is going to have to wait until next Summer.  That will give me time to decide exactly the way I want it to look.  In the meantime, it's kindof a mess.  

T-Bone doesn't seem to mind.

Good think this big dawg doesn't like to be wet.  'Cause this is as close to the pool as he is going to get.