New Build in San Antonio

[russaggie]

We did it! We finally chose a builder and have broken ground. I have been lurking for a while and received sooooo much great information from all you awesome folks. I'm glad I am one of the lucky ones that found this site BEFORE starting. I think you have already saved me a LOT of money.

We are doing saltwater and flagstone coping. Call me crazy!! I did decline the UV system that they offered and told them I thought the bright Texas sun would have me covered on UV production. Don't fail me sunshine!

I'm hoping I put most of what I have learned here to use when getting bids from several builders. We were limited in space due to our house being pushed back due to a couple of 100 year old oak trees in the front yard to go along with a 12' utility setback at the rear of the backyard. Putting in the pool did mean I had to remove five trees, but we were able to keep three great oaks that will help with shade...but also drop leaves, acorns and oak pollen. It's all give and take.

We have an existing covered 255 sq ft covered patio that extends out in part of the yard, we will have sun deck overlay put on that and have it match with the new 342 sq ft of decking. So hopefully we are all good on decking. Here are the renderings from the PB. The waterfall is actually going over more towards the middle of the pool on the backside. Since we are doing 4-6-4 depth, I wanted it at the deeper part so the kids can jump off and land in the deeper water.






Water line tile and pebble options.




Following our layout meeting we broke ground last week. Pups and kids all approved of the layout.






It was as tight fit for the excavator to get access. Luckily my neighbor has allowed me to take the fence down and use his yard for access.








And of course, as my luck would have it, on day two of digging we get rain. It lasted three straight days and made things a little messy, so the had to stop for a bit.



Excavators were back at it today but only breaking rock and digging. Still too soft to run loads with the bobcat. We are expecting more rain tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully that will be all for a while so we can get this things going. They did lay plastic over the muddy tracks so hopefully they won't get any more water on them.

I think I put all of the correct things in my signature so let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from everyone.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Yay!!! Exciting times ahead!!!

I really REALLY like how you laid the pool out along with the current patio. We too had to take down a LOT of trees (like 12!) but the pool is all worth it you'll see.

Keep us posted with pics, Aggie!

Maddie (little sister to an Aggie class of '74)

 

[russaggie]

Flow with the existing patio was one of our requirements for the designers. It's crazy how some totally disregarded that and didn't try to incorporate what was already there. Of course that makes it easier to eliminate some of the PB's.

 

[russaggie]

More progress made on the excavation today. Girls are getting so excited just to play in a dirt hole. They can't wait for there to be water in it. The PB is hoping to be done with the dig by Tuesday and steel guys are scheduled to start Wednesday.

 

[Nursenini]

Wonderful progress so far and so exciting for the little ones to watch!! Good job with the depths you chose! Those are the depths I wish we had!
My builder also used Gemstone products. We ended up upgrading to the Radiant Fusion line and topaz was the color we chose. My PB wanted us to use the Gemstone Bahamas Jewel that you chose as he said it was his favorite. I’m looking forward to seeing yours as I haven’t really seen a whole pool of it yet. It looks so pretty though!

Welcome to TFP! I’m looking forward to seeing your build come along.

Blessings!

 

[kimkats]

Late finding this but LET THE MUD BEGIN!! Nice neighbors you have there! Make sure to budget for that repair LOL

Love the design. Like that you moved the spa to the backside. It will pull the eye across the pool.

LOVE the waterline tile! So blue!!!

Kim

 

[russaggie]

My builder also used Gemstone products. We ended up upgrading to the Radiant Fusion line and topaz was the color we chose. My PB wanted us to use the Gemstone Bahamas Jewel that you chose as he said it was his favorite. I’m looking forward to seeing yours as I haven’t really seen a whole pool of it yet. It looks so pretty though!

From the pics that we saw in the PB office it looked like it was going to give us the color we were going for. Just not sure how much was done to doctor those photos to make them look better. I'm thinking it will be nice though. At least I hope so.

 

[russaggie]

The steel crew showed up bright an early this morning. Got started around 8am. But they only stayed half the day so they will be back to finish up tomorrow. And hopefully the plumbers will be here tomorrow as well.



Of course before they could begin the inspector had to make sure it was ready to progress. It was discovered that the waterfall was only built out 8' wide instead of 10' so the excavation crew had to come back and fix that.

 

[kimkats]

Cutest inspector on the payroll! Glad he caught that mistake! Tell him to measure again once the steel is done. He should add about 6" for gunite and plaster.

Kim

 

[russaggie]

So plumbing was finished today. We did make a couple of changes. Instead of doing one large light we are going to do three smaller lights throughout the pool. Hopefully this will give us a nice even light distribution throughout the pool instead of one bright spot with darker edges all the way around. So instead of the initial one Intellibrite we will now have three Glowbrites. We thought with the darker finish it might be better to have more lighting, especially at night.

Steel crew has to come back out tomorrow to adjust the spillways from the spa as we didn't really like where they had initially placed them. One seemed like it would be pouring onto the tanning ledge, and we didn't like that.

Also, we are supposed to have the first city inspection done tomorrow. IF all goes well with those things we will should be doing gunite on Monday morning.

 

[kimkats]

I see you added an inspector to your payroll! Looks like they are never far apart!

Good call on looking over where everything is and how it will look in the future!

Kim

 

[russaggie]

Guess what day it is....



Crew showed up around 6:45 and got started as soon as it was daylight.

 

[kimkats]

SWEET!

Have you started bonding with it yet? aka watering it! LOL

Here is your set of links:

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

PoolMath

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.

I see in your siggy you already have a test kit! Good job!

Did they have any suggestions or questions?

Kim

 

[russaggie]

Thank you Kim, I have been waiting to get my own copy. Even though I must admit I have cheated and looked at other people's copies. As for questions, I am sure they will start when it's time to start filling the pool up. I will be doing the test of my tap water in the next few days to see what I have to work with. I am NOT a chemistry type person. Science is not my thing in any shape, form or fashion.

So, here is the post gunite pic from yesterday.



As for suggestions, there were a couple as well as a fairly big change made. Suggestions were to put a finger ledge around the exterior wall of the spa that is in the pool. Gives the kiddos something to help hold onto. So we added that. Suggestions two was to wrap the skimmer that is on the backside where the wall is higher with flagstone instead of leaving it brown coated. They said it would be more structurally sound.

As for the fairly big change, I'm not sure if it was excavator error or not, but they suggested the end with the tanning ledge be at 4'4"- 4'6"ish instead of 4' even. They said the slope going towards the middle where it will be 6' was going to be too steep. Again, I'm not sure if they dug too deep and decided to do that since they realized it was going to be deeper than they thought, or they truly thought the slope would be too much and thus made it deeper. Either way I told them to go ahead and make it deeper. I don't want the kids to feel like they're falling forward when walking around and when playing volleyball. It also gives them a little more depth when jumping off the waterfall.

Today they did a light cleaning and covered some of the pvc runs. Also had the plumbers come out and run the gas line to the spa heater and install the auto fill equipment to the hose bib. Next up is delivering the flagstone and water line tiles. Installation of that is slated to begin Monday.

I have had three bonding sessions with the pool so far, including this morning in 45 degree weather. That's a little chilly to be out watering a swimming pool for us Texas folks, but duty calls...

 

[kimkats]

LOL on looking at others links. I have gone back and forth on their "worth" BUT the one person I don't give their own set will be the one that has not read many threads so don't know about them. Plus I hope it is kind of neat to have your own set on YOUR build thread!

Thanks for sharing the changes/suggestions they made. I like the changes they/you made. The slope will be better with the extra depth going to it.

burrrrrr on bonding with your pool in the morning but that baby pool needs care right now so you do what you have to do.

Kim

 

[Goob]

I think I'm following Kim around and picking on her because I can say I didn't get my own links, but I majorly cheated and read those links multiple times from others' threads.

Pool looks great! Good catches and it looks like the changes are well thought out. I'm always amazed at how they get through the rock of the Austin and San Antonio area for the digging.

I think the change to 3 lights will pay off for you. One light will cause a lot of lighting variance around the pool. I told my PB that when I built my house, I put in more lighting than needed, but you can play with lighting and make an area look completely different on how you use it (I'm sure I stole that from HGTV from all the years my wife made us watch it!). Same with the pool.

I also liked that the PB went to a slightly deeper shallow end if the slope was going to be too much. I've even been in pools where it seemed like I was falling into a deeper end because of the slope. I hope it works for you.

Great pictures of the family during the progress. Each step seems to be an experience to remember.

Looking forward to the build.

 

[russaggie]

LOL on looking at others links. I have gone back and forth on their "worth" BUT the one person I don't give their own set will be the one that has not read many threads so don't know about them. Plus I hope it is kind of neat to have your own set on YOUR build thread!

The links are definitely "worth" it. They are full of great information plus it's kinda like an achievement badge for those of us building. We know we have hit a good spot in our progress.

 

[russaggie]

Pool looks great! Good catches and it looks like the changes are well thought out. I'm always amazed at how they get through the rock of the Austin and San Antonio area for the digging.

I think the change to 3 lights will pay off for you. One light will cause a lot of lighting variance around the pool. I told my PB that when I built my house, I put in more lighting than needed, but you can play with lighting and make an area look completely different on how you use it (I'm sure I stole that from HGTV from all the years my wife made us watch it!). Same with the pool.

I also liked that the PB went to a slightly deeper shallow end if the slope was going to be too much. I've even been in pools where it seemed like I was falling into a deeper end because of the slope. I hope it works for you.

Great pictures of the family during the progress. Each step seems to be an experience to remember.

Looking forward to the build.

Yes, the rock is just unbelievable for us in this area. About two days of excavation was just breaking up rock and hauling it out. It's also one of the reasons I went with this PB. He included ALL excavation in the price. The other we had narrowed our choices down to said they "may" have to come back and ask for more money if they hit too much rock. With no clear definition of "too much rock". And knowing what kind of rock we had from when the house was built that was an additional expense I didn't want to be hit with at the end.

As for the lights, I am really thinking the three smaller lights will help keep the entire pool evenly lit without having that super bright area in one spot and then dark corners.

So far the process has been pretty much as expected. I am also capturing each day on a time-lapse camera so at some point I will edit all of those clips together and add that to the thread.