I just love the way your pool turned out and I especially love the way your orange tree is situated. We are in Pasadena too, and are 5 weeks into our build. The difference is we are not nearly as brave (or educated in this stuff) as you are, so we hired a PB who is working out well for us. However, we ran into a big problem with the city inspector who said we have to replace our entire shared property line walls, shared with 2 of our neighbors. He feels the walls are not structurally sound. We disagree but it doesn't seem as though there's any use in arguing further (I'm completely afraid to anger him considering he needs to sign off on more inspections). Did you get your perimeter fence checked out before you started your build?
Using a pump to wet the shotcrete with recycled water was brilliant. We used a bucket. LOL. We also used the hose, but for the extra doses of water, we used a bucket. I'm sorry to hear you got drought shamed on the neighborhood forum, but it's not surprising. I feel totally confident we are saving water in the long run because our backyard was a huge lawn, more than half of which no longer needs watering. And thank goodness El Nino is expected this winter!
Using a pump to wet the shotcrete with recycled water was brilliant. We used a bucket. LOL. We also used the hose, but for the extra doses of water, we used a bucket. I'm sorry to hear you got drought shamed on the neighborhood forum, but it's not surprising. I feel totally confident we are saving water in the long run because our backyard was a huge lawn, more than half of which no longer needs watering. And thank goodness El Nino is expected this winter!