Slow progress but its in keeping with our plans

So most of the project has been put on hold while we were working on the orchard... We had to plant about 250 new trees which was quite an undertaking....

These are pictures from about 2 weeks ago when the coping was installed.














They are setting a gravel and cement base for some flat rock boulders... The intent is to break up the formality of the travertine coping and also plan for future water cannon balls when the kids are older...














Some of the boulders were pretty heavy and quite an effort to get them in place...













Checking out the level.













And the final product... The boulders came out pretty nice I think..














Here is looking at the fence which I just finished today... Now will come the energy and heavy finish work of landscaping and finishing work...














I view of the house, barn and the cherry blossom













and finally a true signal of spring.... The Cherry blossom... It is very nice....


I don't know what we are going to do next but it will be a few weeks... After all its tax season....

Finish work started....

Progress is happening .... Now that we have the retaining wall, step up completed, we have the waterline tile installed. Its called Durango something from NPT













Here is a picture in progress....













And final ..













The cover people will install the cover rail pretty soon and then goes the coping... We are almost there now....

Winter is on the way out... Some new stuff

There has not been much progress on the house or the barn and definitely nothing on the pool over the winter.... Hoping for a good spring push to get some of them completed but as the saying goes its a never ending process.....














Here is the view out of the family room... The immediate deck will be covered by flagstone or tile, depending on some of the other choices.... The gravel will remain with a fire pit at the end where we have the stone bench. To the right where the dirt lies will be a patio using travertine pavers. The block wall was needed to handle the transition from ground level to the pool. It also gives us a nice seating area, being between 8" and 16" above grade. We will face it with stone. The wall to the left inside of the pool will also be stone faced and will have two waterfalls. And finally in the back side of the pool, we will have four water spouts arcing into the pool as well...
















The pool equipment is finally in place. I think it does fit pretty well but more importantly we are making progress to completion...















Not that it does a good job, but this picture does capture the pool, relative to the barn and the master bedroom wing.

Other updates

So this is the newest addition to the project. We have a 30x40 pole building in the back of the house now. It will be the home for the dogs, who have already happily settled in out of the snow and the wind this winter. I still need to get electricity and plumbing figured out so we could have a small 1/2 bath in the future. I am also planning to store apples in the future...














The pole building is an interesting construction in many ways... The structure is pretty much the same as most timber frames, with posts at 8 foot spans... They are buried in a 24" round 48" deep hole with cement. The poles are then tied laterally with 2x6 dimensional lumber and the roof is standard trusses. It goes up fast, is significantly cheaper than a regular garage, because of the reduced cost of footings, foundation etc... The skin is powder coated metal as is the roof, but the flexibility of the interior is remarkable....














And finally here is a picture worth everything in the world to me... The Big Bosses all dressed up for Xmas Mass....

So were we ended up for this year.....

The pool in its winter dormant state... You can see the steps in on the far shallow end. The extended box on the bottom is for the auto cover... The wall on the near end will be stone veneered as will the far end wall with a couple of water features. There will also be two columns about 3 feet high on the left side also with water sheets.














This is a picture of the backyard with the winters first snow... It has since melted but it was sure nice looking....














This is the pool coping we will end up with.... Travertine called Sahara Gold...















This is the color of the 6 by 12 travertine tiles we will use for some of the decking... Not sure we will use it everywhere but it is nice stuff














I also have some cool looking stone slabs which I am hoping to use as jumping rocks closer to the deep end. But at this point because of the shape and size of the pool some of the plans for the landscaping and outdoor kitchen etc.... But having a couple of month of winter down time will give us a good opportunity to come up with a plan..

Details of building a pool....

The gunite process is pretty amazing... Steel wrapped in concrete to create a pool... pretty cool...














The gunite process..














The power of the hose is amazing... basically spray concrete...













Here the steps are being formed in the corner.



















And at the end of the day, a hole in the ground is a pool... complete with steps, ledge etc...

WE HAVE A POOL....well at least a shell..

The day finally arrived for the gunite crew to come over and get the pool into its final shape. This was an occassion we were looking for and pretty much signals that our pool project is really here. The hole was fun, plumbine was essential, the rebar was a tease and finally the pool is the real thing...

Check it out

The guys arrived at 6:30 am and pretty much figured out where they were going to set up. At about 7:05 they started the guniting from the shallow end...













The first truck was the toughest it seemed. The lines were clogging and they kept playing with the mix .... But it did not seem to slow then down much at all...














As the day progressed the speed of the walls being done was incredible. We have a bench alone one side which essentially is a thick concrete wall. It took quite a while to get that done.

Here he is buling the steps into the pool. There are four steps going to the shallow end.















This is a shot as they were starting... We barely had daylight...














The young man with the red hat was the foreman. These boys don't mess around at all.. The were all moving doing stuff as a well choreographed dance troop. The set up was efficient, the progress none stop and efficiently executed.














And at the end of the day here is what it looks like...














Finally the weather and the timing and the stars aligned so we have moved a major step forward.