Day 3 - Monday, June 30, 2008 (rebar and pvc)

Got home today and the crew had installed all the rebar, pvc, and the equipment. Now we can really see the layout of the pool, tanning deck, and swimouts. Don't know when gunite will start but surely within the next day or two.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

No working on Sunday, but we did start filling the pool! Just kidding... it rained a lot.

Day 2 - Saturday, June 28, 2008 (finish the dig)

WOW... the crew is schedule to start day 2 of digging the pool today. They showed up around 10:00 and got right with it. They cleaned out all the rocks that were left from the day before and took a measurement to see how deep the hole was. For a 8-1/2 foot pool the hole had to be dug to a dept of 9foot-3inches. This allows for 9 inches of gunite. We were sitting at 8foot-9inches so we had an executive decision to make. Dig deeper to get the depth we had originally wanted and pay the price or call it good and move on... we chose to move on. An extra 6 inches of depth was not going to make that much, if any, difference. When all you do is belly-flop what difference would that extra 6 inches make??? NONE! Move on to the shallow end!

For the shallow end all they had to do was make one pass with the jack hammer and it was to the depth we needed which is 3-1/2 foot. WHEW... at 1:00 pm they were packing up the back hoe and moving to the next job.

It was a job well done. I was totally impressed with this crew. The guy working the back hoe could flip a coin over with the bucket if he needed to. He was that precise. They cleaned u p their mess and headed on down the road around 1:30.

Next up is rebar and PVC pipe.

Stay tuned for more developments.

Day 1 - Friday, June 27, 2008 (start the dig)

Well, the big day has arrived. We have a 10:30 confirmation to start layout, forms, and ground breaking.

Everyone arrived as planned.

The team from FTW Custom Pools drove rebar in at locations marked on the drawing they had. Then a guy took spray paint and a tape measure and marked off the perimeter and layout of the pool.

Once we had "signed off" that the location was good they brought in the heavy machinery (back hoe) and off they went starting on the deep end first.

The first 18 inches or so went pretty good. Lots of nice earth that they used to build up in the back of the pool since we have a slight drop off from the back patio; however, all of a sudden we heard the terrible screeching sound of metal (the bucket) on rock! SOLID ROCK! They got all the dirt out they could and then put on the jack hammer.

For 7 solid hours on Friday (12:00 am to 7:00pm) they hammered and dug... hammered and dug, all the while I counted each $250 per hour they charge for rock work go out of our bank account.

I have to admit these guys were good and they never slowed down once.

So after Day 1 we got a pool laid out and 3/4 of the deep (8 feet) end dug.

Say tuned Bat-Fans... there's more excitement ahead.

Time to start digging the hole

Whoo-Hoo... Just heard the pool company is suppose to start digging our pool on Friday, June, 27, 2008. Ready to rock-n-roll!

Bad thing about it is that my little niece, Ashley, is expecting her second child any day now and we are suppose to make a quick run to Houston after the new little boy has arrived; however, if the pool is started we have have to put off going to Houston for a few weeks.

Bad timing, I know, but that's the way things work out sometimes.

More to follow.

New pool intro

Well Hello All. Long time no see. I guess it is time for an update.

We have been in our new house for just over a year now and we have decided to install a pool. Here are a few computer generated photos we hope you enjoy. I'll post up the daily progress after things get started on about July 1st of 2008.

Check back often and get ready to dive right in.

Ray & Deana