Pool Progress

Hey Blog Friends!  I thought I'd share the progress on our swimming pool.  I am sooo excited!  We are making great progress!  Since we are installing a pool with a vinyl liner the construction goes fairly quick.  It is likely we will be swimming by this coming weekend if not sooner. I just cannot wait especially since it seems summer has returned in full force here after a slight break in the temperatures over the weekend.

So, let's take a look!  Sorry ladies,  I am going to take you trough all the steps before showing you where we are today.  I am doing this because I want to document this too.  Feel free to just enjoy the pics if your not to interested in reading about how.  For the rest of you, here's how you construct an inground vinyl pool.

Be prepared for a mess!   We interviewed three contractors who we requested come out to our house to give us an estimate due to the fact that we have a sloped yard.  We are using a contractor who does all the work himself except for pouring the concrete. After figuring out where we wanted the pool to be our contractor brought in one of these to dig the hole.

He was recommended to us from someone who goes to church with him who said, he is a good man, so I took a chance and called him.  She was not exaggerating!  He has been in the business for 25years now but is not like the larger pool builders who have many crews working for them doing several pools at once.  He is practically local to us from the next small town over.  We met his wife and they took us around to meet all the other local families he has built pools for too.  She and I have clicked well and she's been by a few times to see the progress on our pool as well.  This is just the type of contractor we prefer who works with you to get things exactly the way you want them.  I had no idea we would ever find a pool contractor like this, as it is a rare thing (in our area) indeed!

 I feel so blessed that we have found him!

In no amount of time, he brought over the pool and that's when it really started to sink in.

Never mind that the big tractor was quickly tearing up my yard.

Then up came the steel walls.

And my steps were attached.

 Here's my steps!

 First a concrete footer was poured around the outside, then all the pipes for the jets, skimmer and drains could be installed.

Then he brought in the mixing equipment for the bottom.

And installed a mixture of vermiculite and concrete on the bottom.

Next, it was time to install the liner.  This is his son who came to help him out with this on Saturday.

My husband and our contractor, Eddy are looking at where he wants us to fill the pool with water.  We were only to fill enough water so he can then cut out the drains on the bottom.

This was how it was done.  He climbed into his tractor and cut them out from above because he didn't want to walk on the bottom of the pool due to the vermiculite still setting.  We were given instructions to leave the vacume running as it keeps the wrinkles out and begin adding a small amount of water just up to the level where the stairs needed to be cut out from the vinyl.  Unfortunately, since we are on a well, we have a whole house filtration system that our outdoor hoses are also connected too and we had a snag with our filter becoming clogged.  We had to shut the water and vacume off on Sunday.

As you can see the wrinkles started to come.

But he told us not to worry, he would be back on Monday and straighten things out with the pool.  Meanwhile, we headed to Home Depot and stocked up on new filters.  We think the sediment from the bottom of the well must have been stirring up from having the water running for hours and clogged up the filters.  My whole house started gurgling inside before the water stopped coming out of the hose all together.  So glad that was all it was because I thought we had drained the well completely and we had'nt even started filling up the pool yet.  Whew!

True to his word, the wrinkles came right out with little effort after the vacume and water resumed on Monday.  He also is very particular, thank goodness and got in to straighten everything out as well.

And the painfully slow process of adding the water has begun again.

Our next milestone to reach was getting the bottom of pool filled all the way up to the shallow end so he can cut out the steps which are covered.  Doing the cutouts this way insures an accurate cut in the vinyl where it needs to be.  Little did I know that adding the water was going to be the slowest part.

Watching a pool fill with water is like watching grass grow, especially when you are on a well.

But watching is what I am doing none the less!  I just can't stop!

The area around the pool has been filled in for the most part.

With the exception of the back here where my husband is going to install the light. 

The concrete to go around the pool will not be poured until about 4 to 6 weeks so the ground can settle.  Our contractor is very adamant about that and we are pleased to oblige.  Installing concrete too soon can result in a sidewalk that cracks and looks horrible and we certainly do not want that.  Besides, we have plenty to keep us busy like installing a small retaining wall, building new steps and railings, sodding the yard, etc.  

And here we are today, waiting on a few more truck loads of dirt that we are bringing in to landscape the back corner, and waiting on the water to fill up our pool.  I picked up these plastic adirondak chairs from Home Depot on Sunday and went back to get two more yesterday, so now I have four.  They were on sale for the end of the season and will make all the waiting a little more comfortable, don't you think?

Thanks for stopping by today!

What do you think?

Have a great day!

Mary