Before and After

Thought you might enjoy the before and after shots so you did not have to scroll way down the blog page. I praise the Lord for the home that He has given me. My prayer is that my home and my new pool will be used greatly for His service and for the furtherance of His kingdom.

By the way, I have been in the new pool several times to get a little workout. For me, it is not the best pool for lap swimming. My laps go like this, if it were put in words, "push off from the wall, stroke, stroke, stroke, stroke, flip turn, push off, stroke. . . " I swam for 20 minutes and did about 70 laps. It's a great pool for those who don't swim well and laps or water aerobics.

Finished Pool Product

Sorry for the delay in posts. Life has either been busy or lazy. I've been traveling, helping my sister and family move from Fresno, hosting gatherings at my home, or relaxing, enjoying the farmer's market, catching up on my Bible reading and other reading, praying, preparing for VBS next week, exercising in the morning. Thanks for sticking with me. I have heard that many of you do read my blog, thank you.

If you would like to go for a swim, have a picnic, catch up or have a belly flop contest, give me a call and we will set up a time. More posts to come of fun in the pool.

My sister Jen thinks I should name my pool, if you have a suggestion please leave a comment.

Day 8 Pool Project- LAST DAY

The pool is being re-filled as I type out this post. Not quiet enough water to swim yet, enough to wade. The surface got a good acid wash and several washes. All the acid and rinse water was sucked out. My feet really liked the feel of the surface. Not rough at all and pretty smooth. After being in the pool for a few hours teaching swim lessons will be the real test on my footsies.

I sure like the combination of the surface, tile and the copping.

Filling the pond. It will take awhile. The company estimated 24 hours. My hope is for less but I also don't want to worry about the pool all night long.

I think the surface kinda looks like a somewhat black sand beach. Use your imagination.

All of the final details were put in place today. The light was installed, the eye balls put back into their sockets, the concrete finished and deck-o-seal put between the last section of concrete and the copping. Tomorrow, I will check out the chemicals, start up the pump and get the cover on so it will be a decent temp for Saturday's party. The final photos will be of the pool completely filled and people swimming around.

Thanks for hanging out with the blog with each day of the project. Now it is time to come over and hang out in and around the pool.

Wishing For My Pool Today

102 reads the thermometer outside, it's cooler inside, slightly. Wishing the pool was filled today so I could jump on in and splash around in the cool water. The thought of taking a plunge in the pool was on my mind when I worked outside this morning. There have been many of times that I have been baking inside or perspiring profusely outside that I have used my pool to cool off. Not today but maybe on Wednesday!

Day 6 Pool Project

Yeah, I know have a real step to walk out my slider down onto. Very exciting. It's still quite a step down but better than down on the ground. Somehow, my by cat, Lassen has been in all of the photos that I have taken of the step.



The concrete is all back in place now. It makes all the other pieces look like then need to be redone, but that is NOT going to happen any time soon.


The pool company has to come out and saw into the new concrete to make the distance between the pool copping and the concrete exactly the same as the rest of the pool. I wonder why they did not leave the space in the first place. I am not a concrete pro though so their reasons are the best reasons.

I am getting pretty excited for this project to be over. Even though we are day 6 of the project, in actuality from start to now it has been 10 working days or 2 weeks. Monday is the plaster with the pebble, Tuesday acid wash and start filling the pool. Almost there.

What a praise it was that my sister Amy was able to come over and be here while the work was being done yesterday so that I could be in Fresno to babysit my niece and nephew. Makes me break out in my favorite song at both of my sister's weddings, "We are family, all of my sisters and me". Thanks again Amy, you were a life saver (a minty wintergreen or a fruity orange).

Day 5 Pool Project

The two super hard workers were out again to finish the tile work that was not finished the other day due to running out of tiles and they put the grey deck-o-seal in between the concrete and the coping. This finishes everything off nicely. The only problem is there is a section of concrete that has not been laid yet and now that area does not have the deck-o-seal in it. Seems like the company is not doing this all in the correct order but what do I know. I am really hoping all of this will be done for a party I am having on the 4th of July. Actually, not only done but done in time to heat the water up to a good temperature so people can swim if they want. If the Lord wills that not happen, I am good too with having water balloons or other water fun.



I love the way my skimmer looks. Everything is all centered up and even. There is something to the clean lines and symmetry.

These are the plans as I see them, but the Lord might have other plans. Tomorrow is concrete and the new light. Monday is plaster day. Tuesday cure day and maybe deck-o-seal guys come back out. Wednesday is acid wash and brush day. Thursday is fill day. That leaves Friday and Saturday before the party to heat the pool.

Pool Project Day 4

Today the coping, tile and grout was put in. I like the coping and the tile combo. The fellows finished the coping, then they grouted the coping, then they laid the tile and finished up grouting the tile.

I love the colors. They blend in so well with the house and my yard.

Good thing I took this photo because I see a small area that did not get grout in it. I will have to show this to them when they come out next. Looks like a day when I will be in Fresno so I will call the company and ask them to tell the guys to fill it in.

Ohh oh! Somehow the correct amount of tiles were not ordered so the guys today were just short. About 12 short. The company had to reorder another box and they think it will be in later on this week. Tomorrow no work will be done, which is a good thing because I can go to the farmer's market and get my needed fruits and veggies. If all goes well, Wednesday will be concrete, Thursday tile work and I don't know what happens after that. I'll keep you posted.

Day 3 Pool Project

A new crew of workmen were over to do their labor intensive part of the job for day 3 of the project. So far there have been 5 different crews of workmen over to do their speciality: the salesman, the pool drainer (who later will be the acid washer), the crew for the demo, the coping and tile guys and the fellow who I had to pay. Here you can see that they laid the coping out all around the pool and put up some bender board as guide to edge the coping bricks. The coping I chose is called light iron spot with safety grip.

This is the first section that the guys finished, well not completely, the coping bricks still need to get the grey grout placed in between the bricks. My pool is slightly starting to look like a pool again.

I am really starting to like what the edge of the pool is going to look like when it is all finished. This is quiet the contrast of the old white rough coping that was in there before. The color of this coping will pull off of the color of the roof from the house and will pull some from the tile. You will see the tile in a few days.

The above and below photos show how exactly each brick needs to be cut to fit the curves of my pool. One of the workmen spent his time cutting the bricks with a wet saw and the other placing the bricks with mortar. These fellows are true craftsmen because they have to have an exacting eye for detail.

In the tile work I have done, I love using the wet saw to cut tiles. All the cuts look so neat and clean.

The reality of the enormity of the project set in when I needed to write the first half of the cost of the project with the completion of the prep work (the final payment will be at the end). I have to keep telling myself that it will be all worth it and my home will benefit greatly from improving the pool.

My mind was reminded that the local water district started water restrictions and usage cutbacks a few months ago. What must be drained must be then re-filled. I called the water company, and thank the Lord that I did, and explained my situation. The fellow that I talked with was very helpful and if all goes as planned, I will just have to pay the normal cost to refill the pool with no penalty. If not, this fellow will come to bat for me and give a report to the city council, fighting on my behalf. I praise the Lord that He moves our hearts on what we need to do.

One of the most favorable aspects of all of this work being done, is that most of the fellows who have come out speak Spanish and English. I don't have many opportunities to speak much in Spanish so I like to take opportunities when they arise. Each day I have lunch for the fellows and speak with them a little in their native tongues. Right from the first words that come out of my mouth I tell them that I don't speak Spanish that well, because I really don't, but I try really hard and I am open to correction. Mainly, I like to give them lunch because I know my job will be done to the very best of their ability and if I have an issue they will be quick to fix it for me. A little food goes a long way. Yesterday though, the Lord opened up a huge ministry opportunity to share of His grace and saving power. As we talked in Spanish, they wanted to know I learned Spanish and this gave me the opportunity to explain my time in Mexico studying and the many other times of visiting Mexico with churches that I have been involved with. One fellow asked what the difference was between the Catholic faith and the Christian faith. God was gracious for the opportunity and for the words in Spanish to explain the differences. They will be back on Monday and I pray that I might have more of an open door to share with them.

Pool Project Day 2

The men drilled holes every 6" to reveal if there were other craters. They broke through those bubbled areas and cleaned them out. The coping and tile came off too. There was a huge hole punched into the bottom of the pool to prevent the pool from "popping". "Popping" occurs when a pool is drained and is not as heavy and the water table is higher than the lowest point of the pool. The water table pressure pops a pool right out of the ground.


The two pads of concrete are being removed here. There were 2 or 3 jack hammers working at a time. My house was shaking like a low grade earthquake. My girl kitty was not into the work at all. She was a nervous wreck under the bed the whole time.



This fellow is sand blasting away the paint and the top layer of plaster. Note to pool owners: Do not ever paint your plaster on your pool, it is the worst thing you can do to your pool. The weekend I first saw the house, the homeowner was down in the drained pool painting it. I have been fighting that paint ever sense.



The truck bed was filled with all the debris that was taken out of my back yard. There also is the paper wrapping for at least 5 bags of 100 lbs of sand, used for the sand blasting.


When they were finished sand blasting they put on some base coast of plaster primer or something that looked like dry wall mud.


The step below gave one of the fellows a huge work out. In fact they could not chip the concrete down any lower than this. He was using the small jack hammer. My sister thought he was using the small jack hammer because the big one would have shattered the slider glass.

This morning the company called and said the next part of the project will start on Friday. The tiles I ordered will be in on Thursday so my project is on hold for a few days, or I should say that I have a few days of rest before it all starts up again. I don't know why but I am exhausted today.

Pool Project Day 1

Day 1 was pretty uneventful. The pool got drained and you can see the crater with no water. I walked around the bottom of my empty pool and I felt about 7 more areas that would turn into the same type of crater as this one. One felt much bigger than this one (this one was about 16" long and 12" wide). I was able to work outside all day long pulling weeds and cleaning up my garden.

Pre-Project

Here is the crater that I talked about, the reason why I needed to do this whole project.

This is the pool before the project started.

These two concrete pads need to be replaced. They have sunk down by about 1-2" and the new coping would not level off. It only made sense to me to re-due these concrete pads too. For those of you considering putting in new concrete, concrete work is very expensive.


Here is my skimmer and my tile work. As you can see the left side of the tile is distressed and the tile is out of date.

When I bought the house the slider opened the wrong direction and in replacing all the doors I bought this slider to open in the correct direction. Because the slider opened opposite of what it does now, the step down was on the other side. These bricks have been my step for as long as the house has been mine. So, I figured since there would be concrete work done, I might as well get the step done at the same time.