And so it begins....

We returned Sunday afternoon from a weekend regatta downtown to find this sign next to our driveway. I think this means we're really getting a pool!

I've been interviewing pool builders since before Thanksgiving, interrupted the process briefly to refinance the house, but had to get right back on the pool project to stay on timeline. Our good friends' advice was to be sure to have the pool ready to swim before the weather gets too hot, because there's nothing worse than having that big old pool sitting out there and sweating and sipping cocktails and not being able to jump in.

Getting quotes from builders was a whole process in itself. I had three that basically just backed out or never got back to me. The challenge was fitting our requirements into our small backyard with respect to the city codes for setbacks and the seawall tiebacks.

If you're not familiar with seawall construction, the wall is basically held up with big rods buried 15' into the yard, then held in place with large concrete blocks. The blocks are buried so that the tops are about 3 1/2' underground, and are roughly 3' deep under that, 7-8' wide (parallel to seawall) and 2' thick. We just had a new seawall built in December that has a 30' span beam engineered with no tiebacks in the middle, and had the beam set off to one side because I did not want the pool smack dab in the middle of the yard, so that we would have to walk all the way around it to get to the dock. That pretty much determined where the pool can be dug out.

I had four builders design pools and give me detailed quotes for my requirements, which were basically this:
(1) Swim lane (for me) minimum 36' but longer is better
(2) Spa (for my husband), located anywhere but the far corner
(Yes, I know you're looking at the sketch and seeing that's exactly where the spa is now located, but that explanation is for another post.)

Remarkably, all four quotes turned out within the same ballpark range, as much as they can be compared against each other anyhow. This required going back and asking for more detailed price breakdowns and options. We were pretty confident in all four builders, having visited two showrooms and checked out their references. In the end, we chose the smaller local guy that had built our good friends' pool (mentioned above), and it turned out, had built many other acquaintances' pools. He also has a lot of experience with canal pools and has worked with our seawall builder quite a bit.

We signed a contract on Wednesday evening and the sign went up on Saturday. Yikes! This is happening really fast!