Cistern & Spring Break

So things were pretty crazy those last few days before Spring Break started.  The PB had to have a big pow-wow with all the players and come up with a new game plan.  The plumbers obviously had to come back out and re-plumb a lot of the lines along the fence.  Basically, each line has four extra 90 degree turns in it now, directing it away from the pool and closer to the fence, where they won't be in the way of the curb for the pavers.  Hoping they're deep enough that we don't have problems planting there now.  We're planning a tropical screen along that side.  Also hoping that we don't have any pressure or return issues with the extra turns in the lines.  Shouldn't with the spa pretty close to the equipment.

Next was the cistern.  Matt took a day off work and used the big boat trailer to pick it up in Lake Wales and somehow got it off the trailer and next to the house.  With the help of many neighbors and some beers, we used rollers to slide it along the side of the house (thanks to the Egyptians that used this method to build the pyramids) and had to rig some plywood and grunt work to get it around the edge of the pool and next to the hole.

But the hole was still far too small since the excavator had not dug it out all the way.  So Matt dug for two afternoons/evenings late after work and made a lot of progress, but the PB owed us one so he stuck two of his guys in there and they dug it out for a few hours until the side caved in to the edge of the framing for the paver curb (see bottom right of picture below).  They had dug the hole far too big (wide and long) but just barely deep enough.  He was convinced that we needed to build some sort of A-frame to lower the cistern in.

Matt came home, dug it out and by Saturday morning he had the whole thing rigged up to slide in using some 14' long boards, levers, and some extra dock lines.  Matt and the boys and I were able to get it in by ourselves in about 10 minutes, and then filled it with about a foot of water.  There was quite a bit of dirt backfill to complete to stabilize that side towards the pool.

Unfortunately, the one big thing that we just didn't have time to do was connect the gutter drainage system to the cistern.  Matt still had to cut out the holes for the drain in and the overflow out (you can see the flat round spot just to the left of the "1150" written on the end where the drain line in will go - it's just a little lower than the white 4" drain line that is sticking out next to it).  We were leaving on vacation first thing Sunday morning but the weather was forecast to be good for the next 10 days. The PB told Matt that he would have guys on site the whole week, so if there was any rain forecast, he'd have them fill more water into the tank.

SPRING BREAK: Naturally, it stormed in the early dark hours on Monday morning, and the neighbors reported that water was gushing out the downspout drain line and had washed away some of the dirt around the cistern.  During the day, the forecast quickly changed and a strong cold front was expected Monday night. No water was added to the tank, however, as we expected. Tuesday morning (after two frightful nights at anchor), our neighbor reported that the cistern had floated part way out of the hole and there was water everywhere. Their screened cage had come off their foundation and kayak was inside their pool. Several neighbors had water inside their houses from leaking roof vents or windows or doors. So we were relatively well off, just very frustrated and very far away.
We found Gasparilla Marina (recommended!) to tie up for a few days until the next front came through Thursday night.  Matt asked the mason to have his guys pull the cistern out all the way out of the hole so that it wouldn't be stuck in mud at an awkward angle.  We also had them rig up a drain line from the downspout so that any more rain would drain out over the seawall instead of into the hole and mudding up the yard.
We managed to work our way home up the intracoastal waterway during weather windows with a stop at Sarasota Yacht Club and got home Saturday afternoon to see the carnage.

(I did note that Sarasota Yacht Club had recently remodeled and used the ivory Artistic Pavers around their pool, although used a different coping.  They said they were having trouble keeping them clean in the heavy traffic areas.  We'll never have the kind of foot traffic that they have, though)