Cistern Pump

Well, the cistern pump finally arrived, thanks to amazon.com, and it's a nice hot day to take a dunk in a very cool cistern tank! If you look closely in the water, you can just make out the top of the platform that Matt had made to set the pump on. Having the pump elevated prevents us from accidentally pumping all the water out and risking the tank "floating" up out of the hole again. The water is all murky because the roof of the house is really, really dirty and all that storm water came in last week.

It's a Wayne Energy Efficient Stainless Steel/Cast Iron Submersible 3/4HP Sump Pump, for those of you who care about such things. You can see the retrieval line that we attached and the PVC to connect with the hose via numerous attachments so that it is more easily removable if necessary.












Out of the tank we have a hose bib for washing down the boats and watering plants. The extra PVC "T" is in case we want to add something later, although I can't think of what that might be right now.  It's a hot, hot high 80's or low 90's kind of day, but that cistern water is c-c-c-cold.

You might be able to see in this photo, the vertical PVC tube from the pump comes straight up from the platform and then angles towards the cistern exit point. Matt put in some threaded PVC here so that we can disconnect it at this point (without getting inside the tank) and a lanyard is attached for pulling up the pump.


I have no idea why this photo didn't rotate properly, but I don't have time to mess with it just now. You get the idea.

Since the tank was full, Matt is displacing enough water for the overflow to trickle a little bit of water out of the seawall. If it was raining, you'd see a nice flow of water coming out of here, but that would require me to come out in the rain to take a picture, and that's not happening anytime soon, so this is the best "action" shot you're going to see for a long time.

Will need to rig up more permanent power source and a switch eventually, but for now we can plug into the dock power when the pool guys aren't using it.

Pavers Done! (almost....)

After a few days of activity, including much very noisy tile saw cutting, Stephan and his crew have the pavers done. Naturally, we had to make a few adjustments on the fly. They had the steps leading down to the dock extending straight to the seawall, but we added that angle to match the width of the steps on the dock.
We also had them put in the angle behind the spa instead of a wide corner (bottom left in picture to the right). We're hoping to have a good planting area here for some privacy screening and at least one big palm, so the angle gives us quite a bit more room. But we wanted to be sure we weren't squishing the walkway either - wanted to be sure it was comfortable to walk around - so it's a little wider than the standard three feet on these two sides of the pool.
Note: the 3' wide path measurement starts at the waterline and includes the coping, which is why the 12" pavers didn't fit exactly. So we have: the required 5' from the property line (chain link fence), 3' paver deck, splash in the water.

 The five feet of required "green space" starts in the middle of the seawall. Since our new seawall is three feet wide, our "real" green space between the seawall and paver deck is only 3'6" (5' minus 1/2 seawall width or 18") for planting whatever we can fit. This is under much debate right now...

Anyway, I really like how all the steps have turned out. Very nicely spaced, tread and width, very easy to walk up and down. Here's a detail area where the roof gutter downspout on the corner of the lanai turns into the drain line to the cistern, and the two ends of the trench drain that lead off in opposite directions.

The PB stopped by to look at the pavers and we have a discussion about the final few things left on the pool.
(1) Pavers need a muratic acid wash to "open" up the pores, so to speak. We're not sealing them, but they are concrete and absorb some water. The acid wash will allow the water to evaporate evenly throughout each paver.

Apparently if you don't do this, you'll end up with a "picture frame" effect on each paver, where the edges are darker with moisture. Bottom line: we can't do any planting in the "green spaces" yet because acid will be washing off the tiles.

(2) Four waterline tiles are still missing on the inside of the spa. He thinks they're waiting for a shipment, but they're only coming from Sarasota, so how long can that take?
(3) I show the granite chunk of Blue Pearl that I have chosen and the PB shakes his head and says it will look like a big black hole (just like the pool that I went to see back in February - see this blog entry). I say that this color is not so much black as gray/silver, and anyway it's too late - Maria has probably already cut the spillover piece. He says it doesn't matter, he wants us to be happy and he'll be putting the designer, Erin (his wife), on it to look for a travertine or something lighter that will go with the coping.
(4) We go over the remaining schedule, so it's looking like we're about two weeks to go. Next week will be pumping water, clean up and installing equipment, and the PebbleTec will be shot the following week. This is where the PB says he's going to bring us more samples to make sure we're happy with our choice of PebbleSheen Aqua Blue, because the guy that owned the same pool didn't like it because it felt "gritty". Okay, I don't like "gritty". We'll have to think some more about that.

Even more pavers....

The pavers are going in nicely and they look just awesome. They're starting with the easy ones in a simple running bond pattern.  The trench drain is going to have to run along the front of the retaining wall and make a few turns around the steps.  Decided that we needed a few pavers level with the main deck below the bottom step for it to look right.

This is after one day of laying pavers down.  They compact the crushed concrete with the tamping-compacting machine thing and then lay the pavers directly on that.  Looks like they'll be doing quite a bit of cutting in the next few days to fill all those gaps.

The pavers look really nice when they're wet but it seems that I never get out there to take a picture of them before they dry.  The shells look really unique and it's fun just looking for the best shells.  More to come....

More Pavers! (and Tile #6)

As far as the pavers go, Monday was more prep work, and the last thing they did was to place piles of this crushed concrete for the base.

Here's a great picture that shows off the blue speckles in the granite for the spillover. Since Rick, the tile guy, is involved with the granite spillover, this posting counts as the #6 "Tile Decisions", in case you were wondering why these were numbered. It helps me when I have to go back and find a certain picture or name of something.

This shot taken in the later evening sunlight is terrific, too. I went ahead and told Maria, the granite lady, that the Blue Pearl granite was our choice, so she could go ahead and cut it.











The last tile decision that I've been trying to make is whether or not to place lane markers for the swim lane and/or step & bench markers along the edges. You may recall that I was trying to find a glass tile for this way back in February (see Tile #3 and Tile #4). Rick, the tile guy, came out and measured everything and gave me a quote for labor, which was basically $10 per foot. Not bad, but I have a 40' swim lane and 80' of steps and benches. Ugh. I thought I had measured about 40' of steps and benches (see "Measuring"), but I probably wasn't accurate enough. Anyway, if I can decide that I want them, it will probably be worth it.

I'm already against the swim lane markers. I'm thinking that it will look stupid to have a big dark line across the middle of the pool. It's a pretty short swim lane, and it's going to be a set number of strokes across, so if I can't figure out how to swim laps without bonking my head in a couple of tries, I've got bigger problems.



I was browsing the GardenWeb Pools & Spas forum the other day and someone else posted about step markers, thinking they were out-of-syle, akin to wearing bell bottoms. Yikes! But this is my pool and I don't care if it's "fashionable" or not. Obviously. Because if I was being fashionable, I'd be building a lagoon like everybody else instead of a Windex-blue pool (I'm hoping anyway).

I still like the step markers because I think it gives a polished-looking finish to the pool. The PB likes the clean lines without them. Most people say that they are not necessary with PebbleTec because of how the water color changes with depth (this photo of the "Shimmering Sea" product illustrates the depth color change well - we will be getting PebbleSheen Aqua Blue with the Shimmering Sea additive)

The more and more I think about it, I don't think I should do it. The angles of the pool are pretty complicated and I think the extra dark lines will just be too much going on visually. I told the PB that I was going to pass - no more tiling (except the granite spillover, of course, and the missing four waterline tiles in the spa).

Pavers (and Granite)

Yay! The pavers guys are here today and doing prep work. Stephan dropped off some equipment yesterday, and they were here using the very, very loud concrete saw by 7:30 this morning, to my neighbors' dismay.  It also set up a cloud of dust that prompted the neighbors two doors down to call me, so they'll be using the water hose from now on.

Since way back in the first few days we had decided to drop the level of the pool down four inches (see February's blog entry "Framing"), the lanai has been getting higher and higher.  I had no idea there was so much slope on the lanai floor, but the side was turning into about a foot drop next to the retaining wall.  So much for putting another screen door on that side.  Stucco (matching the retaining wall), or paint, or pavers?  We decided that the raw edge of the lanai needed something, so they're lining it with vertical pavers and it looks good.

Also, the trench drain is going in and will tie in to some sort of drainage system.  Not sure if we want deck runoff in the the cistern, so we'll probably need to come up with some extra drainage lines.

They also need to place the holders for the hand rail. The PB's guys made a jig (in lieu of the actual extended-P railing) so that we could figure out where it's going to go. Since they were bonded to the pool, we had about a foot of wiggle room to move them around. Normally it would be centered perpendicular to the top step, but I think that's too close to the lanai door, so we're going to offset it away from the door, so that it will be to the left side of the top step. Since the step angles away from the corner, there is still plenty of space on the far side of the railing. This is hard to describe. Pictures should explain it.

Also, went to the granite place to pick out the chunk for the spillover. Rick made the template a couple of days ago and I had a spare blue waterline tile and extra coping brick to bring along. There's a lovely blue granite there, but the blue color is off - more purple blue - so I'm pretty sure this is going to be a contrast sort of situation rather than a matching situation. If it's to match, it has to match exactly, but contrast is wide open. In the back of my mind, I'm still thinking about that gorgeous black granite with deep blue iridescent spots that I saw at the Pebblesheen house back in February (see Tiles #3) The granite lady, Maria, says it might be Blue Volga, but I just think it's kind of funny that granite has names, like something manufactured, when it's really a rock and can have miles of variation. So I don't like granite all that much. It's pretty. Just not in my house.

Anyway, the really black granites are dark and harsh. There is lighter black, maybe silvery-gray granite with blue-silver iridescent streaks in it, called Blue Pearl. It's more speckly, but I think it contrasts nicely with the tile & coping. The Lealman Fire Inspector held up the tile & coping brick against a giant slab of Blue Pearl so I could take this lousy picture with my phone camera.


Fortunately, Maria gave me a small chunk to take home and check out against the pool.  The camera angles and sunlight make it pretty hard to capture the iridescent qualities, but I think you can get the idea.  The shiny spots are more silver than blue, but at just certain moments you get a quick blue glint.  I'll try to take a picture during a different time of day to see how it captures on film (so to speak).

More Coping!

Adding the retaining wall meant that we also needed to add more coping to the plan, so Rick, the tile guy, had to come back and do a couple more hours of work, but it looks great, of course.

The plan is to finish the front side of the retaining wall with stucco, so that from the canal it will look just like the pool beam wall - coping top edge with matching stucco wall. The picture below also shows the completed equipment pad next to the house and the area where I plan to plant something that will block the noise of the equipment from the pool and backyard. Need to check if a gardenia can grow in the summer sun there (only late afternoon sun in the winter). Otherwise it'll probably be a sea grape, which can be shaped as a large bush, hedge or a tree.

Snake!

It's just a black racer. Trevor fished him out with a rake and he slithered through the chain-link fence to our neighbors' yard.

Cistern (again)

The mason's guys have done some digging, but they were having trouble with that one side caving in under the poured concrete curb. So Matt's shoring up that side with some scrap plywood and stakes. Still quite a bit of digging to go so that the downspout drain lines up just above the intake to the cistern.

We've had a couple of rain showers so the water table is pretty high right now and the hole filled up with about 18" deep water overnight. Using buckets and garden hoses as siphons, we get enough out so Matt can get the hole finished.

Again, using an elaborate system of planks and levers and dock lines, Matt and the boys and I manage to get the cistern dropped in place. Again. We're very relieved.

Matt already has the special attachment plug things installed on each end of the cistern, so the next step is to attach the downspout drain line, fill it halfway with water (so it won't "float" out of the hole again) and bury it. This picture gives a pretty good idea of how the cistern is situated in the yard and it's size.

Next step: installing the overflow drain line. There is a 3" tube through the new seawall, so Matt connects it up with the overflow from the tank. Now we wait for rain.

If you're trying to figure out how the cistern will work, you realize that we're not done yet. We'll use the fresh water off the roof to wash the boats and water the yard (the plants that are not sprinkled with city reclaimed water, that is). So we've got a pump on order, and we'll need to hook up power in and a hose out. The hard part is done, though.

Concrete! (and completed spa coping)

The masons showed up with a concrete truck today to finish (hopefully) all of their pool work.  Matt has asked the boss to hire his guys to help re-dig the cistern hole and install it because he's just run out of time, but that will be in a few days when we have a good weather window.

At last, the ground is stable enough for the south-end curb to be poured (left). And wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow-full, the the side-yard steps are poured.

I'm not sure why he's wearing a button-down shirt and nice khaki shorts for work like this, but who am I to judge?

Also, a few lengths of rebar and concrete fill the retaining wall for reinforcement, as can be seen in the bottom of the picture to the right. The equipment pad is poured by noon and we're pretty much done with concrete work now.

Overall, we're probably about two weeks behind with the weather and related cistern wash-out, and the extra concrete work that had to be done before the paver guys start work.

The spa coping is done and the air valves are installed.  Still missing the three or four waterline tiles.  Rick looked at the extra tiles that we fished out of the pool, but he couldn't use them because they were the same tile, and I hadn't noticed.  I think there are four different patterns in the tile, and he won't put the same pattern next to one another.  Details.



Details are a good thing, because the detail work that Rick has done on the spa is excellent, as can be seen by these close-ups.

That's a lot of measuring and cutting to get all those angles and corners symmetrical like that.

More Mason Framing

The masons came in and framed the new steps that will allow a more gentle transition from the side yard to the paver deck.  I decided that the retaining wall should not turn the corner (so that the steps would be behind it) because I figure that most people (read: kids) will want to cut the corner from the second step to the deck.  Not sure how to finish the side of the steps since they'll be exposed this way, but we can figure that part out later.


The masons also framed the equipment pad along the side of the house.  I realize that an advantage of the retaining wall and steps configuration is that I'll be able to grow a big plant in the space to block the sight and sound of the equipment from the pool side.




Meanwhile, Matt has plumbed in the sprinklers behind the retaining wall.  I need to think about what to plant in there that won't grow up to block the bedroom window.  Not sure if the gingers that were along the lanai can handle the extra sun exposure on the west-facing wall here.

Coping!

It's an exciting day when the pallets of pavers appear in the front yard.  I thought they were going to drop them on the street or in the driveway, but they dropped them right along the path that the bobcat was running across the lawn.  Geesh, I hope they didn't break any more sprinklers because I've just about had it with fixing sprinklers.



Now the tile guy, Rick, can come back and set the coping, and it looks great.  As usual, he's very meticulous, and you can see the lines that he strings up to ensure the coping bricks are all set evenly and in straight lines.  It is really looking like a pool now!

It's a little more complicated around the spa with all the angles and overhangs.  The spa itself has double coping for the inside and outside edges.  Rick's level lines have to run all the way across the pool for some of the edges.

A regular paver will be cut to fit into the triangles on both sides of the spa.  It will be a nice spot for getting into and out of the spa as well as stepping up out of the pool.

The entire pool beam wall also requires double coping, and it doubles up around the steps until the coping reaches level with the paver deck at the top step.

Rick's assistant, Linda, is the grout lady and it looks like we chose the right color - blends very nicely. 




Close up below - looks nice with the waterline tile.

Return from Spring Break...

Upon return from Spring Break, this is what we found. You can see the drain line running horizontally across what's left of the hole to drain out over the seawall (the wood beam is just to support it).  A bit relieved that the curb (in the top of the right picture) didn't wash out or collapse into the hole.   Unfortunately, there's a lot of digging out in our futures.

All the rain filled the pool up pretty well.  We now have the biggest mosquito breeding pond in Pinellas County.

The good news is that the concrete curbs and footers were all poured (except that one by the cistern hole, obviously) and it's really nice seeing how the contours of the paver deck are going to look.  No curbs are required for the lower deck because it will be even with the top of the seawall.

The steps on the left look pretty good and I like the depth and the width and the tread height.  It's very easy to walk up and down without any awkward stepping.

We have a discussion about the elevation issue that has been realized.  Since way back at the beginning, we had to drop the pool elevation four inches (see "Framing" blog entry in February), we now can see that there is a big drop from the side yard where the equipment pad will be poured to the paver deck below.  The mason has a great idea to put in a retaining wall and some steps on the side, so that we're at least level with the neighbors' yard.  I'm not crazy about having steps in the side yard, but there's just no other way around it.





Looking at this picture later, I'm just amazed that the dracaena (spiky looking plant) has made it through all this.  It hasn't been watered since we started construction and it's mostly under the roof.