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).