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.