The Rock Wall

Lonnie, our tile guy came back last week and used either 12"x12" sheets or 1/2 sheets, filling in as much space as possible around the stream.

Now, Susan is removing rocks from the backing material and placing the rocks in the best position based on size and color.  Once all the rocks are in place, Lonnie will grout all around the rocks.

We will then remove the cardboard outline of the stream and begin building the stream with crystal blue fire rocks.

Blinds

The blinds on these two windows are hand operated. No remotes or cords were required because the blinds are easy to reach.

Ben installed the TV this week. The TV can be tipped, turned and extended out from the wall. We will have Dish connect this TV to our current coverage and we will add an external DVD player for exercise videos. The blind on the window next to the TV requires a cord to operate. Unfortunately, the blind for the final window did not arrive with the rest of them. This blind requires a remote to operate so we won't have to climb up on the decking every time we want to change the blind setting.

I'm not sure why, but I think this blind is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

New Liner and Decking

The new liner went in just fine. We left the pool alone for five days, figuring that if there was going to be a problem it should show up in that amount of time. No leaks - YEA!

Once the contractors have left for the day Susan can use the pool. I hope to get medical clearance to get in the water within three weeks.

Lonnie is installing the river rock along the side of the pool.

We should be able to start adding the crystal blue fire rock for our stream.

Empty Pool

After the torn seam was discovered, Ben and Bob took the pool apart and disconnected all the hydraulic lines.

After the torn seam was discovered, Ben drained the remaining water and removed all of the pool components.

The benches, treadmill,step, etc. all had to be removed to get the liner out. Additionally, all the hydraulic lines had to be cut and capped so we would not waste all the hydraulic fluid that was in the lines.

It took about two weeks for the new liner to arrive. Then it had to sit in the bottom of the pool for three days to warm up, which makes it much more pliable to work with.

Seam Separation

We let the water drain out of the pool and by the time it stopped there was only about 1.5 inches of water left in the bottom. Three different times while the water was draining I put drops of food coloring in the water and watched where the dye went. By the third time, I was pretty sure that the leak was located under the bench with the step on top of it, at the back of the pool. When Ben came over on Friday, I told him where I suspected the leak was located and so he dismantled the benches in the back of the pool and we found a 3-inch separation at the seam of the liner.

After talking to Rob at Endless Pools and discussing our options, we have decided to wait for a new liner to be manufactured rather than attempt to fix the separation. We will not find out how long our project will be delayed until January 5, when the company opens for business. We suspect that it will take at least three weeks to receive the new liner.

Needless to say, everyone associated with this project is very disappointed. The last electrical inspection should happen next week and Ben and Bob will begin removing the benches, treadmill and propulsion unit so we can remover the liner. After that we will be in a waiting period until the new liner arrives.

Decking Continued and a Setback

Ben and Bob continued to work on the decking on Monday.  The top of the decking is covered with Trex, which was shown in the last post. This picture shows the top deck frame at the back of the pool.

Bob is measuring the back wall for the decking. Putting decking back here will allow us to stand on the coping to clean the windows.

We noticed that the water level was a little lower than it was on Friday so we put the hose back in and brought the water level up to the correct level. 

The frame on the front is ready for the Trex decking on the top. Unfortunately there is a leak in the liner. It took three full days for all the water to drain out of the pool. When Ben can get back out here, we will begin looking to identify where the leak is located.