It’s hard to believe that the pool is almost a year old… Aside from spending time enjoying swimming in the pool, I’ve taken the time to make some minor updates. First on the docket was adding some additional furniture, including an outdoor living room area:
After that, I added a small cosmetic fence around the pool filters and equipment, while still making sure that all of the equipment was accessible.
I’ve also continued to water and grow the grass around the pool, which despite the drought is still going strong.
Here’s to continued warm weather and as long of a swimming season as we can hope for in Wisconsin!
When the pool was installed last year, it was too late in the year to do much with the lawn around the pool. I just threw some quick germinating grass seed directly overtop of the fill to at least get some erosion prevention in place, and called it a day. This spring, I got to work on growing a proper lawn. First, Concrete Keith brought in a ton of top soil:
Then, I planted grass seed, covered it in hay, and set up a series of sprinklers to alternate watering and keep the grass wet through a very dry spring.
The grass slowly started to come in:
Now, it’s really starting to look like a lawn!
I also feel like I really have the hang of pool maintenance now, and have been able to keep the water nice and clear throughout the spring.
We’ve been using it a lot, and I just ordered more outdoor furniture for around the pool. Here’s to a great summer in the water!
Once the pool concrete pouring was done, the pool was fully usable but there was still more work to do. First, the fence had to be installed. I went with an aluminum fence in pre-fabricated sections, which made it easy to anchor into the concrete and install.
The end result looked really good, and fit with the aluminum railing style from the deck that went in last summer.
Once the fence was done, the pool cover was installed and I assembled some pool furniture. Given how far back ordered most higher end pool and patio furniture is, I went with what I was able to get from a local big box store, and it ended up looking pretty decent.
The current pool cover is a simple hand-cranked cover, but I wanted the option to install a powered cover in the future. To facilitate this, the electricians installed an outlet on the far side of the pool, that can power the cover as well as future lighting or other things that require electricity.
Lastly, I removed as many rocks from the dirt as I could, then hand tilled the dirt and planted some grass seed and threw down some hay over top of it. In the spring, we’ll do it properly and have top soil brought in and re-plant much of the grass, but I needed to get something growing before winter to help prevent erosion. It’s coming in fairly nicely, and will at least do the job until spring.
In the meantime, there are still three more weeks before we shut down the pool for winter, so my wife and I are trying to get as much use out of it as possible for as long as the weather cooperates!
While the pool was usable and very delightful after the initial installation, it obviously needed a concrete deck poured. I brought in Concrete Keith for the job, who had worked with me on the three season room and deck project last summer. He got to work pouring concrete, and the results were incredible. The first step was to pour a small ring of concrete around the pool, before pouring the rest of the deck and the stairs.
After that was done, he and his team poured and stamped the rest of the deck, along with a sloped walkway leading up to the pool from the hot tub area.
Now that the concrete is done, I have to wait a couple of weeks for it to fully cure on the inside before installing the railing and the pool cover, but until then there’s plenty of time to spend enjoying the pool!
Despite the pool excavation being a little more involved than anticipated, the project to install the pool managed to roll on mostly on schedule. The Patio Pleasures team arrived, and started installing the pool walls and setting up the pump, filter, and heater.
Next, the plumbing went in, along with the liner, and we could start filling the pool. For the initial filling, we used a vacuum system to keep the liner tight along the walls and floor before the weight of the water took over. The installers also had to wait to cut the liner for the stairs until enough water had filled at the bottom of the pool.
While the pool started to fill, the electricians got to work wiring the pump and heater, running circuits for the pool lighting, and installing a grounding ring around the pool that grounds all metal and prevents us from getting electrocuting, which is a good thing.
We still had to wait for the pool to fill with enough water before moving on to the next step. I installed a WiFi smart faucet that allowed me to control filling remotely, since the pool could only be filled during daylight (so the liner could properly stretch) and needed around five days to fully fill.
After the water levels got high enough, the installers came back to cut in the liner around the stairs:
With the stairs cut in, the pool could start filling again. While that happened, the gas installers from Consumers Coop came and ran LP lines from our primary propane tank to the pool’s heater.
As the pool finished filling, I took care of some ancillary tasks like installing outdoor security cameras from Arlo and buying furniture for the pool deck.
With the pool full, I added chemicals and for the first time, we were able to use the pool!
After the grading for the pool was done and the land was surveyed, the next step was for the excavators to actually dig the hole for the pool, which turned into a much larger challenge than expected, and also turned into a logistical mess since I was coordinating the various contractors from Vegas (in a pool at the Wynn, which was sort of ironic given that this project also involves a pool).
The excavators started digging, and quickly encountered a huge limestone shelf that their equipment was unable to break through.
They then brought in heavier artillery, which also broke on the limestone:
Ultimately, I had to call in the original excavator who had done the grading, since he had heavier equipment than the excavator the pool installers had hired.
He was able to break through, and then we could start the pool installation!
In a previous post I mentioned plans for a pool in the summer of 2022. Now that the summer of 2022 is here, I’ve been hard at work coordinating the pool project. In addition to working with the pool builders, electricians, gas company, and concrete company, I had to have the land where the pool is going to go graded, so that rainwater will run around the pool and down the hill, and not cause problems. This ended up being a pretty dramatic amount of earth movement. The first step was to carve an entrance through the trees onto the property from Range Trail, which allowed the backhoes and other equipment to get to the pool area.
Once that was done, the workers were able to quickly remove trees and brush, and create a level space for the pool.
After the land was leveled, I needed to have the area surveyed and the property lines marked, obviously to make sure that the concrete around the pool and the railing were all on my side of the property line.
Once that was done, I was able to finalize plans for the pool and get permits in place with Dane County and the Town of Verona.
I worked with my concrete contractor (the same person who did the concrete for the three season room project last summer), and also got railing ordered and delivered to be installed around the pool.
Excavation for the pool itself starts on July 1st, and the majority of the construction will be done by the end of the following week!
