Weeks 5 and 6 - Slow Going

The last couple of weeks have been relatively slow.  We're beginning to think we could dig and pour the darn pool ourselves and get it done quicker.  Meanwhile the final design work on the balcony and new roof-line continue to delay that whole permit process on that part of the work.  Thank goodness the front part of the house and dock continue to offer a still gorgeous vacation home!  :)

Here was the pool area as it sat a week ago on Monday, September 10th.  At least it was starting to take form.

Here it was at the end of the day Friday.  Admittedly, there's a lot more re-barb, but still a long ways to go.  Of interest, there's about 2 1/2 feet of water at the deep end of the pool in this picture.  This is the level it rises to when there is only ONE 2 HP pump draining the water.  It takes 2 of them pumping full time to keep the water all the way out of the new pool area.  Of course, it's a totally different story once the pools poured and filled with it's own water, but for now it's a fascinating look at the geography of this area.

Meanwhile, they said they'd be back on Saturday ... and it was a no-show/no-call.  And Monday was a no-show/no-call.  Tomorrow Tina get's back on the phone to start asking "what's up" again.  Meanwhile, Tina and I got busy again over the weekend tearing up the old shed.  I think Tina looks her best when she's out showing off her muscles and working up a bit of a sweat. (Honestly, she looks pretty good all dressed up, clean, and with no-sweat ... but that's not for this blog.)

At the end of the day, we were left with the rotten wood foundation and not much else.  If we can ever get our pool poured, we might be ready to get our new work shop done.

If you look at the above pic, the swampy area to the right and left of the pic are from the water being pumped from the new pool hole into the back yard.  This pic is with only ONE of the TWO pumps running!  It gets worse with both pumps running.

One last pic (which we sent out by email to a lot of people) is from Tina's Dad grave-site last weekend.  Tina's Mom bought a light and a flag for his grave and it's a beautiful site to see.  This time of year it's a shining light illuminating a flag on the hill as I drive down US 1 most mornings on my way to work.  It's a nice reminder that life still goes on for all of us.

Until the next update (after Tina starts yelling enough at our pool contractor) happy fall time everybody ... and happy birthday Herman on the 30th of this month  :)


 

Rear House Reconstruction Weeks 3 and 4

As of week 3, the pool contractor got serious about proceeding ahead having cleared the final hurdles of that permit process.  It all looked pretty innocent to start with, albeit we ended up with a rather large gravel pile in our back yard. 

An Innocent Looking Start

However, the original backhoe they brought in proved to be too wimpy for our "Rockledge"coquina ledges. That's when they brought in the big-boy Komatsu back hoe.  While getting the major rocks out which were 6 feet down from where our pool deck will be, the hydraulics broke on this bad-boy and they postponed further work until after Labor day.

The Big Honker Backhoe

It's amazing to watch during this whole process just how little separates our  house foundation and the underground water level.  I enjoy looking out front and seeing the river-front sitting at near eye level.  It's a bit more unnerving to watch them dig a hole in your back yard and have the water flow in just 4 feet below what used to be our back patio.

Pool Needs Filtering

Pouring in the New Gravel Base

Just to give perspective, here's one of the largest rocks they had to remove from the new "deep-end"of our pool.  Tina thinks my wanting to keep all the coquina is getting to be about nuts.  I think I'll figure out where to put it all ...

... somewhere over the next 3 or 4 years!  :)

Massive Coquina Rock - By Our Count This is Number 251! :)

But by the day after Labor day the pool actually started to take a real form.  Mind you there was a set of two pumps (2-HP each) keeping the water out of the hole in order to get the basic form laid.    A large portion of the back yard is soaked with water, but at least the pool is moving forward. 

The Boss Reviews

The Workers React

The guy in the hat down in the pool is actually the owner of the pool company.  He showed he's not afraid to participate in the work to the fullest.

Meanwhile, Tina and I continued on over the weekend getting the rest of the back shed emptied out and starting to tear off the old aluminum siding for recycling.  A quick view of the before and nearly after shows a stark difference.

The original plan called for building the new workshop area as a standard frame structure.  After having run into a massive amount of termites, roaches, (what we believe are) brown recluse, and even a black widow, we're thinking we might upgrade to a block structure.  A cement foundation will help a lot, but a block structure seems like it make sense in this location.