It's week 6 of the Spring 2021 One Room Challenge and we STILL don't have a hole in the ground, but things are going to be happening at break-neck speed for the final two weeks, so this week was filled with some last minute decision pivoting and driving out to NJ to pick up over 3,000 lbs of pool coping, wall caps & stair treads!
It may not look like it here, but my little brother really does love me. He gave up his Saturday to drive to NJ with me to pick up over 3,000 lbs of Techo-Bloc Raffinato caps and then had to unload them with Joe into an empty spot in our yard that won't be touched by the excavator this week. I went into this fully prepared to help move these slabs around, but I completely underestimated how unbelievably heavy they were! Our electrician lives in NJ, about 10 minutes away from the dealer that we ordered the stone from, so he met us there and ended up taking about 1,600 lbs of the caps in his truck and will be bringing them to our house on Tuesday. We had to pick up these slabs because they were in stock, while the actual pavers are delayed a few weeks (7/11) and we couldn't wait for them because then that would delay the coping install, which would delay the liner install and we are DONE waiting. We could have had them delivered, but delivery is $500, so we only wanted to pay for that once. When we arrived and said that we weren't taking the pallets because we would be loading them into our trucks by hand, everyone looked at us like we were crazy and laughed, but the team at Pantano in NJ was incredible and helped us load our vehicles. We were picking up two pallets + 6 pieces of slabs & to be extra safe, we laid down drop cloths in the back of the SUVs and used ratcheting straps to keep everything tight/secure for the 1.5 hour ride home!
We took the drive back carefully and slowly since the SUVs were definitely at their max weight-wise. Then the real fun started once we were home and I got to watch Joe and Chase repeatedly pick things up and put them down (basically a real life Planet Fitness commercial) while unloading. Joe managed to scratch himself on the first slab and was shocked that they were so heavy (over 60 lbs each!). They had good attitudes about it though and kept laughing until the job was done. We will have to move them one more time so that the mason can pour a pad there, but we're not even going to think about that right now. We are just happy to have the beginning of materials on site finally!!
These Techo-Bloc Raffinato caps are going to be used as treads on our stairs leading to the basement and also as our pool coping. We were going for a really clean and contemporary look with straight edges. This is what it looks like when used as coping:
And then the pavers that will be arriving in July to go around it are the Techo-Bloc Para slabs in the same Greyed Nickel color:
Our black scuppers arrived from Mosegi Water Spouts and are going to look awesome in the Ipe planter box. The scuppers will be pouring water into the baja shelf area of the pool and there will be three of them along that area. The Ipe planter with the scuppers will look similar to this, but with 1x6 boards and ours will be taller.
Last, but not least was a decision we have been stressing over for months about the pool: the liner. I have always been drawn to the dark gray/almost black liners because of the water color they produce which is a gorgeous teal. Our backyard has sun in the pool area until about 3:30pm and it would have the beautiful color then, but once it was in the shade then it could/will look like a bit of a swamp. We initially pivoted to a more mid-light gray pool liner called Island Granite by Merlin and figured it would blend with our gray pavers around it, *BUT* Merlin is currently taking 4-5 weeks just to ship liners and then the pool builder would still need to install it. We also didn't want to take the chance of ordering the liner before the pool was in place because sometimes measurements change (like baja shelf depth or bench and stairs) and then the liner wouldn't be fitted perfectly. Since we need to wait to order the liner until this upcoming Thursday or Friday, it would mean we wouldn't have the Merlin liner installed until the end of July. This wait was not worth it to us because our beach is closed this summer for jetty/groin installation (protection against storms like Sandy and beach erosion), so the backyard is more important than ever. It ended up being the kick in the butt that we needed because now we are back to our original gut choice of Loop-Loc's Platinum Onyx liner and those are shipping in 10-12 business days. Thank goodness! This first choice liner is black and grey with like a silver pearl-essence that is supposed to have a beautiful sparkle when the sun hits the water just right. This photo shows this stunning liner in the sun and it makes me giddy just looking at it!
Come back next week to check-in on the progress! Check out our week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4 & week 5 posts to see everything that has happened to date (not much lol). For more updates throughout the week be sure to follow along on Instagram and don’t forget to check out the progress of each of the Featured Designers and Guest Participants!
