It's week 7 of the Spring 2021 One Room Challenge and we officially have a pool (well, the makings of one at least)!!! It was an incredibly busy week for this project, but such an exciting one!
Dig Day was this past Tuesday & we woke up at 7AM to massive pool equipment in front of our house and a team of guys ready to tear apart our yard. The first dumpster was delivered on Monday evening so that it would be ready to go, but we filled five 15-yard dumpsters total, so they kept having to pick it up, dump the sand (since our yard is just one giant sandbox basically) and turn right back around. We actually had two drivers on this rotation because the guys were filling the dumpster so quickly! Thanks to our Ring floodlight in the backyard, we were able to put together this amazing time lapse of the dig & the photo below shows the giant hole that we were left with at the end of the day.
The hole looked massive and was giving us a bit of anxiety because it felt really close to where our back stairs are (almost feeling like you would walk right into the pool!) and to the outdoor kitchen area. We had to keep reminding ourselves that the pool was over-dug about 3 ft all around for the plumbing, braces and backfill. Chase works for the pool company, so on Wednesday he drove all of the panels and components to the site and we arranged them in their correct locations to be ready for assembly on Thursday. The panels are polymer instead of steel so that we don't have to worry about corrosion due to our coastal location.
Thursday was "build" day and they got everything in place, bolted together and perfectly leveled. Once that was completed, they set up the braces around the perimeter. This is when it actually took shape and started looking like a pool. The pool itself is 12' x 20' and is 3.5' in the shallow end and only 5.5' in the deep end. It is not an overly large pool since we don't have a massive lot, so we wanted more of a social pool and one that had a gradual slope vs a steeper grade and deeper deep end. We have corner square stairs and the second step continues out to a bench in the shallow end. In the deep end, we have a Badu swim jet being installed so that we can swim for exercise, since the pool isn't long enough/conducive for laps. In the back we have a 6.5' x 9' Baja/sun shelf area where our 3 scuppers will flow into and it will also have a bubbler and two Ledge Lounger chaises.
Friday they came back to install a good amount of the plumbing, holes for lights and the skimmer. They still have a bit more to do on Monday, along with the electrical bonding before backfill. All of the pipes with yellow tape on top will continue to the left and terminate in front of where the equipment pad will be. This pad will be next to the house and next to our main back steps, but will be in it own gated area to keep it out of sight.
The crew was then back on Saturday to pour the concrete collar around the perimeter of the pool, the sun shelf and the steps/bench to lock everything into place. This upcoming week they will be finishing the plumbing, running electric lines and taking care of the bonding, backfilling the pool and our fence posts will be set.
As expected from the beginning, we are so behind due to delays beyond our wildest dreams, that our true full reveal will be more like week 12 instead of week 10 like we originally thought (since we always knew it wouldn't be an 8 week process haha). I will continue to post a big update once a week though (plus progress stories on Instagram) to make it a true extended One Room Challenge and will update the final reveal post here once it’s all officially done done!
This is the list of remaining installs & DIYs along with an approx. schedule to have a completed yard:
Week 8 (6/21 - 6/27): Pool plumbing completed, pool back filled, electric run and fence posts installed
Week 9 (6/28 - 7/4): Concrete poured for under pavers and for pads for the pool equipment, outdoor kitchen & shower, DIY horizontal fence boards install & gate build/install, DIY basement stair riser tiling, outdoor shower install
Week 10 (7/5 - 7/11): DIY shou sugi ban pergola build/install, partial lighting install, plus hopefully pool liner/equipment install & filling it with water (but this may happen the following week & be flip-flopped with the planter builds & landscaping)
Week 11 (7/12 - 7/18): Ipe planters built & landscaping, DIY stair build, complete lighting install, DIY swings for bar
Week 12 (7/19 - 7/26): Paver install, Outdoor kitchen arrival, bar install & DIY tiling, synthetic grass install
We are in for a WILD five weeks, but excited to take you all along for the ride (although sh*t show may be a more accurate description in this case).
Come back next week to check-in on the progress! Check out our week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5 & week 6 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!
