WOW, it really looks amazing!! I bet you're getting fired up about swimming now! :-) You're going to love the grotto, we were swimming today and my 11 y.o. daughter showed me a cool trick, if you go right underwater and let the water from the grotto cascade onto your head then between the water and all the bubbles it makes it's a nice scalp massage, haha! It feels great! You'll have to try it! Works on your back too. Something else we love to do is come down the slide and swim underwater across the pool and pop up inside the grotto. The sound is really something as you cross under the waterfall! It might be a little tougher to get in yours underwater because they didn't make a center cut in the bench for your legs, but the water should be deep enough above the shelf it looks like. I like your firepit too, it all lays out really nicely in your backyard and has a great relationship to the house so that it can be admired from inside!

Everyhting is looking great! I can't wait to see pictures of the River Rok! I am very excited for you.

I have the same flagstone. I've heard mine called Oklahoma Wister. I have the dark variety too. :-)

syntagma

By the looks of the home styles, school in the back ground and the rooflines seen, my guess you are somewhere on the Cinco Ranch / Grand lakes /Avalon Border right?

Westpark tollway is nice, yet you pay for that convenience for sure.

Fortunately my commute is from the bedroom to the office, with a stop in the kitchen for coffee. Lol Even better, today my office attire is shorts and a beer t-shirt.

Your pool start is beautiful!

bf-tx, your commute sounds like mine! So does your work attire!

Yes the best part is lunchtime, I ride 10 miles on my bike everyday, and leave from my driveway!

The downside, is that lunchtime can be all day long for me...ROFL...

HAHAHAAH bf-tx! You clocked it! WOW yeah I love the area but yeah it's not cheap. THe taxes kill us but the schools are sooo good...

OK so DAY 30 of build and the pool is being filled!! I love it!

The spa is already filled

the pool is coming along. I know it looks splotchy but I was assured it wouldnt be after filling

Close up of the river rok. I love the dark color...it's overcast so the true color of the water won't come out yet and the water needs to be filtered but I think it's going to be just what I want

And here is a view from inside the house! The windows and outdoor furniture still need to be cleaned! HAHAHA but I love the view.

Looks great!!! That view from inside will be awesome at night. This is day 44 for us. We would have had plaster today, but Dallas is surrounded by rain. We are getting a Pebble Tec clone called RiverSand from our PB.

Congratulations! You must be sooo excited! It looks gorgeous! Can't wait to see before the chemicals and after!

We have 2 more days of the decking then on to the grotto! Plaster color not chosen yet, time is of the essence, but our crews are working hard so no complaints. Or maybe its the Dos Equis they enjoy so much at the end of the day... lol!

Be sure to post soon! Can't wait to see it!

WOW I just turned off the hoses in the pool! It took 36 hours and 2 hoses to fill! I had no idea it was going to take so long! HAHAHAHAHAHA They are coming tomorrow to turn the filters on, fix our fence and fix our sprinkler system! YEAH!!

Good for you. Congratulations!!! I hope to be right there with you in a couple days if the weather helps me out.
Does the pebble look better????

It looks great, congrats on the fill! The color might be a little green at first, it'll go away once they get the water circulating.

Wow, it looks awesome! We're right behind you!

Okay sooooo we have a small issue with the pool water and finish. Apparently some of the pool water may have come from my water softener...UH OH so they are doing a muratic acid start and that will be for a couple days to eat the calcium and stuff. it's got a huge white film. It will all get worked out but will just take a while. In the meantime they are fixing the fence (and we are adding more) and they are acid washing the decking (as we speak) so it's still exciting but not quite there yet. I just hope the water doesnit ruin the pool finish! :(

Okay I got soooo excited about the lights finally being on I took pics! hahaha The water is soooo cloudy even with the dark finish the lights are very visible. BTW I am NOT the best at taking these night photos! HAHAHA

Beautiful, love the night shots!!

The white film is plaster creme and is completely normal to see at startup time. You don't get as much of it with pebble finishes because there's less exposed plaster, but it's still there. I assume they are either brushing it down twice a day or instructed you to do so? Adding acid to the water is to bring the PH down. You (or they) should be checking the chlorine and PH every day and adding acid to keep the PH below normal for the 1st couple of weeks. Keep on top of the brushing and in 2 weeks your finish will look great!

Unfortunately that isn't the case here tresw. I wish it was. This isn't normal as per my PB. Some white film is but not like this (it's spotted, and streaking and very obviously different colors) especially with my pebble finish. There is no chlorine in the water yet and won't be until this gets fixed. It's just acid to try to see if they can fix it. We may actually have to drain the pool and acid wash again. He thinks the problem may have been with the acid wash. It may have not been done properly. They are giving it another day and putting in more acid in the meantime. :(

Beautiful pool all the way around but I LOVE your night shots. Out of everything, I am looking forward to swimming at night. We got Jandy color lights for our pool and you have just given me the fever. ;-) Thanks for the pics. Send more when you have them.

Sorry you've hit a road bump, but it sounds like it's very temporary. It'll be fixed in no time, I'm sure.

The night shots look beautiful! We went with plain white lights, but I have to say, that purple looks beautiful!

Okay soooo last night they came and put in more muratic acid (for the no drain acid wash) and turned on the filter. It helped quite a bit. It's still splotchy but much better. Early this morning they came and put in soda ash in the pool and added the chlorine. Soooo the water has cleared up quite a bit and the kids were able to swim today! :) Here are some pictures of the color of the water... I REALLLLLLY love the color! I am soo glad we went dark!

my oldest son

my youngest son. he is too afraid to get into the water! :)

The first jump!

My sons' girlfriend

The spa

Awesome pool. I love the water color!! It looks like the kids had a ball breaking it in. :)

I bet it won't be long before you can't keep your youngest son out of the water!

It's turned out beautifully! I love the water color!

Really nice looking pool and yard, syntagma. I love how your delight shows through in your posts, by the way. HAHAHAHAHA!!

It looks great, and at just over a month they sure built it quick! The water color is very nice. Congrats on the first swim! What is your water temp? Ours is flirting with 80 here, we're getting some mid-90's weather for the next several days that should heat the pool up nicely.

jayhawker_mom: They had a blast! They were in the pool from 1 to 9 pm last night! :0

smbnobles: Isn't that the truth! That kid will be dying to swim soon! When they came to repair the fence I had them add some additional fencing to add a trash space and a gat in from of our backdoor so that the little one can't get to the pool! Plus I am adding an extra lock on the back door. Being overcautious is a good thing! HAHAHA

jmas65: THanks! I am soo excited about the pool and glad it shows! I still have a ton of work to do on the yard. I am going to extend and make a new beds and add some additional trees, fix the missing grass too. Just glad our sprinkler system is fixed! It was soo tough without it!

tresw: I am thrilled they built the pool as fast as they did! There are still a few odds and ends. Like turning on the waterfall, the firepit and in a few weeks doing the saltwater but everything is great for now! I also need to upgrade our as meter for the heater! Getting excited about using the hottub! The water is at 84 degress already! It's been in the high 80's and 90's!

I am so excited for you! Everything turned out just beautifully! I love the pool color! Your kids will find so much enjoyment for many years.
With any luck we will have a fill next Monday(if I can hurry up and choose the plaster color....). All the plumbing is finished as well. They started on our Grotto today, formed the ceiling and started the moss rock around it. The moss rock is just gorgeous! I can't wait to post the pics later today.

I am so glad I found this forum, I don't think I would have even decided to have a grotto had it not been for the pics I had seen while I was lurking...

Wow, 84 already! I figured it would take a few days out of the water tower before it would warm up that much. Ours is 80 here, we swam all evening and it was quite comfy. It did get a little chilly getting out after the sun went down though! Please post some more pics once you get the grotto and firepit going, that will look really cool! Is your grotto on a separate pump?

Yeah can you believe 84!! :0 I thought it was the river rok color but the neighbors pool with sandy beach pebbletec actually have hotter water than us!

They started the waterfall today but need to come and adjust the values (one is one fully open and the other two are almost closed. And yes, it's a seperate pump! They did deliver the firepit ring today so that should be finished soon as well!

I just can't believe how fast our backyard has been transformed! Looking through the pictures it's hard to believe where we were a month ago!

I went shopping for additional outdoor furniture yesterday too.... LOL this is just more and more money. I can't wait to get the landscapers back out there to put a bed behind the waterfall! I think it will REALLLLLY make a huge difference!

Okay soo they finished the firepit and started the waterfall! They are coming back to adjust the values on the waterfall. I think the sides are too strong and the center is too weak.

We can use the heater tomorrow which I am thrilled about because I can't wait to use the hot tub! And the polaris cleaner is FINALLY going to be started tomorrow! WHEW! I can't wait to get the pool really clean!

I also put together some of my new furniture and love it! I still need to get some lounge chairs but I have to search for them to match the other furniture.

Here is the waterfall

The lava rocks really aren't as bright as they photographed. The pieces of wrought iron on the ground are going to hang on that wall.

There is a space to the right (off the picture) where the lounge chairs will go.

{{!gwi}}

I think I am getting rid of this bistro set and getting the matching set to the rest of the furniture. The wrought iron piece behind it will have the led lights that look and flicker like pillar candles in it. They look incredible at night.

I love my new sitting area here...I still need to pressure wash the patio

That's really fabulous!! Congrats on getting it all done, it really is beautiful! If you want to do something really fun in the future with the fire pit, swap out that lava rock for fire glass crystals, you can create some really amazing effects with it. There's a link below, but that's just one of many places that sells it. The furniture looks great! The waterfall and grotto are awesome, don't you love the sound of the water? Very hypnotic.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.diamondfireglass.com/

OMG I LOOOOVVVEE the fire glass crystals!! I definately have to get some of those! I love the colors! THanks for the link!

Everything looks awesome! Beautiful water color! Thank God for good old Texas heat huh? Another great pool build!

Congratulations!

Everything looks great! I just hope ours looks half as gorgeous! Congratulations!

It looks great!

syn- thanks for the call and the info...we're waiting on a quote from our builder and then will proceed with the stone plaster...

one thing, i cant find "baja sand" on river roks' web site???

I am going to ask my PB tomorrow but I believe the baja sand is a mixture of the dark blue and black colors. I will make sure and let you know though!

Do you mind sharing who the pool builder was and roughly how much it cost to build? It turned out perfect.

David: The river rok is a mixture color. Its the lycan (spelling) blue with the gray color.

erictac: The pool builder was Pulliam Pools in Katy. I couldn't be happier! And the cost was mid-50k's. A bargain in my opinion for the equipment (hayward) they used, how clean they were and how efficient and fast)! LOL I can't say enough great things about them. Ask for Chris if you use them and tell them Crystal sent ya and he will give ya a better deal! ;)

crystal- thanks again for the info, we are pouring deck 1st thing on monday so we are quickly (hopefully) doing the rock thing by the middle of next week...our pool guy uses "Wet Edge"...he says it's all basically the same product as river rok / pebble tec, etc....still trying to find out more about it, the Wet Edge, that is...

thanks again

Great job on the pool. Looks fantastic!

Your pool is beautiful! I have a question about your tile.

I have been looking at this one, and also the blue version. Did you see the blue? I am trying to figure out if it would look good with tropical breeze pebble tec, which is not as dark as your water color. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Hi Syntagma, we may have to use river rok instead of pebble...story on another thread. Question, which color is your river rok, is it one of the blends or just the emerald black? Great pool, water looks quite nice. Thanks

cda, a couple of posts above yours, she answered your question, but to someone else.

Here's her response:

David: The river rok is a mixture color. Its the lycan (spelling) blue with the gray color.

erictac: The pool builder was Pulliam Pools in Katy. I couldn't be happier! And the cost was mid-50k's. A bargain in my opinion for the equipment (hayward) they used, how clean they were and how efficient and fast)! LOL I can't say enough great things about them. Ask for Chris if you use them and tell them Crystal sent ya and he will give ya a better deal! ;)

syntagma-
I love, love your water color! It's my favorite color so far on this forum. Absolutely beautiful. Your flagstone sunshelf really sets the whole thing off. Beautiful, beautiful!

THanks so much! I really love it too! Still loving the pool!

It is sooooo cool to see your pool being built like this. What an awesome way to show us how the process works. I cannot wait to post my pix when our process finally starts. One question -- did you look at Pebble Tec instead of River Rok? How did you decide one over the other. I agree with the others -- this is the nicest color I have seen on this forum so far! Katherine

I really like your pool a lot and am wondering if you can post your stone and tile selections. I live in the DFW area and would like something similar. Thanks!

By the way, do you have a salt water pool and if so, how do you anticipate this stone will hold up? Thx...