cda -
Great progress!! I love the way the pavers look! Very, very nice. They all work together - and that isn't always so easy to achieve. You'll find that even when you clean up or power wash after one phase of the construction, there will be a few more before it's all over with!
Isn't this whole process exciting? It always amazes me how quickly the yard changes with each step. Here comes the pebble.... :)

It looks great! Looks like a huge deck! We love our tiered paver patio and almost wish we would've done the deck in pavers too. Keep the pics coming!

Nice choices. Looks like it is all coming together.

Everything looks really nice. Did you decide on the midnight blue pebble tec? I think the deep blue color will be beautiful with the color in your tile and pavers. I used pavers on my entire deck and patio too. I think you will enjoy them. Keep the pictures coming.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. We are getting very excited now, the end is in sight.

Birdbath, you are so right....when we bought this house I had doubts we could even fit a pool in the backyard...boy was I wrong. When I look at the first photo in my thread and compare it to yesterdays...I can't believe it's the same backyard.

livinwell, yes I think its midnight blue...we still have little doubts, but I think it will give us the most blue of all the options. Hopefully they will be applying it in the next few days....praying for no further delays.

Thanks again everyone

I love the look of pavers and your waterline tile matches them perfectly! Smart choices!

And I understand about wondering if a pool can fit into a yard! If I managed it, anyone can!

Everything looks great cd! Smb is right, the pavers look just right up against the waterline tile. Amazing how we can utilize so much room in what we thought was such a small space.
Do you have a plaster/fill date yet?
Can't wait to see your completed.

Looks great! You will love it! Especially with these hot, hot temps. Can't believe it's so hot up there...I moved from MA last summer so I'm familiar with the "usual" weather. Looking forward to seeing you pool with water.
Judy

It looks beautiful. Congratulations! I am about to put in pavers, too. I have been struggling with color, style, and pattern. What color and style did you use? It looks similar to some I am considering.

Hi "hurryup", glad you like it. We struggled with our decision, we were between Inca stone or the pavers we chose. They are manufactured by Techno-bloc. We went with the "Sandlewood" color in the Athena paver stone. It is similar to the Elena paver stone, but with bigger blocks thus avoiding too busy a look. We matched it with Tan bullnose coping. They also have an "earth brown" color, but it had too much red for our tasted (website pic doesnt show accurately). Take a good look at the Inca stone they have...really nice. The riviera one was too gray for my eye...it only had about 10% tan in it, kinda looked old and dirty. My wife liked it, I did not. The Sahara version I thought was nice, but the real boss did not like it...lol, hence we compromised and went with the Athena paver. Here are some pics from their website.

Athena Paver Colors:

Sahara Inca Stone:

Inca Stone Colors:

Your pavers, coping, and tile look super! Everything works so well together. Your pool deck is a great size. You must be getting so excited.

I agree with you on Inca. I really like it a lot. We are doing a combo of Athena Mojave Beige and Inca Sahara. A frend of mine just put in an Inca patio and it really validated our choice. I would have done all Inca but we were advised against using it on all the walkways.

Thanks Momof3, the Athena Mojave beige with the inca is going to look gorgeous. I really liked the Sahara, my wife liked the riviera. But that Sahara has such a nice texture....really looks gorgeous in the pics.

Anyway, they are almost done with the deck, a few more hours....Pics tonight!

The pavers are done!! We are so excited, finally it is starting to look civilized back there again. As promised here are some pics from various vantage points around the pool.

The entry down the steps from the driveway:

At the bottom step:

looking back toward the steps from in front of the spa:

Another-same view:

Looking down the deck toward the stairs from the upstairs deck:

Looking back toward the pool from the bottom of the stairs:

Coming around the farside of the pool:

Further along the farside- the equipment will be hid by shrubs, and the heater will be enclosed when we finish that area into a 3 season room:

View back to the pool entrance:

Back to starting point-Another view of the spa:

Thats all for now folks. Gas inspection tomorrow, Fence on Monday, still waiting to hear on date for pebble.

It came out great. I love how private your pool is. I am curious to see where you fence line will be. It looks like it won't have that "fenced in" feel to it.

Thanks Momof3, well unfortunately despite my property line being about 400 feet away, the fence has to go right on the border with the hay bales. We are on conservation land, so even though I own it, I can't use it. The fence will be close, but we are putting up black aluminum ornamental fencing so at least it will look nice. Price you pay for privacy, at least no one can ever build anything around me.

I think it is going to look great. I can't wait to see it all done.

Ok as most of you know, Pebble Tec let us down (see my scream thread). Anyway they are coming to do the River rok on Sunday, Acid and Fill on Monday. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here are pics of the fence partially up. It sill needs the post caps and finials. The last of it will go on after they are done with the acid wash on Monday. We are on conservation land (I pay taxes on the 2 acres but I am not allowed to use it....thats MA for ya), the fence is as far back as allowed. The pics are in order looking to the right off our upper deck and slowly panning around to the left.

L really love the your whole poolscape. Very beautiful. I really love the looks of your pavers. We just started our pool project (had the trenches dug yesterday for rerouting the electricty). Picked out the tile and flagstone for coping. We already have quite a bit of paver patio and bit the bullet to use it for the decking. It was double what the exposed aggregate was but I think we will be happier. I was not wanting too many surface textures (that sounds weird) but the best way I can describe it.
It is nice to see a poolscape with so much decking with pavers. It makes me feel better about that choice. Now, if I could only feel that way about the tile. I LOVE the tile, called Dalmazia Gold, very unique looking, a little wild, looks great with the moss rock wall & grotto that is 30ft long and the main long end you see when approaching the pool. I just am not sure about it and pics do not do it justice.

Well, as you all know we went with River Rok. The pebble applier did not even give me the courtesy of an answer....it is what it is. Anyway I heard from another Bostonian that they were also waiting for pebble and were told they would get on the schedule at the end of July!! For get it!! So we went with the Custom River Rok blend (7 blue to 3 black). They showed up today "Sunday" at 7am to get this done. Took them about 3 hours. Here are some Pics. Acid wash in the morning and water starting at 1pm when the truck arrives. Thanks everyone again for all the support and just listeniing.

Woohoo!

I'll be looking for my check in the mail.

cdavmd!!

I've been waiting to see these pics :) - soooooo happy for you! The color looks just like ocean blue before the acid wash - your blend is going to be perfect. You must be thrilled to see your interior done. I can't wait to see your water "color" tomorrow - you must post right away for me (since you beat me by a day :)). It must be a relief not to see gunite in there anymore. Your pool is going to be fabulous, just fabulous. Hooray for you!

Your friend in the desert,

I'm so happy this is coming together for you. You're going to love your pool. We had a number of delays for months, but I have to say it's a little like childbirth. Now while I'm swimming in my pool I don't even remember the times I was ready to scream.

Promise to post a picture in between your swims.

Hooray! So glad it got done and can't wait to see your pics with water. Congrats!
Judy

Thanks everyone, what a relief to know that we are done! We are actually going to have water tomorrow....I can't believe it, my sons B-day will actually happen on Friday, I am starting to feel all the frustration slip away.

Birdbath, you have to post first thing tomorrow so we can compare those pebbles. I think you are right...it is very very close. In any case, I think the color is going to be just what we wanted. I was surprised how smooth it is, we were in a pebble tec pool earlier this week and now in comparison this is much smoother....they are right it is more like pebble sheen. The applicator told me he does all these finishes depending on the time of year and where he is at. Basically he and his crew are from Mexico, and they work in different parts of the US for a few months, then go home for a few months and do it again. He does pebble tec when he is in TX, river rok here in Ma, and beadcrete, plaster, etc. in other areas. He says they are basically all very similar. He finds river rok to be almost identical with pebble sheen and told me the application process is identical. Makes me feel better about any doubts I had.

So all looks good, only concern happened later this afternoon. It started raining hard, and some of the ground water came up through the hydrostatic relief valve. We had a little puddle for a while of dirty water. When I noticed it, I went to home depot and got a submersible pump and pump it all out. I left it there for the rest of the night in case we get more rain. It left a little bit of a bath ring, but since they are acid washing tomorrow, I think it won't be a big deal. Thanks again everyone for all your advice, concern, and support. This forum is great thanks to all of you. Now a drum roll as we all wait for Birdbath........

And another drumroll as Suzanne waits for her check...

:-)

'checks in the mail" ;)

Well funny how the color changes when it dries...became much more light blue, the bathtub ring looked awful this morning....then the acid wash.....wow....you just watch it all bubble away...brings out the deep rich darker tones...all the light blue is gone.....in the end it was a beautiful smooth rich gray color...all the creme spots gone, the ring gone....looks absolutely fantastic. Now its raining again...we are waiting for the water trucks....pics tonight as I am at work.

Can't wait to see them! It must be killing you to be at work right now!

Your not kidding, my wife says the second truck is done, one more to go....maybe not with the amount of rain we are getting today ;)

How does she say the water looks? Mine looked pretty darn close right after it was full.

Well I have to say very very close, it took 2.5 trucks. I think the other .5 came from the clouds today. It rained so hard that we had a small area of pavers sink....it was where the plumbing had been dug up recently to finish all the connections after the winter. It probably wasn't as packed down and settled. Oh well, always something....at least its a quick fix....thank goodness we went with pavers!

So here are some pics of the acid wash this AM:

And now the water trunk delivering water in the deluge....

And finally without further ado.........A FILLED POOL!

Now the camera just does not seem to capture the right color...I tried various settings and the closest is the darker picture above, but with less green than you see. In person, I think it looks identical to all the midnight blues I have seen. So for anyone out there looking for a midnight blue in River rok...this seems to be it, 7:3 mix...see earlier posts for details.

and lastly.....a little girl who just can't wait...despite the water being about 60 degrees!!

Thank you everyone again, I think I would have had a breakdown without all of you for moral support, advice, and just listening to the rants. Thank you again.

It's gorgeous, just gorgeous!! I'm sooo glad that you were able to nail the color down, you were so worried about it. Now just look at the beautiful pool you have! It seems ironic that water trucks delivered in the rain :), I guess it was just nature's way of helping you out. I love the color, I hope ours turns out the same. Please don't quit posting, the Pebblesheen company said that the color continues to deepen over the next week or so after filling with water. I'll be anxious to see more of your pool pics - hope you stay on this forum for awhile. Besides, I've forgiven you for getting water one day ahead of me :).
Congrats on your beautiful pool, it's going to bring you many happy days.

Birdbath

It is absolutely stunning! And my, what beautiful children! Thanks so much for sharing your build. Enjoy that new pool!!!

Francine

Thank you Birdbath, I feel so relieved right now. We absolutely love the color...I think we got as close as possible, and if it darkens a bit over the next few days-even better. Can't wait to see yours tomorrow.
I won't be going anywhere yet. We still have a little wall left to do, a berm and lots of landscaping. I'll be around for a while still. Now my kids are so wound up they won't go to bed. Filter man comes tomorrow to start everything up. Can't wait to see the waterfall.

Francine, thank you so much, so very nice of you to say. We are so ready for it to warm up a bit and start swimming....especially my daughter!

You have one beautiful pool and love all your color choices. It is so hard envisoning how it will all turn out when we make our decisions but yours came out beautiful.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
I am so glad to see that all went well! Everything looks just absolutely gorgeous!

Is the party this Friday?
Your daughter and son look just so excited!

Beautiful!!! Looks so great and I love the water color. Now just let all the build angst float away. Happy swimmimg!
Judy

DD, thank you, you are right it is so hard to visualize as you go, and in our build with all the design changes I was basically "disoriented" I remarked to my wife, that it really did turn out unique and much nicer than I ever envisioned.

Susanna also thank you, yes the party is on for Friday. My son can't wait, and my daughter is nuts wanting to swim in 62 degree water!! 10 eleven year old boys for a pool party and sleep over!! Will I survive??

Thank you so much Judy, yes you are so right, the angst is already going away. Especially when I stand at the far side looking toward the deep cove area...i just feel this peaceful relaxing feeling. It really is fun to finally have water.

Well the service man came today. He made some measurements...the pH was way to high ~ 8.0. He added 8 gallons of acid...got it down to 7.2, checked everything out, started up all the pumps and did the first brushing. Things got pretty cloudy for a while. So now for the landscaping and finishing the wall......and repairing the pavers....and replacing the DOA Polaris pump.....lol...never ends....but who cares we have water and I am looking forward to My Birthday on July 7th.....a grill, a hammock, a pool and my kids...what else can a dad ask for!

It looks gorgeous! Your choice in pavers, tile, pebblesheen and boulders all coordinate beautifully. I love the monochromatic look. So soothing to the eye. I thought I was going to do a smoky blue water line tile but after viewing several of the recently completed pools on this forum, I'm going with a tile that ties into the coping. Love the cohesiveness. Congratulations.

Thank you Banana....glad you like it. We were striving for an elegant yet natural look given are very wooded-natural surroundings. We tried to stay with the earth tones, and to some degree it was luck how they all came together, we found this tile and it matched perfectly with the coping. Then by chance the rock waterfall stones all had similar tones, and our custom River rok blend which we were not sure what it would look like, matched as well. Good luck with your choices...keep us posted on how it all looks.

Post fill day #2, first sunny day. Water temp. slowly climbing...we hit 74 degrees today. Filters are running and we are in the throws of pH, Chlorine, Alk testing. Brushing 2x per day...and lots and lots of dust gets stirred up. Interesting how the color is changing everyday to a more blue-gray color. So.....today was FIRST SWIM for the kids. I havent been home from work early enough to get mine in yet, and would prefer water temp hitting 79 before I take that plunge....this weekend probably.

Kids are having a blast, and I think they have secured their respective territories on opposite ends of the pool:

cdav,

So glad you finally got some sunshine!! The water color really changes over time and in different lighting, doesn't it? I know the sun on our pool makes it look drastically different. We had a few (believe it or not) clouds yesterday and went the sun was hidden, we couldn't believe how varied the pool color was. Your kids are so darling, and I am jealous of how beautiful your pavers look next to that pool color! It's extremely complimentary - they should "package" that look. Our deck is horrible gray concrete and we still have to do landscaping. I MUST get out of the pool and get some more done - your photos are inspiring me :)! Do you have any pictures of the whole pool in the sunlight? Please post, I love looking at them......

Birdbath

Looks amazing ! You have a great pebble color... too late to second guess my plain white plaster now... lol ....
What kind of landscaping are you planning for behind the waterfall ?? You have great space there...

Hope the temp warms up for you !!! :)

Your water color and pebbles in the shallow end, look a LOT like mine! So of course, I think it's beautiful! :-)

Hi gang: Well I have been out of town for a few days and believe it or not between the rain and being out of town, I have yet to take my first swim. The kids on the other hand have to be extracted with great force at the end of the day. My sons party went as planned, one short rain shower, but otherwise great.
The water is now fairly balanced, they started the polaris (thank goodness..the dust was insane!), they plan on starting up the salt system in about a week.

birdbath, I see you have been absent also....must be living in that water....thank you for the compliment, but yours is still the coolest pool I have ever seen.

Moo....thanks....we are planning to build up the area behind the waterfall, make it into a berm with plantings and lots of color. We are also going to use river stones in that area....and behind that will be the completed extension of the wall. Should be starting that in the next 2-3 weeks.

Smb....agreed our colors do look alike, it still amazes me how it changes throughout the day. I think we ended up somewhere between midnight blue and tahoe blue. Thank you, love yours also...are you getting to swim or does it still belong exclusively to the puppy ;)

Well, I have the weekend off...so I think today will be first swim...its 89 out there and the water has warmed up to about 82....here are the pics in full sunlight for Birdbath.

oops...heres the waterfall on....

Hello all my long lost friends...not sure how many of you are still around. Well its been a couple of years and now with financial recovery the landscaping is almost done. Stay tuned for updated pictures.

Nice build! What was the color Pebble?

Hi cdav ~

We're considering a patio from Techo-bloc -- nothing fancy like your tremendous pool/spa area, just a patio off the back door of the house. Since you've had these pavers in a few years now, I'm wondering how hot they get in several hours of sun, & how the color has held up. Unfortunately, our patio will get no shade from about noon to 7:00.

Hi, turned out beautiful, wanted to know if you were able to get white spots off pavers, we are installing tech bloc inca pavers and when they make the cuts for the coping the dust settled into the coping and I can't get it off. Also do you know how wide the expansion joint is between the coping and pavers, they told me I had to have 1/2 inch for exp. or they wouldn't warranty tile and coping, I would rather have had a smaller joint, any help would be gratly appreciated, thanks!!

Hello! Your pool color is abs. stunning! It looks like a beautiful teal to me in the last pictures. I saw that you used River Roc and that you mixed blue and black. Can you be more specific - exactly the names of the color for me? Also, if you had to pick an exact ready made one, do you think it looks more like Harbor Gray or Baha Sand by any chance? Thanks!!!