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| As a lurker, I've gained lots of info and ideas so I'm going to try to share my build. Some of the fun features are the beach entry, reverse negative edge, cave with gunite slide, bridge, and fire bowls. We will be using a River Rok finish (pebble beach for the beach entry and Blue Opal for the rest). The coping and decking will be a gold travertine.
Here is our yard before the madness. As you can see, I have my lounge chairs ready to go. Pool is outlined in orange paint.
Day 1 of digging
End of day 2 digging
Forming the pool
Here comes the steel and plumbing:
Beginning of the cave/slide
Tile choice next to travertine coping:
That's all for now and I will post more as we progress. Coping will be started tomorrow! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Great pictures of the process. Thanks for your detailed picture postings. We're in Cincinnati also and thinking of building a pool in the next couple of years...can I ask who you chose as your builder? Thanks, Julie |
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| dang! thats going to be awesome. i can't wait to see it finished. i love the existing landscaping too. |
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| Thanks! Our PB is Shehan Pools. I chose them for their nice rock work and they were one of the few willing to do the beach entry. My landscaper will be doing the coping and decking Coping is going great so far today. The curves make for a lot of cutting, but they are working it out. More pics to follow! Sherry |
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| Now that's a big pool! What are the measurements? It looks great so far and I cant wait to see the rest of it. |
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- Posted by whitetrash (My Page) on Tue, Jul 7, 09 at 11:51
| looks like you're going to have a really special pool. can you post some of your specs - width/length, sq ft, equipment, etc.? |
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| Wow, amazing! Looks like its going to be a huge pool. I'm jealous of your huge yard and beautiful landscaping! What are your dimensions? We are building too....and would love to see more of your build on here. Good luck and keep us posted! |
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| Thanks guys! I appreciate all of your nice comments. I don't know much about the equipment, but the specs I do have are: 38' x 57' Lagoon with Beach Entry My PB hasn't shared any of the techical stuff with me, but if anyone would like to know something specific, I can ask! Have a great day! |
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- Posted by huskyridor (My Page) on Thu, Jul 9, 09 at 0:28
| This, my Internet friends, is going to be one AWESOME pool. The only thing I really don't understand is why your hubby and the pool builder decided to construct your shell without surface skimmers. My guess would be that Fall in Cincinnati would bring on a whole bunch of leaves in the pool. I'd always rather empty skimmer baskets than fish the tree debris out with my pool net. Congrats on the incredible design, I look forward to a bunch of pic's. See ya, |
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| Kelly, in picture 4 and 5, just after completion of the dig and pre steel, I see that some shotcrete has been applied to some wall areas. Am I correct that this is for soil stabilization? Once the steel is in and the shell is sprayed, does the first concrete application need any prepreation? Thanks, |
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| Kelly, in picture 4 and 5, just after completion of the dig and pre steel, I see that some shotcrete has been applied to some wall areas. Am I correct that this is for soil stabilization? Once the steel is in and the shell is sprayed, does the first concrete application need any prepreation? Thanks, |
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| Hi Kelly, I laughed reading your post because my Hubby hasn't decided anything. As a matter of fact, he won't even give an opinion when asked. He really has no interest in it at all. He says it's my pool, so all the decisions(headaches) are mine. Oh well, maybe when it's finished he'll come around. As for the surface skimmers, there are 2. They are just hard to see in the first photos. One is left of the cave and will look like it's built into the rock. The other is in the shallow end and will be tiled. Jamie, the concrete before the steel was just a very thin "flashing". They wanted to make sure there were no cave-in's as we were expecting a lot of rain. I don't think there was any preparation before shooting, but I could be wrong. Here are the latest progress pics of coping and rock structure.
Above you can see one of the skimmers hiding in the rock. I think they will be shooting the cave next week. Should be fun!! |
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- Posted by whitetrash (My Page) on Thu, Jul 9, 09 at 20:47
| please post lots of pics of the progress! i'm dying to see the cave and slide... i've been in the "planning" stage of my own pool for a while now and a slide is an integral part of my plan. do you have any kids?? they must be dying for it to be finished. our pool growing up was very formal and geometric with no "fun" features. your pool, on the other hand, is the exact opposite! LOL and i'm aiming for something similar. :) |
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- Posted by huskyridor (My Page) on Fri, Jul 10, 09 at 2:01
| quote" I see that some shotcrete has been applied to some wall areas. Am I correct that this is for soil stabilization "quote We call this a flash, it's a thin coat of either gunite or shotcrete allowed to set up prior to the application. It helps a ton when applying in wettish or slightly caving soil. Sgregor, I thought I looked very closely, but after seeing your new pic's I can see where it was in the first group of pic's. Your pool is so overwhelming it was taking me in. The work and your choice of materials look great!!! I really laughed when I read this too It sounds a lot like me. I avoid any and all household decisions because it seems like I'm never around. The last thing I ever want to hear is "It's all your fault 'cause you didn't listen to what I had to offer" See ya, |
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| Wow - that is one big pool! Design looks awesome. Will be watching your build with lots of interest - we just finished ours in June, and used River Rok Granite - Blue Opal was our second choice. You can see pictures of our finished pool under my pool build thread. We love the River Rok finish - feels really nice on your feet. Good Luck! |
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- Posted by peytonroad (My Page) on Sat, Jul 11, 09 at 8:57
| I enjoy seeing this go in-thanks for posting, I check in often! It is going to be spectacular! |
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| Hawkfive-So glad to hear you like the River Rok. We were only given the choice of River Rok and Diamond Brite and, as you know, there are very few pictures on the net with either of these. I called SGM a few times and talked to Al(?) After telling him what I was looking for, he suggested the Blue Opal. I also like the Baha Sand. Still not 100%. Do you still have any of the pics sent to you from the rep? I would love to see anything River Rok related. I read your post about how hard it is to pick the tile, coping, finish, and I agree it's harder than the choices of building a home. Why is this?? lol! I originally wanted a blue tile, but PB talked me out of it. I like my tile choice, but don't love it. It's so hard to imagine what it all will look like with water. UUGGGHHH! I think all of your choices turned out great, so it was worth the headaches, right? Hopefully mine will come together as well. Thanks! Sherry |
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| Hi Whitetrash, We have 2 boys, 9 and 11, and they cannot wait for this to be finished. Unfortunately, it's not looking good for swimming any time soon. I'm excited about the slide, although it was not in our original plan. We wanted a diving board, but I guess I did not make myself clear on what kind. After the steel was already in place, I found out that because our pool is only 8 feet deep, the diving board can only be about a foot off of water level and no spring. Not what we were looking for! BTW, I asked about the boards (where can I pick one out, where can I see them online, etc.) way back in May. I was told we would deal with that later! The PB's solution at this point was to either dig another foot (at my cost) or scrap the diving board. So, I found some pictures of cave/waterfalls that the kids could jump off of in place of a diving board and the slide was added as an afterthought. In the end I think it will be much better than a diving board, but also about 27 times more expensive. :) It better be fun! Thanks! |
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| Sherry, I have spoken to Al many times as well! He has always been very patient and helpful. It was actually a person in SGM's Marketing department that sent me the following River Rok pics. Also, check out Syntagma and Cdavmd on this forum - they both used River Rok. Harbor Gray
Lagoon
Lucayan Blue
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| Hawkfive, Thank you so much for posting the River Rok pictures. It would be great if SGM had these on their site. It's interesting that the 2 Lucayan Blue pools look nothing alike. I'm hoping the 2 bags of onyx mixed in will get me where I want to be. Thanks again for your help!! Sherry |
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| How about an update? |
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| Hi Rick2752, Thanks for your interest! There hasn't been a whole lot of progress lately. We had a few re-do's with the tile and a few rain days as well. Last week they poured the cave/slide for structure and will shoot it again Monday to carve and shape the rock. Here are some pics:
Here's a view from the top of the slide. What a mess!!
Also, they started on the stone wall for the negative edge. Hopefully I will have more updates this week! |
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| Thats over 2000 sq ft, WOW. keep the pics coming, it will be up there for one of the nicest on this site |
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| Would you mind sharing total cost ? I would guess it has to be a buck fifty, easy , correct :)? |
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| Amazing design. Not at all what I pictured from looking at the steel. I was expecting something like the other posting "Northern CA owner/build- 98.5% done with some pictures" Both awsome pools. Truly a kids paradise. You will be the neighborhood kid magnet. |
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| Well, the next step with the slide-structure-thing is happening today. They are shooting it with cement and "carving" the rock. It's giving it a more realistic look. Plaster and painting will be the final step. I didn't realize that adding this feature would add another month on to the pool build!! |
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| This pool is going to be flat out amazing. Can't wait to see more progress! |
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| This pool is exactly what I stopped doing with houses which is looking at things I can't afford :) Before it's even done, I rank in top 3 or 4 of pools I have seen on this site and I am pretty sure I have seen every damn pool LOL. |
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| Thanks guys! Hopefully it will live up to your expectations when it's complete! I have some pictures from today's work. Got a little farther on the negative edge stone wall. I didn't love it at first, but it's growing on me. They worked on the back of the rock structure and it looks more realistic. Can't wait till they paint it to match the stone in the yard.
Here's a shot of the disaster that is my yard right now! Looks like we are soooo far away from swimming. Hope to get lots done next week! :) |
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- Posted by gardenlover25 (My Page) on Fri, Jul 31, 09 at 8:39
| I guess so, It seems that it will need a lot of working. I can't wait to see the photos of your updated construction. Thanks. |
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| Update? |
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| Hi Hawkfive, Not much to update, just still working on the same stuff. Rockwork, travertine decking, steps, and things like that. It's possible we may have to wait till spring to plaster, but not sure yet. Here are some photos:        Here's one of the fire bowls. It will get filled with lava rock and there's one on each side of the neg. edge wall.
Still waiting for all the concrete to get painted. Getting tired of the all the grey! Work on the pool house will start next week. UGGhh. Will this ever be finished?? |
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- Posted by gardenlover25 (My Page) on Sun, Aug 16, 09 at 14:09
| Hello, I'm so excited to see it finished. We'll just wait to be posted here. Thanks. |
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| Just a couple more photos. The steps to the slide are almost finished. Any ideas for a railing?
Lots of pipes. Where is my equipment?? Maybe next week.
All of the equipment will be hidden behind the pool house, which hopefully will get started this week. That's all for now! |
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| Do a search for this thread... Finished pool/spa/waterfall/grotto/slide They have a really cool handrail on their waterfall/slide. |
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- Posted by peytonroad (My Page) on Mon, Aug 17, 09 at 9:44
| Yes this is a fantastic pool, I am sure you will be satisfied! How nice for you! what are the neighbors saying?? Are they giving you issues at all?? |
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| Thanks Lala2874, that is a unique railing. Gives me some ideas. Peytonroad, my neighbors are great, but I'm sure everyone is ready for it to be over. So far there are no issues and we've promised to get everyone's yards back together as soon as it's finished. Of course, they have also been offered free access to swim, so that helps! :) |
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- Posted by viennamommy19 (My Page) on Tue, Aug 18, 09 at 16:08
| Amazing- can't wait to see more!!! |
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- Posted by fairfieldcircle (My Page) on Tue, Jul 13, 10 at 12:50
| Hi, Sherry, I just came across your posts and pics here and I am fascinated by the progress on your pool build. But, alas! I haven't found pics of your finished project and I would love to know how it turned out, if the family is enjoying the pool this summer, and if you have any tips or suggestions? Thanks for any follow-up! Judy |
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| Hi FairfieldCircle, Thanks for your post. I had tons of pictures and lots of information, but somehow, 60+ posts disappeared. Not sure what happened. Here are some pictures of the finished product. If you have any questions, just ask. It was a long, long process, but so worth it in the end. We opened the pool on April 1st and have been swimming everyday since!
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- Posted by jasonlmarsh (jasonlmarsh@yahoo.com) on Tue, Jul 13, 10 at 16:43
| WOW! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! |
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| OMG! |
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- Posted by huskyridor (My Page) on Tue, Jul 13, 10 at 18:44
| WAY TO GO GIRL!!! I think the first thing I posted on this thread was just how AWESOME this pool would be. It's truly breathtaking how beautiful it all turned out. CONGRATS!!!!! See ya, |
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- Posted by memama_gayle (My Page) on Tue, Jul 13, 10 at 22:17
| Beautiful!! |
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| Your pool is amazing! We are just finishing up our pool and need to decide on our River Rok color soon. sgregor: I love the color of your water in some pictures, but in others, it looks dark (as in, hard to see in to). I can't tell if that is just the angle of the picture, or if in certain lighting it just looks like that. Can you confirm if seeing to the bottom is an issue? If you were to change things, would you have stuck with Blue Opal rather then go to Baha Sand? Argh, decisions, decisions! |
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| Hi cnr1089! I had the hardest time picking colors. In the end, I told my project manager that I had narrowed it down to Blue Opal or Baha Sand. I told him to surprise me. I knew what I wanted, but was too scared to pull the trigger. Like you, I worried the Baha Sand would be too dark. I'm so glad he chose the Baha Sand. In the sun it is the most beautiful color of blue. In the shade it is very dark, but you can always see to the bottom. I think the angle of the pictures makes it look more "lake" like than it is in person. We don't have the Baha Sand in our shallow end, but we do have it in our wading pool. The steps are very pretty, as is the shallow water. Here's a picture:
In the picture below, if you look closely you can see the drains in the 8 foot deep end.
Here are some other pics to give you an idea of the different shades depending on the sky:
In this one, you can see how you would be able to see their feet: Good luck with your decision and let me know if you have any questions or need more photos. You probably can't go wrong with either one, though! Sherry |
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| Sorry!! Just realized some of those pictures were repeats!! |
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| Hi Sherry, your poolscape is beyond beautiful!! Thank you so much for sharing it with all of us here on the Forum. I have a quick question for you. How do you like your wicker chaise lounges? I am trying to decide between all-weather wicker and "sling" chaises. Your feedback would be very much appreciated. Take good care, Roz |
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| Hi Roz! Thanks for your nice comments. The Chaise lounges were the first things I purchased, even before digging! They are great. I have cusions on mine, but they are pretty comfortable without, also. I bought them from Frontgate and luckily there is an outlet about 30 minutes from my home so I got a good deal. In the catalog they are the Barcelona Chaise. Have a great day! |
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- Posted by pooldreamer2010 (My Page) on Mon, Sep 13, 10 at 15:48
| Hi Sherry - your pool is amazing. I just hope mine will be as nice. I want to thank you for posting all the pictures, it really helped alot of people on this site who were deciding between different river rok colors. I too need to pick the color fairly soon. Its been so hard since theres very little pools out there with the baha sand river rock. I actually called river rock and spoke to Allan and he emailed me a few pics. 1 of which was your pool, how funny. My hubby and I are at odds with the color since I want black and he wants hawaii blue. I think the compromise is the baha sand! From your pics it looks amazing but do you see green at all? Do you have any additional pics of the pool you could share? Thanks again for all your posts... |
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| Hi Pooldreamer2010, I went out and took a few extra pictures for you. I tried to get some different angles as well as some in full sun and in the shade.
Hope this helps!!! |
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| Here's one more. Everyone asks if you can see to the bottom, and this one shows even in the shade, you can. |
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| Ok, you sold me! Baha Sand it is! Pictures look great. I was in the same boat as Pooldreamer2010 and I this makes my decision much easier! |
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- Posted by pooldreamer2010 (My Page) on Mon, Sep 13, 10 at 21:11
| Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! The pictures are perfect, i love the color, SOLD, ha. |
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- Posted by nypoolnovice (My Page) on Tue, Sep 14, 10 at 16:42
| Sherry - I am so envious that you have a Frontgate Outlet near your home, I love their products. I ordered the Dynasty Chaise loungers and want more, but think they sold out. The pool is incredible, but I really love all of your landscaping, the varying colors of green in the trees etc are stunning. Enjoy! |
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| Hi Sherry- many thanks for the info on the pool lounges. I have been to the Frontgate/Ballard Designs Outlet complex. I will have to plan another road trip from Michigan:) When are you planning to close for the season? Take good care, Roz |
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- Posted by Brad Weber(bawdo@aol.com) onTue, Jun 28, 11 at 20:59
| Good luck getting a winter cover on that easily. We used natural limestone for waterfalls, right up to the pool edge, and now want to redo with a setback. My wife and I struggle every fall, and are getting to where we can not do it anymore... cables, chains, swimming under the cover... Will be calling shehan for ideas!.. Your pool looks great! |
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- Posted by womanowned (My Page) on Sat, Feb 23, 13 at 15:37
| What an incredible pool! How has the wood bridge held up over the years? |
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| Thanks, Womanowned! The bridge required way too much maintenance and we removed it after the second season. It really opened up the area once it was gone. It was fun while it lasted, but we're happier without it. :) Sherry
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