Shelin finally arrived and installed the liner for the pool.  It took a lot longer than they expected because  they had not counted on all the extra work the concrete guys left for them.  It turns out that when they sprayed off the concrete from the pebble finish on the deck they should have covered the pool to keep any extra concrete from getting on the walls and floor.

These poor guys had to go in with scrapers and brushes to get rid of it.  Although they were not happy either was the guy with the truck of water.  He sat around from 8am till 2pm waiting for them to get the liner installed.

Once that was done they got most of the equipment hooked up so now we just need to get the electricity to it and we are ready for next year.

This is a hard job.

We are not in love with the border.

Sucking air out from under the liner.

No shoes was a good idea.

Almost done, just the stairway to do.

And water but not full since we are just closing it anyway.

E/B

It has taken two extra weeks but the fence is now in.  It looks amazing and we are already planting in front of it.  Now maybe the liner and equipment can get installed.

I was not sure we would get this far since the guys only showed up yesterday and one of them left at lunchtime .  Leaving us with one guy trying to put the panels in.  He did okay since he had a lot of small ones to work on.

Last week we had Drew come in and put new screenings on the back patio and that made a huge difference in how nice it looks.

We have been planting the trees outside the fence as well and hope they all survive the winter.

This is so pretty.

The shrubs we plant around will soften this.

All the topsoil was packed down and now we have to rake before we plant grass seed.

I think they were given a deadline for finishing since they really moved today.

Ahhh!

E/B

How annoying.  Just when we thought we were making good progress with the pool our crews disappear.

We went with one day of work all of last week and when I called to ask why that was I was told that they were waiting for the fence.  What?  Why are we waiting for a fence when we bought the fence we did because we were told it was the one they always had in stock.  Turns out someone was not correct in that area as they only keep chain link fencing in stock and anything else is ordered and takes four to six weeks to arrive.  ARGH!!!!

There in lies our dilemma, so we decided to just proceed with the landscaping and they will have to work around us.  So Drew is here and if the weather holds we should get a fair bit of the yard leveled and topsoil applied..

The I can plant some more.

When my brother was here he and Brian got conduit in before the backfill was put behind the wall.  This means we can have outlets on the other side of the pool and not always run extension cords from the house.

Lets see where we get this week.

E/B

We had to dig a trench for the coduit.

We left these exposed so they would know where they were when they put the fence posts in.

Always put a barrier on the conduit.

If only they could just finish it.

Plants on the deck still waiting to be planted.

Well most of the wall is up but we have had rain delays and shortages of block delays.

What can you say we have never been short of anything before and always have many pieces left over that we are storing.  But when it came to this we were short of the wall blocks but had lots of capstone that will be returned.  I am glad as I don't need extra stone around and getting i the way of landscaping.

There was of course a different crew who did the wall although one day there were six guys here to help out.  It turns out the blocks I was going to haul to the backyard were heavy and giving the young guy moving them some trouble.  I'm so glad Brian decided to hire them to do that, I don't think I'd be moving much if that hauling had been left to just me.

We had company for a while so that slows us down as well.  We should be just about done most visiting by November so if it doesn't snow we could still get work done outside.

Love the pebble deck.

Waiting for stone.

Marking where we want the stairs.

These guys were beat at the end of the day.

The older guy did all the placing of stone the younger guy was the muscle.

Starting to look like a wall.

One stair down.  the side walls joining the stairs took a long time to chisel and fit.

This has to go up four more levels. 

Marking where the fence might go.

I love this wall.

First two levels are glued to keep them steady on the concrete base.

E/B

The boys were back yesterday and today to finish the pool deck and the weather is still nice so progress on the rest should be fast.  They put an inhibitor on the concrete so they could come back today and give us the pebble finish we want on the deck.  Once they exposed the pebbles they finished it with a few coats of sealant.  It looks so good!!!

This took forever and the guys would trade off because it must have really hurt their arms.

Cutting expansion joints.

We love this surface.

Look at that muddy water in the pool lucky the lining goes in much later.

The pool is going to be so beautiful when it is all finished and the plants are in.

Not much happening otherwise as we have had visitors and will continue to have them right through to October so work will be slow.  We love having the company though and would not change a thing.


E/B

Ah well we had a good run with the pool and now we are stalled.  Rain is not good for new concrete so until we get a few days of clear weather we wait.  Although Dwayne from Shelin has told Brian he(Brian)  is free to decide if we pour or not but we will eat the cost of replacing the concrete if it rains, so we wait.

The pool crews still amuse  us.  When the concrete crew arrived in the back yard it was like, "the cool boys are here everybody out of the way".  They swaggered in with the same colour shirts and sunglasses all in a line. As I said to Brian "Why are they not moving in slow-motion?"

Meanwhile we are pretty slow inside the house but we can get a lot done once colder weather sets in.
Brian has painted another part of the workshop and we have installed the medicine cabinets in the master bath.

The gardens are filling in so I should have a good plant base for next year.

E/B

The concrete crew at work preparing to pour.

Getting the levels right, so very important.

Our granddaughter asked when she could get a tattoo. 

Ready for the next step which is pouring the deck.

Hoping the weather clears up on Monday.

We are so excited to have the pool started.  This will take the rest of the summer for sure since we have to take time in between pouring concrete and fencing the pool to put in a retaining wall that Brian and I will do ourselves.

The guys were here on time and did a full days work before leaving we are surprised at how many people work for Shelin Pools.  There seems to be a crew for every step of the project.

No other work being done right now just pool and picking up apples from under the apple tree.  It's nice because we can take them to a horse farm just down the road and they are very happy to get them. More pool later.

E/B

The kids loved watching these guys.

Lots of clay to use as fill.

We love this shape of pool.

The back wall where the retaining wall will go.

I guess this is still an ongoing project.  It is nice out right now so I am trying to get as much outside work done as I can.  It has been amazingly cool here.  We have had the windows open and even found it cold a few days.  This is perfect working weather.

I have been picking rocks out f the dirt and weeding then putting mulch on top.
I need to pick rocks out of the dirt because my rock pile did not get moved to a new location but the big rocks pulled out and the smaller ones levelled off.  Problem is it is higher than the lawn and now needs to be raked lower so as I am raking rocks are coming to surface and catching on the rake.
That is why I now have a rock wall started.  These are the ones that have been pulled out of the ground.

Lucky I enjoy this kind of thing.

E/B

New mulch waiting to be used.

The plants are very small and I think they will look great next year.

The trees and shrubs in their ice cream pails.

The rock wall.

All these stones have been pulled out of the dirt.  Many more to go.

I see I need to update the yard work I have done in the last month.  I'll get some photos once it stops raining.

We have been busy with things other than the house so there is not a lot of progress on work being done.

The workroom is still taking up most of Brian's work time.  That is some nice drywall too bad it will never be seen.  The next step is to finish the painting in there then hopefully move to other work while the weather is still warm.

Brian has upped his golfing to three days a week so that also takes a chunk out of working outside.

Big news is we are getting the pool installed next week.  We went with Shelin Pools because they were the most considerate when visiting and getting back to us with a quote, which he did on the spot.  St Lawrence Pools came out and said I'll get back to you with a quote but after 12 days of no response we went with the locals.
I did try to phone Joe and first got "he'll call you back"  a few days later when I called he was on holidays so I asked if anyone there could find the quote, a day later when they called back to say they had no luck finding it I told them we were going with someone else and they were quite disappointed, REALLY????

E/B

Another day of sanding.

And it is still not finished hopefully it will be soon.

It was nice to spend a few days outside working and without rain delays we got a lot done, but we are now stopped again.  Although the rain is great for the plantings that just went in.  I'm not unhappy with it at this point since I'm not a fan of spending hours watering gardens.

Anyway it is planted and mulched now so we can relax until the pool is in and then we can finish planting and getting grass started.  That does mean I have to re-pot all the trees we bought since we cannot plant them till fall.
I did find a cheap way to re-pot them.  Walking home from the fireworks last Tuesday we passed the ice cream shop and since it was the night before re-cycle day they had stacks of ice cream pails that are the perfect size for plants.  I'll drill a hole or two in the bottom  put some sand in then a good potting soil and they should continue to grow till we plant in the spring.

We have gone back and forth on the idea of a pool but we keep going back to it and it is better to have it installed now.  The only problem is the delay in getting it in as they are already booking Sept. and we still don't have a final quote.  It may be an October dig.  Not happy with that but what else can we do.

I loved having those rocks strewn around the yard for a while.  They came from Drew's yard.  I think he was happy to get rid of them and get paid to do it.

E/B

Waiting for placement.

I hope this will grow in well.  Those are black walnut trees at the top.

My mini Stonehenge to climb on.

He sorted the rocks instead of moving the whole pile.  What a mess now.

First level.

Not sure we like the neatness of the rows but they are in now.

I think these will have to be moved to put the pool in.

The planting was fun.  It looks nice with the mulch on it too.. Photo to come of mulch.