Quote Originally Posted by No Need View Post
Hey Sean,
Still waiting for your final pics.........

Sorry this took so long. I kept waiting for one thing or another but finally got around to taking a final picture today.

So, without further adieu, here it is:




HA HA! I wish. This is one of our favorite hotels. We try to go every summer and make good use of the pool while we are there

Here is our completed pool and landscaping. The main difference here is that we added some more patio furniture and, of course, the sod is in.




One other follow up detail, and one of the reasons I waited to post my final picture, was we had to have a little deck repair done.

If you look back at my pictures, you'll see the deck going from the house to the pool was in very long sections. They were the standard 8ft wide but were up to 18 feet long. Consequently, we started to have some cracking across several sections. Cracked concrete is not at all uncommon here on the gulf coast and we expected some over time, but certainly not this early.

Now, I'm not going to claim that the repair happened on my time frame (construction of any kind rarely does), but I am very pleased with the way things turned out. My builder ended up putting in a control (expansion) joint that runs horizontally all the way across the deck between the house and pool. On the longest section, along the right if you are facing the backyard, I had them put in an additional joint. These should prevent, or control, future cracks.

I'm sorry I don't have pictures for this part, but the guys did a fantastic job. After cutting the control joints, they began by filling all the cracks and joint with an epoxy resin. Then the actual joints (plastic) were put in. Then they put down a base coat, then the texture, then they came back the next day and repainted. The nice thing about this was they repainted the entire deck. The color was the same, but they wanted to make sure it was a "perfect" match.

So even though we didn't have a flawless build, I was very impressed by the fact that they made it right. Just about anyone will give good service before they have been paid, but when they come back months after the check has cleared, that's when you know you made a good choice.

Just for grins, our salesman from Richard's sent me a picture of our computer generated drawing of the pool to compare to the finished product. I remember the sleazy guy from Blue Haven told us not to be sold by the competitors fancy computer drawings, but after looking back at this, I'd have to say it's a pretty darn accurate representation of what we got. One more reason to ignore the line of bull from Blue Haven - IMO.





If we make any significant changes later, I'll be sure to update. Other than that, we are just going to be enjoying the pool. We have had it heated all week for Spring Break and the kids have had a blast. I'm afraid of the next gas bill, but it's cheaper than a trip anyway.

Later.