I am so sorry to read about your PB's attitude. We had the same experience in Louisiana & it only got worse. I had to resort to communicating with text only just so I didn't have to hear the snarky comments or my husband would talk to the guy because he did not get as snippy or insulting with him. That eventually did not work either. In the end, he bellied up on us. Please have a good understanding of your contract & do not be bullied into paying for mistakes. Remind him (often) that it's your money & property. It was a total stupid tax experience for us because his contract pay schedule was front loaded & we lost a lot in the end when he called it quits. Sorry if this sounds like a downer. Good luck to you.

Sorry to hear you too had a bad experience. I am still in shock as to how, in this economy, PB (or anyone) can have such an attitude with their client. But I am trying to stay positive and yes, am sending hubbie to talk to him instead. I am dreading Monday when we all be there for inspection and gunite...This should have been happy times, not dreaded.

The cleaner line will be cut flush with the plaster. The location of the cleaner line is important for best operation of the cleaner.There won't be a shadow issue if the cleaner is removed or running because it will be moving.The Internet is a double edge sword for builders.There is a lot of half truths and imfo. but not all the details.It's tuff to do our jobs when the home owner is questioning every step regarding imfo from the Internet,or my friend said.With that said don't stop asking questions,it's your pool,your builder my need to work on his attitude and communication skills.With this or any other issues along the way try to phrase your question to the builder in a way that comes across as a construction question and ask him if he will educate you as to his decisions or reasons for doing something your not to sure of. If his answers don't agree with what you believe then speak up,again it's your pool.Good Luck every thing pictured looks good.

Part of any good pool builders job is to explain in some detail, the process of the pool build. The more you educate your customer the less likely they will be to question what you are doing. Asking questions is only a natural part of the process and when your pool builder becomes angry because you want him to explain something to you, it would cause most people to suspect he is trying to hide something or cover for a mistake. He should have told you as Keith 2009 did that the pipe is finished flush with the plaster. From the pictures I see, it wouldn't take much to move the pool cleaner line over a little so that it is not right over the light if that's what it would have taken to make you happy. Your husband should have a little chat with him about respecting his wife's right to ask some logical questions.

Thank you guys, it's good to have support. I am usually absolutely not one to complain and vent and as I told him, I despise the fact that he's making me feel (and pretty much saying it too) like a pain in the neck but I really think he crossed a line. Yes, I would love to blindly trust every word he says (would make my life easier) but it's hard when indeed, we never get a straight answer but rather a blanket " I'va always done it this way". With that having said, we're now at a point, and with the support of your advice, where we're just going to drop the whole line being on top of the light.
There are still some questions unanswered (contract says all pipes at 45 degree angle yet clearly, there are some major ones at 90 degree. Again, don't know if those would be excluded from his clause in contract and why?) and I would be curious to hear his answer but God forbid, I am NOT going to ask, my husband is!!
Now we're just crossing fingers that the weather holds. The sun is out today, yipeee. We didn't pass inspection on Friday because of colapsing walls into to the steel mesh but yet nothing is being done to the pool until inspector comes back on Monday morning, with a whole crew of gunite waiting for green light. So we'll see...

Thanks for your advice, priceless!!
I am anxious to post pics of gunite now :-)

aquqriuslady,
RE: "all pipes at 45% angle..". An eyeball fitting is normally added to the return lines that can be adjusted to provide best proformance. This will, most likely, be installed after plaster. Hope things smooth out for you.

Thanks Golfgeek. I didn't realize the plumbing was done and then completed at two different stages.

Hi,
Today was gunite and it was just as exciting as it was messy!
Inspector came back again at 9AM in the morning and thanks to the impecable Californian weather (not a drop of rain during the week-end!!), we pass the pre-gunite inspection, giving the green light to a crew of 6 people ready to shoot concrete. They started at 10Am and were done at 4PM and did a fantastic job. Kuddos to them as this wasn't an easy site for them: not one straight line in our pool!

They did a great job following the design of the steps we had given a lot of thought to and thanks to everyone's advice from this forum also, we're really happy about the end result of the shallow shelf and bench.

We decided to go for a second step rather than a first one as our tanning shelf. Our kids are not toddlers anymore so the purpose of this was more of an adult gathering area for lounging, with or without chairs and therefore, we decided to go deeper than the initial 12" we had thought.
First step is 5" heigh, making the tanning shelf 17" deep.
Size is about 5'1/2 X 11'

And here is a close-up of the bench at the other end:

On wednesday we are going to go pick our rocks for the waterfall as well as the coping. Looking everywhere for this famous Oklahoma Wister flagstone but it seems that here, they have a different name ofr everything (!) and so those look like they are the Oyster ones.

And oh, still undecided between the Midnight Sea Satin Matrix of wetedge or the more common Northshore Tahoe...uggghh, this is worst than naming your first born!!
Any ideas??

It looks great so far! I can empathize with you regarding the finish selection. We started our pool in October and I was hoping we would have been done before it got cold (I'm in NJ). But, that didn't happen, and they stopped before the plaster. Now, I've got the entire winter to agonize over pebble finishes! And, it's not like I can use this time to go see different pools - they're all closed! Anyway, good luck with your decision, and with the rest of your build.

Hawkfive,
Good luck with your search also! I know how it is...what I found usefull is looking at pool plastering websites as they have tons of pictures. This website helped me a lot:
http://www.jeffkerber.com
Browse the galery.
Good luck!!

Aquariuslady,
Looks really nice so far! Keep the pics coming.

Thanks poolmissy.
Our PB is putting a lot of pressure on us to get things done quickly...too quickly?? Gunite was yesterday and he wants tiles and coping to be put in on Thursday. Is that too quick? I don't undertsand as gunite is supposed to be watered for 10 days for it to cured properly but now he wants it covered by masonry...I am confused. Of course, check doesn't get paid until job is done so is this what's happening here?
I cannot believe that I would have questions because of things going too quickly, ususally it's clearly the other way around!!!

Go ahead with tile and coping, but continue to spray down the shell. Be sure not to wash away any fresh grout or mortor.

Thanks. Turns out now the tile person didn't call today so I guess we wont be doing the tiles right away...haven't picked yet. Just agonizing over which color of plaster and because of that, what color tile...

I wish I had had the problem of the builder going too fast on our job. It took a long time. Your pool will be great and I love to see the progress pictures.

We dug out and replanted my citrus trees in large pots and two out of three made it (the Meyer lemon and Oroblanco grapfruit). Just be sure not to put too much soil around the trunk or they tend to get too much water.I hope it survives, it's a pretty tree.

Looking Great!

It's always fun to watch everyone else pass me up on my build that started October 8th!!

I'm anxious to see it develop. So far they're moving along quickly and look to be doing a great job.

El Duderino,
Sorry we passed you! But to be fair, your pool is a lot more trickier than ours. We are a straight forward free form with no spa so I guess that's gotta count. Good luck and hang in there.
Sandrasmith: Thanks for the encouraging words about the orange tree! Fingers crossed, so far it looks OK but time will tell. I meant to ask you how you like our Tahoe pebble color?? we're still agonizing over this choice. we're having satin matrix from Wetgedge adn ever since I saw those beautiful emerald cove (not green at all against all odds) and midnight sea, I just don't know anymore... I am afraid those two may still be too dark as the pooln is surrounded by two close fences and our house on the other side...not really shade but still not full sun at all time.

Hi Aquariuslady,

The Tahoe Blue goes with the overall look of the pool. Originally I wanted just a white type of finish that would give me that tropical blue finish I was looking for, but it just was not practical in a beach entry and shelf and did not go with our flagstone look.

The TB hides imperfections/dirt or whatever where it is exposed and I am extremely happy with my choice for that reason as well. I think you need to go see the pool color in person at a real pool at daylight to make your decision and be happy with it. The online pictures don't give you a realistic picture.

Thanks Sandrasmith!

Today the electicians came so not really any good pictures to post for now. Except, I am really happy about an excellent deal we made this week-end at Home depot. We are of course thinking about the landscaping as well and when we only went to buy a door handle, we ended up buying those three 20ft Queen Palm trees for $99/each!! I originally wanted a Canary Island Palm back there but because of the lack of space and access, settled for those. They're waiting to be planted behing the waterfall...

Just thought I'd update the post even though it's all background work right now. We went to pick out our flagstones yesterday as well as boulders. Flagstone will be Oklahoma Oyster (ever heard of that? I was going for the Wister but apparently, you can't find those in california??) and boulders are Calistoga. we also have to pick the waterline tile and are hesitating between somehting that would match the water color (dark blue) or the flagstone...which one is best??

How close will the Queen palms be to to pool? They are one of the worst palms to put by a pool since they are very messy.

Ouuuh, arbisi, thanks for the warning, we were planning on putting the Palm trees right behind the waterfall, so VERY close...what do you mean by messy? Leaves, dropping of any kinds? do we need to reconsider?

Anyways, things are progressing quite nicely, although we are, both my husband and I, ready to be Project Manager as we feel we have to be there every step of the way and coordinating with the different crews...We had a feeling this was going to be that way with this pool builder and we weren't wrong.

Masonry crew started and we're happy with the result so far. Little hicups on the waterfall (I knew gunite poeple had shot a way too big spot for it, 8 ft accross when waterfall was only supposed to be 4ft wide...oh well, PB did say I needed to trust more and let them do their job, right? we're going to end up having a 3 to 4 tons waterfall when we only had asked for (and will pay for) a 2 tons).
But so far so good. Our Masonry guy told us for sure he was going to put our pool in his book, yeah!!

Still undecided on the satin matrix color though...ughh...

The Queens drop all kinds of seeds, which are messy, seam to get everywhere. Also their fronds are not self cleaning meaning you will have to hire a tree trimmer or use a big ladder yourself to climb up to the top & cut off dead fronds. So there is really nothing wrong with planting the queen palms where you planned I just want to be prepared for the maintenance.

That last line should read "I just want YOU to be prepared for the maintenance" Without the YOU it sounds like I am going to be doing your yard work & I have plenty of work to do in my own yard. LOL

Oh, too bad you're not coming to trim the trees!! ;-)
Thanks for the warning though. Veru usefull

Masonry is coming along pretty nicely. I like what they have done with the coping and the ledger.
Kelly, thanks for your advice, I am sooo glad we switch from flagstone face to ledger, it's so much prettier.

OK so I haven't posted in a while because thngs have been slow for a lot of reasons:
1/ It is raining here in Northern california. GOOD news for the environment (!). We need it.
2/ waterfall is giving us nightmares! we just can't seem to obtain what we wanted. Everyone is staring at the picture I had and no one seem to be in an agreement. Turns out, obvisouly, PB over promised and what I was looking at was more of a 6 tons than a 2 ton waterfall. But, hey, he said we could do it...so everyone else in the world is trying to accomodate and we felt everyone had to cut corners to achieve somewhat of our dream waterfall. masonry crew have been extreeeemely patient, God bless them. Bu today they finished and I am happy with the result :-)

Deck is also being prepared and we pass inspection yesterday. Yipeee. Now once more I have to pick a color for the deck. we are going to go for a craked earth stamped texture with what they call "crazy joints".

We're quite surprised on how much we could fit in our small yard after all...

Wow! They are moving fast. I think you guys passed us too. We are going SLOW but frankly with all the cold weather we are getting here in Sunny San Diego, I don't mind not having the pool ready to go for another month or two.

Katherine

They are going very fast...sometimes too fast for us. Because we feel we have to be there all the time for every step of the way (PB and Project Manager must have been here twice each...), it's turning into a full-time job!
But we're not complaining, oh no...
It is giving us time to think about landscaping.
It's raining here now off and on so things are slowing down a little. And yes, its'cold here too!

Any more progress to share?