Testing the waters as the pool is being built

In nine quick days since the first blog about our new pool, the foundation was leveled and the pool set up last week. Earlier this week a concrete wall was built in front of the pool to prevent erosion and provide support for the pool frame. We added 14,500 gallons of water on Saturday, and have been swimming daily since then.

The deck supports are complete. Today our contractor Eric Knowlton and his crew started on the  decking which will embrace the pool on three sides. The ocean side will be a "faux infinity edge" (no water falls over it, that would be too much of a drain on our solar system). It's perfect for propping your elbows on from the water while you gaze at the Pacific in the distance!

Our house is completely offgrid, so the pool is as well. We doubled the capacity of our solar system to accommodate the new poolwater pump, and to give us more spare amps for the house. Our original solar contractor Jeremiah Augustine from Lightworkers Electric upgraded us by switching 8 new batteries out for the 8 original ones. The new technology gives us twice the amps with the same number of batteries, and for less cost than the original, lower capacity ones.

As all this pool work has been progressing, we've also been tending to the 11+ acres of jungle and gardens around the house. Despite predictions of a long drought starting in December, we've had our usual multiple rainstorms pretty much daily. We can watch the rain clouds gather over the Pacific then roll toward our house, soak the new plants (and us if we're in the garden), and then look for rainbows as the rain recedes. We get 120 inches (300 cm) of rain per year. It rarely rains for long periods of time, so we welcome the nourishing water for the plants.

Here are a few photos of the pool construction, then a brief video of the water being added, and some garden shots as well. Enjoy!

Me supervising, it's very hard work!

It takes a lot of workers to build a pool!

Making sure the foundation is perfectly level

The pool laid out, ready to be lifted onto the frame supports

Aaron the electrician pointing to where the switch for the pool perimeter rope lights will go

Tammy delivered 3 and 1/2 truckloads of water. She's pictured with Ricky White, Eric Knowlton, and Nohea.

Adding salt to make the pool a saltwater pool.
It's deceptively low tech to manage once it gets to steady state. 

Today, adding the first part of the Trex decking. Nohea and Ed. 

Kevin McGuire, our pool systems guy, working on the saltwater pump

The house and master suite through the new garden we planted only in January this year. 

The jungle pavilion built by menehunes, well really by Eric, while Robert and I were back in NY.
Note the posts made from the same Ohi'a trees that are the predominant tree on our land. 

Master suite from the new garden

Queen Emma lily, a reliable bloomer

Robert about to go in the pool for the first swim. 

Native flowering plant. 

Ti plant leaves aglow with red and green. 

Another good omen, a praying mantis took up residence shortly after we erected the pool. 

Bitter melon, an obnoxious but pretty weed,  alongside sapphire showers bush

Sunrise today

Double rainbow between our main house and the master suite

From Plan to Plunge in Four Weeks: Adding a Pool to our HI Home

It's been a while since I posted, here's a short recap. Robert Welsch and I bought our 11 acres in HI in 2005. We started planting the landscaping in 2007 and 2008. And in 2014, we started, finished and moved into our new home right before New Years. We enjoyed living in it all Winter 2015, then returned to NY from March until early December.

Many friends and family who toured our new house and gardens had the same comment,
"Where's the pool going to go?"

We would laugh and never really considered having a pool until we saw a very nice one at a friend's house nearby. They built an above ground pool nestled into a hillside, with a deck all around it. And that's exactly what we're doing right now. Robert designed the pool using graph paper, then had our Westover Landscape Design crew do a 3D view for us. Here's what it looks like in the rendering:

Our construction crew broke ground and did much of the excavation before we got out here December 2 for our winter stay. Last week much of the framing for the deck was completed along with the retraining walls for the sides of the pool. This week we are leveling the area where the pool will be placed. Next week the deck will be built. After that we add water, hook up the pump and salt infusion system (it's a salt water pool), and add some batteries to our solar system to accommodate the new power draw.

Then, if we're lucky and no big surprises occur, we expect to be plunging into our pool in time for New Years!

Here are some pics of the start of the project, and a short video of where we are as of today.

Video: PS you need to copy and paste the URL below to your browser to open it. 

It may be operator error, but I'm blaming Google Blogger!

https://youtu.be/C6_lhS4DbGE