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.