Thursday, January 21, 2016

The pool is DONE, and the gardens look awesome!

Robert and I arrived in Hawaii early December. Since then we broke ground on the new pool,  set it up and filled it with water, and completed the deck around it. Contractor Eric Knowlton and his two helpers Ed and Nohea did a masterful job with the pool, deck and steps, finishing just in time for Robert's birthday and pool party we had on January 10! I've been busy hiking, swimming, and weeding and haven't had time to update the blog. Today we had a brilliant double rainbow behind the pool. That gave me the perfect shots to finally publish this latest edition on the pool.

Our friends who have pools told us that you'll love it and hate it. I already know what they mean. The OEM sand filter supplied with the pool never worked well, then it completely failed. I bought one via Amazon, and it's headed out via boat. Our pool equipment guy Kevin McGuire was nice enough to lend us his spare pump, thank goodness. The water was starting to turn a not so nice shade of green without a pump working. It all takes time to get it to a "steady state"... then it should be a breeze. Fingers crossed!

Meanwhile Robert has started a new garden area around the pool. He also bought new planters and some great plants to adorn the pool and the new garden. Everyone's favorite are the lipstick palms that add a bright splash of red to the color palette.

As always, there are photos of the pool project accompanied by some from our garden, and Robert's birthday party. Aloha!

The final project for this year is landscape lighting. That will be the next blog.
This morning's double rainbow

Perfect morning light today
Now we're back to building the pool for the next few shots...
Nohea freezing cold as he installs the rope lights with Ed's help
Night lights

Eric Knowlton, the contractor, working on the deck
Trenching for landscape lighting- Mica'el on the left

Stewart trenching for landscape lighting

Ed sanding the deck rails

Building the steps from the deck to the lawn


Robert and Stewart making the poolside garden
Nohea sparking up the lawn while cutting the material for railings
Robert's birthday party

Eric and Amber enjoying the pool he completed for us

Now for some garden shots...





Chris weeding along the vireya trail

Riley helping weed the vireya trail

Me with vireyas

Unretouched photo of Hula Girl hibiscus flower

The lava shelf with orchids abloom

My handsome husband by the entrance to the courtyard garden