The pool is indeed plastered and filled, although not without a few requisite problems. The new faucet that was installed by Premier Pools froze last week and I came home to a small geyser on the side of the house. The brass t-fitting above the faucet had a hairline crack in it that had frozen and become larger and finally erupted. Darla had noticed it a day before, but it was simply a drip at that time and she had thought that I'd left the faucet turned on slightly because of the freezing temperatures. That wouldn't make a lot of sense, but that comes from my perspective. I had to shut the water off to the house overnight and we brushed our teeth with bottled water. I did turn the water back on the next morning and Darla and I took hot showers before work and then I turned it back off for the day. The pool company came out and repaired the broken part and we were back to normal that night. It was a bit odd camping in our house for that one night. The toilets wouldn't flush and we couldn't run the dishwasher or make ice for the ice maker. In all it was a minor inconvenience.
The pool company was at the house at 7:00 AM on Friday to plaster the pool and, coincidentally, collect the final payment on the pool. I was off to work and they were done plastering and on their way by noon. They left the pool filling with the hose in the bottom of the pool with a small white towel taped around the end of the hose and a set of instructions on the door for filling the pool and then brushing the plaster. The note said that it would take about 24 hours for the pool to fill and under no circumstances were we to turn off the water as it would leave a line on the plaster. I was home by 4:30 to see the completed pool and to gauge the fill rate of the pool. The pool filled up from halfway up the first step to halfway up the second step in about five hours and I estimated that the pool would be full by about ten o'clock in the morning. I was up about five thirty to tend to my bladder and it looked as if the pool was about a foot from the tile line. I headed back to bed and woke at 8:15 AM to see the pool already filled up to the overflow in the pool. I was up and draining the pool of about three inches of water within fifteen minutes.
Jennifer came over to help me install two new lights, one for the new trash enclosure on the side of the house and the other a floodlight at the front of the house above the driveway. We also installed a new GFI outlet in the front of the house and that was where the adventure began. Jennifer wanted to install the outlet at the end of a circuit, so she could tie in to the end line. The problem was the end line at the front of the house is in the dining room and the outside wall is brick. We decided that instead of trying to drill through the brick and install an outlet on the brick that we would tie in to the existing outlet and feed the wire through the wall to a spot on the wood siding about 24 inches from the outlet. Great plan, but there was a stud in the wall about ten inches from the outlet and we had to drill through that and then feed the wire through the stud and over to the new hole where we would install the new outlet. Nice plan, the execution was a bit tougher. The biggest problem we had is that the electric tool industry has not designed a home 45 degree drill bit extension. We used a socket set flexible extension, but burned it out and it melted as we tried to cut through the 2x4 stud. I finally went out and bought a 16 inch long 1/2 inch bore bit and we were able to drill through the stud and push the wires through. I cut a second hole in the sheet rock below the new outlet and Jennifer was able to reach her Barbie sized hands into the hole and pull the wire through and then feed it to the new outlet and wire it up. It sounds fast when you write it, but it was an all day project as we attempted to use an electrician's fishing rod to get from one hole to the other. The problem is the small hole in the stud wouldn't allow the rod to turn up so we could reach it and the angle we cut the hole in the stud actually took the fishing line into the brick and past our level. We didn't want to cut another hole in the wall, but finally realized that we weren't going to get the job done without resorting to extreme measures.
The time that it took to complete the outlet left us working in dusk to install the two lights. I re-installed the old light back up on the side of the house and Jennifer installed the new light by the trash enclosure, running a three wire line from the first light through the garage to the new light. Finally, we installed the new floodlight by running wire from the inside garage light along the top of the garage ceiling to the front of the garage. We got it all done and turned the power on and only the new outlets were working. The original lights were dark and the new lights working like a charm. We then checked the front outlet and it wasn't working and the power was out completely to that line. We couldn't figure it out as the whole line was dead. We checked the GFI and it was not tripped. Finally, Jennifer found a GFI in the kitchen that was tripped and kept tripping. We finally disconnected the new outlet and the power stayed on and the GFI in the kitchen didn't trip. Jennifer was tremendously frustrated and wanted to come back on Sunday and fix the problem. I had golf yesterday and told her that I'd talk to one of my buddies who is an electrician and find out what was wrong. I did and it turns out that I'd pulled one of the wires loose from the side garage light. That was an easy fix and it is working fine. The inside garage light is a halogen light and the bulb was blown. I am replacing that light today as the halogen bulbs are just too expensive and the light in the garage was a little harsh. As to the outlet in front, I'd bought a 20 amp outlet and the line has all 15 amp outlets on it. The extra amperage is not the problem as the line is on a 20 amp circuit, what Charlie thinks happened is one of the wires on the new outlet is touching the metal casing and causing the line to go to ground, which trips the GFI. I will look into that this weekend and get the new outlet hooked up. The hard part is done and Jennifer was thrilled to hear the problems are simple. It was great working with her. She is a little bruised up as she totally got in to the project and was up to her elbows in the wall pulling the wire through. It is impressive to see the things that she has learned and can do. It will serve her well when she gets her own house.
Darla and I then took Jennifer out to a lavish dinner at the Elephant Bar to thank her for all of her hard work on the house. We had drinks and appetizers at the bar while we waited for our table and then had dinner. Our waitress had either body odor or was a smoker, because she was covering something up with a perfume that would normally be found only in a strip joint or brothel. It was overwhelming. Jennifer will write about it in her blog, I'm sure. We held our breath every time "stinky" came by the table. We had a ball.
My reference to "Now the fun begins" is that I will be trenching for both sprinklers and drainage lines for the backyard. There were nice drainage lines in the yard that got demolished when the pool was dug. I will pull out about a foot of dirt in the flowerbeds and fill the raised bed behind the waterfalls. I will then bring in 5 to 8 yards of topsoil to give my plantings a fresh bed of dirt when we put in the gardens this Spring. I will build a trellis wall in front of the shed to shield the yard from the shed and put in a climbing vine on the trellis. We will then have a concrete flatwork contractor come in and pour the driveway for the jet ski and put in a stamped concrete sun deck behind the shallow end of the pool that will tie in with the stamped concrete deck that is already there. I will have to pull out the walkway and sidewalk that Dad and I put in when the shed was built and have it all tie in to the new concrete. It will be a lot of work, but I am really happy with the way that the pool turned out. We wanted an island pool and that's what we ended up with. Also, the Tahoe blue plaster is perfect and gives the pool water a great blue look. Once the flowerbeds get put in and the trees and plants are in, we'll have a nice oasis in the backyard.
Daniel came over on Saturday when Jennifer and I were working and was thrilled with the pool. He will be in charge of brushing the pool as he wants the smoothest plaster ever and he is determined to do a polar bear dive into the pool this weekend as he wants to be the first one in the pool. I have been doing the early morning brushing of the pool and will continue that, but Daniel will do an afternoon and evening brushing. They recommend brushing twice a day, but Daniel wants to do it three times. Darla and I kept at that pace this weekend and will let Daniel take over this week.
I usually rush to write about my golf experiences, but this weekend was one of the worst rounds I've had in a while. The wind was blowing about 45 miles an hour and everyone struggled. Boyd shot 82, Ed ( a 5 handicapper) shot 91, I had a 45+51=96 and Bob Pando ( a 9 handicap) shot 98. It wasn't golf, it was an exercise in survival. We played at Lincoln Hills in Lincoln and this was the first morning without a frost delay in three weeks. The wind ensured that the ground didn't freeze overnight. I would have preferred the frost. It was bitter cold. I played with two winter golf gloves, one on each hand.
It is, however, a fresh new week and I am off to write some new business. We are having a GREAT month and it is a nice start to the new year. Our CEO will visit us next month rather than this month, so it is all good. Take care. Ciao.
No comments:
Post a Comment