Day Zero: Layout

So here is the backyard, prior to the bomb going off.

Unfortunately, I got an email from our pool builder at 6:45am this morning letting me know they had done the layout last night and were ready to begin excavation today. Needless to say, this was not a good situation since I was out of town and neither of us had gotten a chance to check out the spray painted layout in our yard.

After several frantic calls by my wife and I, they delayed the dig one day so that I could view the layout...whew. However, in all the confusion, the excavator did remove the tree that happened to be placed smack dab in the center of our soon to be deep end. Wish I had a true "before" pic, but I don't think I do. The picture above is as good as it gets.

The layout is a bit hard to see. My initial concerns with the renderings were that the pool was a little too narrow at the narrowest spot. This was confirmed by the layout and they are making an adjustment. We're also wondering if it's a little too close to the house, but like all things in life, we had to make some compromises. Decking is a huge expense and in a cost saving measure, we're a little closer to the house than we might have hoped for. Also, based on the extreme grading issue in our backyard, the designers made a judgment call on where they thought it would work best.

I think ultimately, we'll be happy where it is, as it will preserve a good portion of grass and yard on the back side of the pool.