Day Four: Making the Grade

It's not supposed to rain in Austin...

Excavation continues at a crawl. Rain is forecasted for the next few days which will put any further progress at a standstill. This creates a bit of a conundrum. You see, with the sprinkler system in shambles, it sure would be nice to get the water. However, at the cost of "no worky" until next week, my vote is no rain. Kind of like the presidential election though, I'm really not sure how much my vote really counts. Oh well, out of our control. We'll see what happens.

The only visible changes today are the increasing mounds of rock and dirt accumulating in the yard and the formation of the various levels. It is actually good to see those taking place, as the 2D renderings are difficult for most to follow. The design has several different tiers and levels, and watching them form helps a great deal with the overall vision.

One thing we are anxious to see happen, are the stairs leading down from the deck getting rebuilt. El Duderino's wife lost her mother in March of this year from a fall down a flight of stairs, so this has been a sticky point with us from the get-go (ignored by most of the PB's we talked to). As you can see from the picture on the left, the narrow/steep stairs would be a recipe for disaster combined with wet feet and the little duderinos. The deck should be demoed soon and we can't wait to see those steps go away! Apparently, the wood worker, not unlike the excavator, is a one-man-show and works at a snails pace (with laser precision). Good thing Spring isn't around the corner!


Chance of T-storms
50% chance of precipitation


It's not supposed to rain in Austin...

Day Three: "Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes..."

Over the weekend, I read about a few pool build threads on the internet: Part inspiration, part curiosity. I was pretty shocked to see the progress some people make in each passing day. I saw one pool that was excavated in one day and then all the steel and plumbing was completed by day two. Gunite on day three. Not us.

We're approaching our second week. Friday was a day off for the excavator for several reasons. One, I've learned Delton is quite the character and has a lot of other "interests" besides wreaking havoc on unsuspecting people's backyards. Second, while digging, we have encountered a water "issue" and were letting things dry out a bit. For those familiar with the current Austin weather conditions, you know I'm not talking rain. Apparently, they have hit some sort of spring. Not a show stopper by any means, but a slight hiccup in the process.


Over the weekend, we addressed some of the issues we had with the pool design. Mainly, the fact that we felt the actual pool was a little too close to the house. Probably would have been a good idea to determine this prior to excavation beginning, but our pool builder took the news in stride and was out first thing this morning, making the necessary changes. Despite our pool builders working on these changes until close to midnight on a Sunday and showing up first thing this morning to lay them out, we think we'll ultimately be much happier with this revision. Score one for the pool builders! Keep this up and they may get their name in lights on my humble little blog sooner rather than later!

So today, a no-school holiday, began at 7:20am with more jackhammering. This awoke both of our kids and probably most of the neighborhood as well. I guess the plan is to push forward until/unless someone complains. Nothing drastic in the way of progress today, but the excavator did hit a water main in the sprinkler system and after locating the mysterious valve that has been overtaken by 9 years of shrubbery growth, we were fine on that front.

So, here we are after day three. The pool still has a ways to go in terms of digging and the grading for the decking is starting to take place. Of course, we just found out the excavator wasn't made aware of the "new" decking plan, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out, since he already starting removing earth where the "old" plans had decking. Will we get additional decking out of this or will they come up with some other interesting solution? Tune in tomorrow to find out. Until next time...

Day Two: Rock and Roll

Today, day two of excavation, started early. At 7:45am, the jackhammering began and the major rocks were broken up. There wasn't too much "dig" progress today, but mostly breaking large boulders and hauling them away.

Five truckloads of rock were taken out today and tomorrow the digging will commence.

The excavator told me there's probably 3-4 more days until all of the excavation is completed. The grading issues and tiered decking are all requiring additional digging, so that combined with all the rock he's hitting, explains the extended length. Again, this doesn't seem to be too far from the norm for this area.

I had a nice conversation with the excavator today while he was filling up the CAT with fuel. He's an older gentleman and owns all the equipment and works alone. He told me that it's been pretty slow this year, and year to date he's at about 50% of his normal annual earnings. We discussed the economy a bit and the high price of diesel. Talking to him made me feel a little better about our decision to move forward with this project. He shared with me that two of the dump trucking companies they work with have closed down recently, and it made me realize that maybe our "little" contribution to the economy can help keep a few people afloat for awhile. I just hope things start turning around sooner rather than later, so we're not having to cash in on the karma card!

The above picture shows the end result after 2 days of excavation. It is actually starting to look like a pool, but we still have a long ways to go.

Day One: Excavation Begins

What's cooler than a tractor in the backyard to a 2-1/2 year old? Two tractors in the back yard!

Today, excavation began. While it is very exciting to finally get things underway, being present for the dig is sort of akin to watching paint dry. However, it is pretty interesting.

The excavation began smoothly until they hit rock at about 8-9 inches in. Living in the Central Texas Hill Country, this comes as a surprise to no one. Luckily, in this part of the world, hitting rock is expected and doesn't typically lead to additional expense for the home owner. It does drag the process out quite a bit though!

It is fascinating how much the compressed dirt and rock "expands" once it comes out of the earth. The mountains have piled up quickly and our backyard is quickly becoming a certified disaster area. Luckily, our house is high enough up that we don't have to look at all the mess from inside.

At this point, all of the excitement from months of planning and working on details is becoming disbelief that we're actually underway and facing this for the next 3-plus months (I'm being optimistic here).