What a fun couple of weeks this has been. We’ve opened up our pool and the whole family is enjoying it. It been a huge project to get to this point.
Last November, my wife and I had an in ground pool installed and we’ve been scurrying to get it fully operational for the Memorial Day weekend. We started the vetting process to select the company back in August of 2009 and for each portion we spoke with 4 or 5 companies. Lily wanted to make sure we got a good deal as well as what we wanted.
With all the construction, the pool has a layer of dirt and sand on the bottom. I’ve put in the pool roomba (it climbs the pools walls!) but Saturday I vacuumed out the whole pool. I got almost all of the sand on the bottom but I also stirred up some sand too, so I’ll be vacuuming on a regular basis for now. The water is clear but the remaining sand is hiding out in the corners and it bugs me.
With any pool construction, you need to deal with at lots of companies. The pool company, the landscapers, the fencing company, and the sprinkler company. This is going to sound like one big product endorsement, but I want to say thank you to all the companies involved.
The construction was fast and well done. We used a company called Swimking and they’ve been great. I’ve called them, and they have patiently answered my questions and came back to deal with some small adjustments. I’ve never had to deal with any pool so I’ve had lots of questions. There have been minor things and they sent someone over to sort it out quickly.
I’m in IT and while I can visualize what people are describing very well, I’m no good at designing a layout. Our plantings and garden work has all been done by Cappiello Landscaping. The owner Joe described a really good-looking plan, told us what plants we were getting etc. But seeing it in place is fantastic. Joe’s company works fast and efficiently and in a few days they transformed a construction site into a great back yard garden. The whole layout with the pool works great.
We selected Continental Fence to install estate fencing where you can see it and black chain link where you can’t. I was afraid the surrounding the pool with a fence (NY state safety code, and its a good thing too) would make the pool area look small. But the reverse happened and the effect makes the pool look bigger. It took Steve’s company less than 2 days to put the fencing in and it looks great.
For the in ground sprinkler work, we use Dean’s Sprinkler Service. We’ve been using Dean’s company for about 5 years. Dean and his guys chase down every sprinkler head, tunes the system with the gardener. And Dean personally drops by on his day off and makes sure the whole system is working. I can’t say enough good things about Dean: he explains what and why he’s doing something and gives you a lot of options to work with.
Once the pool is all cleaned up I’ll post photos. We started using the pool already but there are still some more things to complete.
