CatHouse Chat

The blessings of my life...

I am BEYOND blessed... I am enjoying a quiet night in and around the pool with the Beloved Husband. Hawaiian music (courtesy of Pandora, Verizon Wireless, and my MotoDroid...) playing quietly in the background...

How can life on earth get better?!

Oh, I think I got too much sun today!

The pool was so beautiful, and my hubby had a free afternoon....

 

The air was warm, but not HOT; the skies were blue with nary a cloud; the chores were done; and my allergies had calmed down after their regular morning tantrum...

We'd even walked the cats:

 

Smudgie seemed to enjoy her little tour of our garden -

 

But Pixel was not a happy camper! She hissed in displeasure several times; although she explored a little bit, she came running when I called (!!) and was very happy to return to the comfort of the house thankyouverymuch!

 

But, with all the fun and excitement (hey, and I even seem to have overcome my great uneasiness with diving into the pool!), the Kat has gotten quite... red. I've slathered on three generous coats of aloe, but I'm getting some mild heat-chills, and my skin is already warning me that tomorrow won't be too fun.

*sigh*

And just yesterday I was tease-scolding the daughter of a dear friend about using plenty of sunscreen! Somehow, "pot, meet kettle" seems appropriate! [headdesk] I'm glad it's supposed to be cloudy this week; I'm helping out with some munchkins at a horse camp, so I need to be functional! The weather is supposed to be a bit stormy, so I may luck out and be able to stay inside - but you'd better believe I'm gonna have some SPF100 with me, LOL!

Oh, and here's a picture of me in the pool:

 

See? I don't melt in water! ;-)

OK, finally - the dreaded Hawaii slide pic!

Yeah, yeah, but it's a (first year) tradition (second year), and I have one fan who would be gravely disappointed if I didn't post it (yep, he's pretty weird... BWAHAHA!)

For Sonnabend

From Hawaii 2007

... Because he keeps twitting me about last year's photo, and I figured I'd give him more ammo...

School's.Out.For.SUMMER!

Oh, yeah, I remember what that felt like! But today was the Darling Munchkin's last day of school, and she's now enjoying the pool with a friend...

I'm wondering, will she succeed in her mission to completely saturate herself with chlorine before the summer is over?

... I bet she can...!

LOL - having FUN!

Oh, we're having a good time! Seth regales us with LOTS of funny stories...

Dinner update...

OK, dinner is grilled chicken with BBQ saucs, grilled zucchini, and green beans (hey, it's a green night, LOL!).

We've been yakking politics, local and international (and the Beloved Hubby is enjoying it too...), AOW and I have been in the pool with the Munchkin... We've been sucking down the Sangria and Laphroig (well, SETH's been boozing on the single malt)...

AOW has met a real-life but more intelligent Ducky (photo to follow via moblog). The tiki torches are up and running...

We really miss Raven and Ogre and KENDER!!!!! Wish they could've been here RIGHT NOW... But then they're just missing  REALLY GOOD TIME, and they'll just have to feel our love vibes as **WE** have lots of fun...

The last (I think) pool-installation blogging

... although, I could of course be wrong... I suspect that future pool blogging will focus on us enjoying our beautiful new pool!

I felt the last post was getting a bit long, so I decided to post the most recent pics here.

The REAL reason to pool-blog

My little mermaid....

FINALLY - more pool blogging!

Yeah, yeah, I know - I've been derelict in my duties. But, I plead a somewhat stalled project until now: the rain we had recently delayed things significantly. However, the pool itself is now done, except for some cosmetic regrading! Woo-hoo!

It. Looks. BEAUTIFUL!!

(and this is going to be one of those update-as-I-write-posts, so it will be changing over the next hour or so...)

First customer for the pool

I should have been keeping you-all up to date on how much the Darling Munckin is enjoying the pool already - even though it's not "ready" to swim in yet.

*sigh* When has that ever stopped my little fish?

First, she loved the sand pile -

Then she inspected the pool when it was delivered -

And then she insisted on trying out the water, even before the pool was full, or the water properly filtered to sparkling cleanliness!

Now that the pool is full, she's been begging to go back in, but I've told her she's got to wait until tomorrow evening, at least, so the concrete accent band has time to dry a bit...

I can tell that once the pool is operational, I'm going to have major difficulties prying her out of it! Oh, well, I suppose I need to stock up on sunblock...

Pool installation blogging - still catching up

Now that the pool has been placed in its hole, it gets filled with water (on the inside, LOL), and back filled on the outside so everything remains properly formed and level. This takes a LOT of work!

One of the guys working on this is Eddie, and he always seems to get stuck with shovelling the sand down into the hole for backfill. He was joking with the other guys today about being buried with a golden shovel... I broke in and said, "Nah, probably not a gold shovel, but I bet they'll spring for a silver one, at least!"

They're very good-natured guys; I like their sense of humor and the laid-back professionalism with which they do their jobs.

One of the other things which takes a lot is actually filling this pool. It is very big - the biggest model that Viking Pools offers. If I remember correctly, the Beloved Husband says it takes over 20,000 gallons of water to fill! Wow...

Today, the guys finished backfilling around the pool (and the water is pretty much topped off, now, too), and made the forms for the white cement band which will encircle the pool. The cement will actually come up three or four inches above the pool edge you see, and rest on it. The slight overhang into the pool will be rounded - a bull nose finish, did they call it? - and make the pool look very finished and elegant.

And these are the crazy, wonderful guys who have been putting up with my nosiness - although K.D., at the right end, says he's not doing the pool, he's helped out a lot anyway. Mark is next to K.D., and really maneuvers the BobCat very well: he can drop a load of sand with pin-point precision. Mike is next to Mark (Lord only knows how I manage to keep them straight - I just know I'll mix up their names soon), and keeps everything orderly and moving. I hope he's training to supervise pool installations, because I think he'll be very good at it. Last - but never least - is Eddie on the left. Eddie's a great guy, always cheerful and has a quick smile - and willing to do that heavy work with a "can-do" attitude. God bless 'em, they're a great group of guys!

More pool installation blogging!

Well, it's about time I got off my rear end and let y'all know how our wonderful pool is coming along. I'm actually about three posts behind: I keep getting all these great photos and videos, but then forget to put them up. So, over the next few days, I'm planning to do at least one post per day to catch up.

This will be a good idea, because the pool is almost full of water, almost completely backfilled, almost completely plumbed, and I think they're going to start pouring the concrete rim on Thursday... I'd better get cracking!

More pool-installation blogging... Sort of.

So, the big Caterpillar bulldozer was delivered yesterday, and scraped out the foundation for the big steel building.

Funny, it seemed bigger than it looks in this picture... [puzzled]

What does that have to do with the pool? Well, remember this? --->

Now it looks like

<--- that!

That's the dirt pile which was left over from digging out our basement when we "built" the house. I really hadn't realized how HUGE it was!

The Beloved Husband had been using the bucket and back hoe on the tractor (no, the Cat Front Loader - on the left - still isn't running) that you see in this picture on the right, and had actually gotten a lot done over the weekend.

But the contractor's 'dozer pushed that pile over and spread it out in an hour - and even graded it quite a bit. We're going to request that the dirt dug out for the pool is spread out in a similar way, I think.

Oh, and I would have had more pictures and movies of the 'dozer levelling the land for the steel building, but I'd just gotten my new camera and had to charge the batteries, first. *sigh* No more AA batteries for my camera!

This is the cleared area for the 45 x 80-ish steel building, and he levelled it in about, oh, five hours? Amazingly, it's also really flat - very cool, considering the size and apparent crudity of the 'dozer.

Hey, and we're hoping to mould that dirt pile in the back into a new backdrop for a shooting range, now that the old pile is flattened and spread out. The Beloved Husband says it's in a better position, anyway: it's along the ridgeline, so we won't be shooting "downhill" like we sort of were with the other pile.

At any rate, they left the dozer overnight and picked it up this morning, just as I was leaving to take the Munchkin to school. This gave me an opportunity to - again! - use the camera and take a video of how they LOAD these behemoths:

I'd never seen this done before, and had assumed that the trailer was loaded from the back. So, now I know better!

Finally, the long anticipated POOL-INSTALLATION BLOGGING!!! (Part 1)

Last year, the Beloved Husband and the Darling Daughter went on a virtual research trip to decide what pool we wanted to install in our new, planning-to-be-here-for-the-next 30-years house. They discovered Viking Pools, a company that makes fiberglass, in-ground pools, and settled on the "Gulf Coast" (click on "Freeform," then scroll down to click on "Gulf Coast" in the popup window).

The Gulf Coast is a large pool, and full of details which will make it easy to maintain and keep clean for the life of the pool. It's also big! Very big! You'll see how big when you look at the pics under the fold.

Anyway, the Husband and Munchkin decided on this pool, but then had to find out a local dealer.

Guess what? We've got one right down the road! Terry Francisco is our contact with Tune & Toler (as Dominion Pool and Spa - make sure you check out their website, it's very well done), a Class A construction company that deals exclusively (well, in the pool business, anyway) with Viking Pools. Terry came in for the initial consult made suggestions and recommended various items, and so on, but was always respectful of our choices and questions. For instance, I'd heard a lot about salt chlorination systems. Terry said they could certainly do that, but then informed us about the pool chemical system they used, its pros and cons... and then let us make the decision. If we still wanted the salt chlorination, then that's what he'd install for us.

All along, Terry has been very responsive to our questions and very proactive in making this a positive experience. He's willing to take the time to make sure we know what's going on - even if there are bobbles. He's of the opinion (as am I) that mistakes and mishaps are going to happen whatever you do. However, the way they're dealt with is what makes or breaks the deal. I don't mind if mistakes are made, but I want them fixed in an open, professional, and fair manner. I have confidence that Terry will do that.

So, if you're in the Pittsylvania County, VA, area and you need a pool installed, or a house built, or some light commercial construction done, call Terry at Tune & Toler!

All right... On to some pictures...