Category: Our Home

Backyard Project “Swimming Pool” Reveal

Has it really been 4 months since my last blog post?! I apologize for being absent lately but I had to take a break to handle “life”. Our kids are back in school now, I am feeling better and our backyard project is winding down so I will have more time to focus on my blog which makes me happy 🙂

What Have I Been up to for the Last Four Months?

I lost both my parents this year, which has been incredibly difficult for me. Taking time to deal with the loss has helped me through the mourning process. I am feeling much better these days, more positive and look forward to the future and spending time with those closest to me. In an upcoming post, I will detail some things I did to help me deal with my grief…if you are interested in hearing about it, let me know in the comments below.

Another stressful and very time consuming area of my life has been trying to finalize our backyard project. As many of you know, we started Our Backyard Project (Phase 2) Planning to Build a Pool and Pool House, two years ago. To say this was a challenging project would be a massive understatement. There was nothing easy about this process. Building during a Pandemic complicated matters further due to lack of labor and shortages of supplies. Time lines went way longer than anticipated and costs increased dramatically.

But when all is said and done, I am happy to report that we are so close to the finish line and LOVE our new backyard space!

We have a beautiful pool and pool house to enjoy with family and friends. Spending time outdoors this summer has been a blessing for both my body and mind. Granted, much of the time I spent outside has been working…but my efforts are well worth it.

The Final Reveal is also on YouTube

If you would like to see the reveal of the pool on YouTube click on link!

Final Reveal of Our New Swimming Pool

Building a Pool with a Pool House

After a year and a half, our pool is finally done! What a complicated process it has been. Building a pool house simultaneously made everything more difficult but I do believe building the two together yielded a better result in the end.

Of course, this isn’t always possible to do for many people and for numerous reasons, but in hindsight I am happy we made the decision to incorporate building the pool with the pool house. So many decisions depend on one another, and to be able to think of the project collectively helped me create a more cohesive space.

Things to Consider before Building a Pool

The decision to build a pool on your property is a big one. You may be interested in reading Before Taking “the Plunge” to Build a Swimming Pool, Ask Yourselves these Questions and Which Type of Pool is Right for your Home?

Do you have small children? You will definitely want to read Is it Worth the Cost to Add an Automatic Pool Cover to a Swimming Pool – Discussing the Pros and Cons.

How to Situate a Pool in the Backyard

The first big decision we made for the pool was orientation. Where in the yard would the pool be best situated? Luckily, we have a big enough space and had several options. Many different views were presented to me, and in the end..we decided on a perpendicular orientation to the house. This opinion was brought about by a landscape designer I hired. We had a simple drawing created for the yard that optimized views, space, and aesthetic design.

The landscape designer suggested to situate the pool to line up with the back door entrance, as you can see in the photo below.

This option did bring about other complications with grading and water issues, as the pool house is located very close to a hill. But, I still believe the location was the best option for our yard to optimize everything we wanted in our outdoor space.

Sitting in the hot tub and enjoying the mountain views and the changing colors of the sky is simply fabulous.

We opted for a raised hot tub that connects directly to the pool house. The hot tub is independently operated from the pool so it can be heated and controlled all year long.

I get asked often, where I get my bistro lights HERE that I attached to our fence. The warm glow at night is so pretty and calming.

Waterline Tile Choices for a Swimming Pool

I get so many questions regarding waterline tiles. You may be interested in Things to Consider When Choosing the Waterline Tile for a Pool. I selected a black porcelain tile with white veining. The tile is textured and raised in areas, it is not a perfectly flat tile.

My tile choice is not a color that pops but rather blends into the pool and background. We have a lot going on in our yard so I don’t want the waterline tile to stand out but rather compliment the pool…if that makes sense?

As you can see from the above picture, when you look at the pool, your eye is not drawn to the waterline tile…which was my intent.

I also get a lot of questions about the color of our pool. Check out Deciding on the Interior Finish of a Swimming Pool and Deciding on Water Color of a Swimming Pool.

This particular evening was so lovely, watching the moon, the clouds and the sky change colors with my family.

Goodnight Moon….

Another treat was to see a beautiful rainbow over our yard on my son’s birthday! So much to be grateful for…and we are 🙂

When I posted this pic on my Instagram stories, I had a lot of questions about the floats. Check out these inexpensive floats HERE, HERE and HERE.

Is it Worth the Cost to Build a Pool?

I know many of you are building pools right now and probably running into many frustrations as well. The process is not easy but do your homework and research well. Pool builders these days are backed up, some as many as two years as more home owners are investing into their houses and are now able to spend more time at home. The lack of materials is a huge problem too right now, you may have to settle on products you don’t like to get the job complete. Prices are increasing, for just about everything it seems, pools as well.

I am constantly asked, would I do it again? The answer is yes. I would do it differently, many lessons learned from this process but yes I would.

Hope you enjoyed the post and pictures. I have a lot more info on my blog regarding the pool build, so check them out!

It’s so good to be back, I missed you all! Talk again soon

Denise xox

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