When Pigs Fly...and it seems like they MAY be flying

When Pigs Fly...that's about when I thought I would get to see a completed pool, but oddly enough...they MAY actually be flying, or at least sprouting wings. Translation: Dave and I recently took out a loan to complete our pool, and it MAY actually happen. I hesitate to even UTTER these words (which is why I am typing it instead :P sneaky, eh?) as I fear that if I do, it may never happen.

We are so excited this this may come to fruition, that Dave and I (mostly Dave) have already started working on the backyard. He pulled all the weeds (notice no pictures, it was actually too embarrassing to even document how unruly the backyard had become) which was a multiple day, many trash can dumping adventure. He then dug a trench, which I am happy to say I helped do (at the very end) and we laid some pvc pipe down in order to relocate the dog's water spicket (as the current one will be behind the child safety fence and frankly we felt bad that the dogs would be able to SEE their water spicket but not use it).
side of the house trench
front trench
Dave adding the purple goo (which I learned was for cleaning the pipe) then the blue goo (which apparently is glue)
attaching the pipe

At first when we thought the pool may actually be completed we thought we would tell no one, but remember, people this has been 2 years in the making and we are so excited, stoked, elated, (insert any happy adjective here) that we could not contain our excitement. After some discussion, Dave agreed to allow me to blog about the recent news.

While I will not bore you with the details (well just yet anyway, more to come), I will show you some pictures. Keep in mind, not much has happened here, but again we are just SO excited that we may actually put an end to this 2 year ordeal of heartache and despair...you think I'm being overly dramatic here, but I'm really not.

So, to start you off, we hope and pray that we won't be screwed over again, cuz frankly we can't afford to take another loan out, and 2. I don't know if we could bear to be taken again. Although hopefully, this time will be different. This new pool man is a friend of Dave's captain at work, so he knows the guy. We went out last weekend to look at pools of people's that he has done, and he had nothing but satisfied customers. After this little outing, Dave and I actually allowed ourselves to think about what it would be like to SWIM in our own pool...yes, this has been a very taboo subject until now. This new pool guy set us up with a concrete guy who came and poured the little wall...

this is on the path to the spa and will be covered with rock work and will be a place for weary swimmers to park their behinds :)
This is behind the grotto rock work and will be a planter with trees and shrubs
closer to the spa...the very corner will be planters so their will be a curve (the rest will be stamped, colored concrete)

Before I go TOO far into detail, let's back up...rewind if you will. *this is the part where the squiggly lines would appear if you were watching TV and the cheesy music would start*. Let's go back in time 2 years so you can remember what our pool looked like. THIS is what our pool looked like BEFORE the latest work...hasn't been touched in nearly two years.

This is the view from the right side (in the back corner is the spa)
and the view to the left side

So far, all we have had done by the professionals is the concrete rock wall. On Tuesday, the rock guys are supposed to come and make this concrete wall 1 ft taller and make it look like the rocks in the pool. (again, for your viewing pleasure)...

rock water slide (Dave's design)
grotto (Dave's design again)
View from the rock water slide (if you look to the upper right you will see the reef...this was built for Flash who does like the water, but panics because he does not have webbed feet and is not a good swimmer.

Wednesday, the concrete people are supposed to come and finish the grading so that they can do the concrete pour for the patio and other concrete areas on Thursday or Friday. And if all goes well, the pebble guy comes out on Saturday. That of course is in our utopia, and the plan for this moment...it changes so often.

After that, we will add the finishing touches, including a removable basketball hoop

Again it is dirty because it has been sitting for TWO YEARS!!!

Some umbrellas, which we can change the position on depending on the sun, some patio furniture, and when we have money a patio covering which will have two ceiling fans under it. (clearly I have no pictures for this because we do not have them - except for the ceiling fans...we do have those).

We can then do the landscaping such as plants, trees, grass (we are contemplating artificial grass that is pet friendly). And of course, put up Caiden's playground set that Dave and Papa Jim built and Grammie Sue made the materials for.

Can you believe it...after two years we might actually have a FUNCTIONAL and beautiful backyard. I can't wait for you all to see it! :)