Phase II

Day 112 - The pool house construction has begun again. I started installing windows and doors along with siding.

Day 113 - The problem with doing most of this is that you forgot how to do it since the last time - approximately 15 years ago. It really looks good from a distance for pictures, but the old saying start from the back and go to the front. It will hide a lot of issues. Fortunately in between days, I always had the opportunity to sit and ponder on what I wanted to do next.

Day 114 - Front is done except the top. I'm not sure quite yet what I was going to do with the ceiling.

Day 114 - A good perspective of the pool - pool house from the driveway.

Day 123 - Andrew and I working on the front construction. Thanks Andrew!

Day 123 - My friend Andrew helped me today and we got the entire front section of the gable end completed. It really is starting to come along. I got 3 of the 4 lights complete. Missing one due to lack of electrical wire on the front left. It all takes time.

Day 123 - I like the evening shots.

Day 123 - Trying to get it straightened out. In front of the pool house is a leaf net on the pool. Since it's already mid-November, we've been fighting leaves full-time. They haven't winterized the pool yet and we don't have our Looploc Mesh cover delivered yet - SIGH....

Day 141 - I decided to use the plastic roofing. Prior to finishing this, I wanted to insulate the roof. We've got SOOO much space upstairs, I originally thought I'd use it as storage, but forethought dictated that I prepare it for usable space, if I decide to change in the future. We have water, gas and electic run into the pool house, so why not. I also placed floor sheathing and sheetrock (enough to finish the second floor) prior to closing it in. We've got an attic door inside that leads to this 2nd floor. I though it would make a great office space.

Day 141 - This is the front roof area. White aluminum trim, vinyl soffit and plastic wainscot for the ceiling all insulated prior to installation. Got that left light working now. What's wrong with these pictures - OHHHHH, it's already snowing and the pool is still NOT WINTERIZED - SHOCKER!

Day 141 - After thinking about it, I took the time to add windows upstairs just in case we do decide to finish it. 12 sheets of plywood and 12 sheets of sheetrock upstairs just in case I get bored this winter when there is a lot of snow.

Day 143 - Got all of the siding completed on the house and wrapped a couple of the poles as you can see. It's really starting to shape up. I hadn't gotten any time prior to it getting cold, but I've got a LOT of caulking to do to hide all of my mistakes with the aluminum trim. I'm not really too terribly good with trim work.

Day 143 - As you can barely see, they finally winterized the pool and put our pool cover on. Since it got cold, we weren't able to use our hot tub without switching all the plumbing route and heating the hot tub from baseline outside temperature, so we didn't really use the hot tub but twice due to the time it took to heat it up (2 hours). It's the 2nd week of December and we can finally use our hot tub, although they didn't get the hot tub cover yet. We originally wanted the hot tub running in September - GO FIGURE.

Day 143 - I'm almost done with the entire outside of the pool house. I've got caulking to complete, a little wrapping of columns and sometime in the spring, I'm going to re-do the roof peak. It just doesn't work with the shingles I used.

Day 150 - 12/19/2010 - I have completed all of the columns and siding on the pool house. Except for caulking and roof repair, the pool house is finally completed on the outside. It was 25 degrees out there when I was wrapping the columns. Next week it's time for delivery of stone so we can get it to the level needed to lay blue stone down in the Spring and it will make it much easier for the remaining part of the winter to walk around. I've been tracking crush and run everywhere in the house.

Day 150 - We went out to the store for a couple of hours and our hot tub cover arrived with all the installation parts set on top. I guess I'm expected to do the installation. I've finally got everything the pool company owed me for 2010 with just 12 days to spare in 2010. They have to repair some of the plaster and open the pool which means adding salt to finalize the contract. I'm going to wait and see how long before they ask for the final draw.

Day 150 - I'm pretty happy with the installation of the pool cover except for the fact that they did on the day it snowed, so we really can't see the final product until snow clears. They didn't use the cable provided around the hot tub, but I contacted the Looploc dealer and he indicated it wasn't always necessary. I did go out and buy some parts. I think I'm going to add the protection of the cable wrap by placing a couple hooks on each side to hold the cable in place and tighten it to give the pool cover some further holding strength. Both guys that came out had never seen a cable and couldn't figure out what to do with it even though the instructions indicated what to do. Quite frankly at this point, I let them do what they did and I'll complete it the way I think it needs to be done - SIGH...

Day 150 - I like this view of the pool house. Next step, a few things to complete on the pool house, but PA blue stone needs to wrap around the entire area of the hot tub so it's easier to move in and out for the remaining part of the Winter. Not sure if I'm going to beat the storms with that, but time will only tell. The hot tub has been in regular use since the pool was winterized and is working really well with the hot tub cover.

Day 150 - I have had problems with my Freezer kegerator in the garage when the temperatures dip. It usually freezes the keg. I moved the kegerator into the pool house and unfortunately cracked the siding on the corner as I moved it. Another thing to fix this spring. The kegerator works GREAT in the pool house, since the pool house is slightly insulated and the pool pump and heater generate enough heat to keep the temperature a whopping 40 degrees inside. It's also now home to all my batteries for all the toys. I was able to clean out my garage completely this weekend and everything is starting to look like normal after 134 days of constant work and lack of cleaning. It was well deserved. Time to get a cup of beer and soak in the hot tub. I'll continue with this page when the upstairs begins to improve.

I do have to give CREDIT where credit is due. There is a web site at http://www.jeanco.com/ where their one design caught my eye at http://www.jeanco.com/images/PoolHouse07.jpg . The photo on the left is the original. In Photoshop, I extended the roof out in front and to the left to get the image on the right above which I went off during the construction and provided Lana a visual of what I envision in my head. I couldn't create the gable front in Photoshop, but it is there in the original photograph. After an extensive google search for pool houses, the only 2 pool houses I really liked were my sister's pool house and this one. I'm very happy with the end result. Just don't look too close. I am a seasoned "Amateur" in this business.

I LOVE the web in the ability to find information. Throughout this construction I looked up information for building the shed, doing electrical circuits, siding, roofing, etc. There is a wealth of information given you have some reasonable talent to extend from articles.

Day 162 - Taken on the last day of 2010 (Jan 31). This is the entrance from the existing porch. This will all be PA blue stone walking area. The area on the left will be a small area for a fire pit.

Day 162 - A good full-view perspective of the entire back yard capturing all the storage sheds. We've got our outdoor BOSE speakers hooked up and running off of my inherited Kenwood Stereo system. They work really well. They'll be buried into the walking areas.

Day 182 - Just a picture after a pretty good storm from the porch.

Day 183 - Another view of the pool that's hard to distinguish

Day 183 - Only one Bose speaker above the snow fall. We had about 1 foot of snow.

Day 183 - Snowman built by Lana