Phase V

Day 271 - The entire pond is stripped out to put a new liner in. We're having rain delays on getting it back in - UGH!!!

Day 271 - the outside of the bar. it will be an L-shape and extend to the pool house in the back.

Day 271 - The seating for the firepit area will meld into the right side of the bar.

Day 271 - As earier mentioned, pond construction re-visited. The water fall will have an additional board placed in there. This one lasted over 5 years with no problem.

Day 271 - We had all kinds of problems with the bottom drain due to so much junk at the bottom of the pond. Going to place another bottom drain in and keep the bottom clean this time.

Day 271 - These stone were VERY HARD to get out of the pond. They'll have to go back in after the liner is placed in the pond.

Day 271 - This is the temporary pond for all the koi. They seem to be taking it well. We're hoping this will be complete by next weekend if we get no rain???

Day 271 - The waterfall area of the pond. Had to purchase some more stone since we broke the originals while removing.

Day 277 - The pond has been a thorn in my side. We finally got everything out of the pond and now it's raining each day. It's a mess, but I hope I can get it up and running again shortly.

Day 277 - Lana got home a little early and skimming the pool. The spring trees really make a mess for the pool. They say it will go away shortly. We're hoping.

Day 277 - Got the fish safely in the horse trough. Hoping they don't stay in too long.

Day 279 - Another day completed on the firepit area with Rottie doing his final inspection.

Day 284 - Began mortering in the caps for the wall. Using Blue stone since I've got wall material on both sides in this area. Lana doesn't like it so far, but it will flow well when the patio is complete.

Day 284 - Began setting the wall for the remaining part of the bar. I decided to put a curve on the front end of the back-facing bar as shown in this picture.

Day 284 - This picture shows it better. It begins with the same width as the front-facing bar, but I curve it out to give much more counter space.

This is the side view of the back wall with the bluestone cap. Water line is mortared in between the walls. This will be the auto-feed water line to the pond. This area will give Rottie a great place to guard.

Day 284 - Picture of the piping coming out here. Left pipe is hot water, middle pipe is cold water running to bar. Right pipe is electric line to bar. I tee'd off and created another run with the cold water line in between the walls on the back end to run water to the pond as automatic leveler for the pond water.

Day 284 - Another picture. The big pipe is for gas line if we decide to put a grill in this area.

Day 284 - Started digging out holes to expose the return line to the pond waterfall to determine the leak.

Day 284 - This is the other end. After digging a little on both sides, rather than pulling all the bluestone up, I did a pressure test on the pipe. When I added air in the lines, it pulled one 90 degree junction out. I forgot to glue it. After gluing I got it all working.

Day 284 - After about 3 weeks, we finally discovered the leak in the pond and after gluing the pipe, it looks like we are on our way. I did a bunch of plumbing in the pond pump house to make life easier in the future. I ran a backwash line into the sump pump so I can drain the pond like I do with the pool. I also ran the sump pump line through the same drain. After this was complete, it appeared like a leak remained. After a couple hours I decided to turn the pump off and it turned out the skimmer basket lid was loose and the sump pump was doing it's job by pumping out the water that was draining in the pond pump house. After placing the skimmer lid back on, it appears all is working again. This week, I'll fix the leak in the skimmer and run the automatic water fill to the skimmer at the same time. Time to get back full-time into pool construction.

Day 285 - Putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Replaced the stone for the walk area between the pool house and the pond. I also started making the seating area for the fire pit area.

Day 285 - The design is used with sandstone in the middle and bluestone on the sides to allow barefeet to walk on the sandstone area on VERY HOT days during the summer. The middle throughout the patio area will have sand stone.

Day 285 - I'm not sure whether this will hold up, but I put stone dust on the inside area of the blue stone and mortared the stone on the outside on the block wall on the seating. I hope there isn't any give. I'll pour cement on the unfinished area to avoid settling to see if it makes any difference.

Day 285 - All this bluestone was mortared in on all sides. It should hold up fine.

Day 285 - I mortared the inner side of the bar wall for further strength based off of Dave's recommendation.

Day 285 - Finished for the weekend. Next weekend, I'll have 3 days to work on it.