Pool Part 2

I had full intentions of sharing some in progress photos with you... and well... I got distracted. (Like normal) So I am back with some in progress photos. We still have a LONG way to go... but its looking a lot better from where we left off.

Alright. So back to our to do list

- Level out the extra dirt - use it to level out the side yard
- Have electrician put in electric line
- Have gas line installed
- Get a heater for the pool
- Build retaining wall around the pool so the yard does not cave in and ruin the pool
- Design and build a deck around the pool
- Plant in front of deck
- Plant something big at end of patio to block site  of the pool
- Stain deck
- Add furniture and Accessories (the fun part!)
- Enjoy pool
- Add Rails
- Finish Retaining wall around patio
- Build steps onto deck
- Plan fire pit area off patio
- More landscaping around the pool/deck area

So a few things about the photos below.

1. the fire pit area is a mess. I threw scrap wood over there and never cleaned it up. so just keeping it real with how it looks right now. Right now we are planning on leveling out the area around... putting down sand and pea gravel. Its a small space. so I am trying to figure out how to make it work...

2. We currently have a little bench i set up as a pretend step onto the deck. I'm not entirely sure what we are doing in this area either. which is why only a portion of the retaining wall is built. I have a lot of configuring to do...

3. This deck will look so much better with rails and stain. Just wait.

4. My deck upstairs is bare now that I stole all the furniture. Now I need to find something to go up there...

5. We decided to take a break and enjoy the pool for a few weeks... After the Fourth of July we are hoping to get working on the fire pit area... finishing up the retaining wall ... adding the rails.. and maybe staining the deck :) It will be a busy July!

6. If any of you are curious.. this is taking up basically our ENTIRE back yard. But luckily we are on a corner lot... so we have a ton of yard over there for the kids to play... we are considering building a playhouse over in that area... we also use the side yard for bags ... baseball practice... and volleyball :)

But enough explaining... Here is the in progress photos of our back yard as it currently stands.




Here is the view looking down from the top deck... I'm not entirely sure on the furniture set up. I figure once we get rails up... I will re-arrange it again.

Here is the view looking from the patio

Here is the view from the side yard

Here's that disaster area i referenced above ;)

And another shot from above showing you the patio/part of the deck/pool/and future fire pit area

I would have loved to do wide stairs all the way across the deck to the patio. However with kids... we need rails and a gate for safety. Maybe once they get a little bigger we could change this up... Who knows what we will be doing by then!

Right now... we have a lot things to do. But enough of it is done that we are able to enjoy it...
Maddux has been living in the pool. I swear ... even in this cool weather we have been having... 70 degrees and he is out there ready to swim! At least we can already see that this was a great investment for our family.