Nearly completed pool post!

I've shared some pictures of our new pool, but since then, we've had a few things done to nearly finish the project.

Our pool guy installed a marble slab at the spot where the hot tub spills over to the pool.  This made a huge difference since now instead of just flowing flush to the ledge, there's a waterfall effect & I love the noise & ambiance it gives!

 

Our yard is definitely not complete but we've made a TON of headway by tackling the landscaping around the pool cage.  What a job that was!  I was exhausted with just going to the nursery & selecting plants in the sweltering sun & that was just a tiny piece of the puzzle!  I don't have a green thumb in any way shape or form & I know little to nothing about plants, other than what I like the look of.  I had an idea in my mind & it ended up being very easy to pick what & how many plants we wanted to surround the cage.  It took us two days working for many hours in the insane heat to get the job done, but it really looks great, minus the dirt beyond.

 Lord knows we don't need it right now, but we also put our fire pit back up in anticipation the the colder months that will eventually come.  Our vacation put a hitch in our work, so this weekend we're going to level out the ground with a rake & put down grass seed.  In a month or so, our yard should finally, hopefully be back to normal.  It probably cost us about $300 in landscaping, but had we done it professionally, it would've been more than $1000.  As we were pouring sweat & nearly keeling over from heat exhaustion, I wished that I had endless money with no budget!!  

Our cats have been absolutely loving the outdoor lifestyle!  We leave our slider open a crack while we're home so they can come in & out as they like.

Mike wanted to get an outdoor pet bed for the animals & so far we've only seen K.C. (above cat) in it twice!  They'd rather be lounging on the hard concrete than this nice hammock!  As you can see from the stack of rafts strewn in the corner, we need to get something to contain them.

I had this in mind from Amazon.

A bought a few inexpensive terra cotta pots from Walmart & spray painted them to add a pop of color to the patio.

We ran to Lowe's, had them cut us a board, picked out some hooks, gave it a quick splash of turquoise spay paint & Mike drilled it into the wall for a DIY towel rack.  Love it!  It was Mike's idea that the two hooks on each end be dragonflies. He's crafty like that!

In the circle above, you can see that they extended the pavers beyond the screen so that we'd have a pad to put our grill & smoker.



I still pinch myself every time I sit out here or jump in the pool... I cannot believe our dream pool has come true!