In this edition of “Building the Empire,” I’ve got an exciting update on the pool build at our Palm Springs vacation home.
The pool building industry in Southern California is a mess right now. There are material shortages, labor shortages, and terrible delays on construction. From the pool builder’s perspective, business is booming! They all seem to have more business than they can handle, and prices are skyrocketing.
The site
This is the backyard of the vacation home we purchased in Palm Springs, California. We had to rip out a bunch of trees to clear the site, but afterwards we had a nice open lot for the pool.
After everything is completed, we hope the backyard will look something like this:
Slipping timelines
Unfortunately, we went through two different pool builder companies that both pulled a bait and switch on us. After spending weeks designing our pool, quoting materials, and finalizing costs, each builder changed the “dig date.”
Right as we were going to sign the contract with the first builder, they let us know we’d start digging in 6 months! We moved onto another builder, but after we’d paid a deposit, his dig date slipped by two months as well.
Out of desperation, we begged our general contractor to handle the construction, and he graciously agreed. He had contacts in the pool industry and started the dig within a couple of weeks of signing the contract.
Dig Rebar PVC
Permitting delays
As I discussed in last week’s update, we had a prolonged delay in the pool building due to a permitting delay.
But we finally got the good news this past weekend that we got the permit to proceed, and the gunite concrete would be shot around the rebar on Saturday! (Gunite pools have mix of concrete and sand which is shot around rebar to produce a very durable pool.)
So we piled into the car and sped off to Palm Springs to check out the action.
When we got there, the crew was hard at work.
The (un)finished product
We went to drop off some furnishings and house supplies into our storage unit then went to have some lunch. We also charged the Tesla at the Supercharger in Palm Springs.
By the time we got back to the house, the crew was all done!
There are still a lot of steps left to finish the pool, but we made a big leap forward this past weekend.
–TDD
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