Good Questions!!

I found this pool builder while surfing the web and found the information on this site helpful GREAT QUESTIONS  Unsure about this company we selected California Pools and were very happy.  The link really has some good questions that I did not think of.

Before & After

 I work with a doctor so before and after pictures is our business.

 

BEFORE

AFTER

Completed Project!!!!

We are visiting in a couple of weeks then I can take some professional pictures and upload them.  Stephen just sent these over so I thought I would post them.  We will do a walkthrough of the final project when we visit.  From the photo’s it appears that everything looks beautiful.  Can’t wait to use the pool it’s 72 and sunny in Phoenix today and 55 and rainy in Portland, OR. Although I’ve not done the final walk through my experience with California Pools was very professional and responsive.  As I mentioned in the beginning of this project I’m a hard to please client and my husband is all about the details.  I would strongly recommend this company to anyone but particularly to out of state individuals because they do not need to be micromanaged.  I noticed in our community Estrella Mountain that most of the homes do not have a backyard.  Most of our neighbors are waiting for the market to turn around.  I hope my blog has been helpful and I would be happy to answer any of your comments or questions.   

California Pools

California Pools

Today they are filling up the pool and wrapping up.  My father-in-law says the backyard looks beautiful.  We are in Oregon so we’ve been unable to see with our own eyes.  He has been monitoring the entire process and calling my husband about 10 times a day to give updates.  If my father-in-law says it looks beautiful then it does.  He has been on poor Steve and the workers daily.  I guess during the process his two little doggies Boggy and Zammy escaped out the side gate while Dad was on the phone.  The construction guys came around to the front door ringing the door bell to get his attention.  Then the other guys chased them down and brought them back home.  Thank you guys both Jeff and I appreciated that those dogs are everything to him.  As you know if you’ve been reading I sent my first email to Mike on 6/14/2011 and we went back and forth for months.  I gathered all of the bids at the end of July and covered up the contracting companies and sent it to Mike to give me comparables and the difference.  He sent me a detailed email explaining the difference between his bid and the others.  He broke it down to every detail and his emails were very lengthy.  We finally decided to go with California Pools in October.  The first day of construction was 10/10/2011 and today we are filling the pool wrapping up the project December 23, 2011.  We pretty much up graded everything.  My husband purchased a Lynx BBQ, burner, sink, fans, outdoor heater, and outdoor shower in Oregon.  When we moved dad out we placed everything on the truck.  My husband found a Lynx BBQ from a contractor in Oregon that was brand new.  I guess it was installed improperly and caught on fire burning only the wires to the BBQ.  He picked it up for $800 and worked with Lynx to replace the wiring harness which was nothing.  He installed that one here and cleaned up the older one that we have replacing all of the guts and polishing the stainless steel. My husband was a purchasing manager for 17 years and is not only thrifty but handy.  He knows how to pick up his electronics and high end appliances and picked up an outdoor hanging heater for a ridiculous amount to hang on the patio.  So none of that stuff was included in the bid just the installation.  Kami was our scheduler and Steve was our construction superintendent.  My husband Jeff pretty much took over the project once I selected the company that I felt was most competent to do the backyard.  We picked up all of the materials and he kept upgrading during the process.  We did have a few bumps in the road.  The hard dig was the first one but that was out of every ones control.  Then we came out over Thanksgiving for the week and noticed that the materials were on the sidewalk and partially on our neighbor’s yard which they did not mind.  The backyard was a complete construction site and a mess with mud and stuff.  During that week no work was done and we thought that we would be having a meeting.  They were painting the fences in Estrella and the contractors had stuff leaning up on the fencing which my husband had to move.  He was concerned that all of the soda cups and mud in the pool would clog the drains.  We both sent an email to Mike and Kami upon returning to Oregon.  I was none to happy.  Mike had no idea about the trash in the pool and I chalk the entire situation up to poor communication between all of us about the construction schedule.  We should of scheduled a meeting if that was expected.  Mike had a cleaning crew out to clean up.  We decided to add lighting in the front as well as the ones we purchased for the back.  The ones that were shown to my husband by the lighting guy from California Pools was gorgeous copper not a spot on them.  They came out and installed the lighting and they had spots on them oxidizing.  Dad said that only two lights were acceptable.  My husband received several calls from Dad angry about the lighting.  When Jeff went to the lighting guy he said polish them.  Now that is unacceptable.  We purchased new lights and we understand that copper does oxidize however not right out of the box.  Jeff sent the email to Mike and he said he would take care of it that this must be a manufacturing defect.  This was a very reasonable response and customer service.  Mike sent people out to polish the lighting and all was great because Dad was completely happy.  Overall I want to say that California Pools was wonderful.  I have not seen the finished product I go out in two weeks at that point I will take tons of pictures.  I would recommend California Pools to anyone who is considering installing a backyard.  They did not do the putting green we will have that installed when we visit in January.  Estrella has lots of vacation homes and if you live out of state you need a good company that you can count on.  I hope this helps.

California Pools and the Process

California Pools and the Process

What a process and we are still not done:)  

• Bid Process
• Conceptual Drawing Final
• Selecting Materials
• HOA Approval  
• Drawing Plots
• Permits
• Dig
• Gas, Electric & Water Lines
• Rebar
• Shot Crete and Waterfall with Boulders
• Block Fire Pit and Barbeque
• Decking
• Finishing Barbeque
• Tiling Pool
• Gravel on sides of the house
• Installing outdoor lighting

The materials that we selected:)  

• Pool Material Pebbletec the color we selected was Midnight Blue
• Decking Material we selected was travertine Monterrey Crema
• Tile Monterrey Catania Sand with Beige Grout 
• BBQ Surface Monterrey Sand with a polish finish and the Stone MPT ledger stone color Bark

     

   

 

  

 

  

 

Estrella Mountain Pool Companies

I started looking at pool companies and reading tons of information on line in early June.  On June 14^th I found this interesting blog: How to Build My Own Pool 

I then bid out the project to the following companies:

•   Shasta Pools Contact Mike
•   Presidential Pools  Contact Mike
•   Paddock Pools  Contact Russ 
•   Pioneer Pools  Contact Susie  
•   California Pools Contact David 
•   Cameo Pools  Contact Dave 
•   Dolphin Pools  Contact Chris  
•   Rondo Pools  Contact Bryan 

    Why did I bid out the project?  I bid out the project because I was a purchasing manager for many years and spending $100K was a big expense.  Both my husband and I are demanding and detailed oriented and I wanted to deal with a company that could satisfy our requirements.  To bid out the project I called all of the pool companies that I could find and explained that I live in Oregon and we purchased a home in Estrella Goodyear and needed a backyard.  Then I got email addresses and sent the following items:

1)       Property address

2)       Photo’s and measurements of the backyard.

3)       A drawing that my husband made of our dream backyard.

No details about materials I knew that would change the pricing once we traveled down that road in the process.  I wanted to see conceptual drawings first then look at materials.

I would like to talk about each of these companies individually and my experience.  First off I can eliminate two off the bat.  The first one was Shasta Pools Shasta Pools believe it or not.  I actually was disappointed because they were so large and I just figured good. When I sent out the project to the project manager Mike for bid I never heard a response back from Shasta Pools.  After a couple of weeks and going back and forth with the other companies I decided to give the project manager Mike a call and follow up with him.  I asked him if he received my email and why they had not gotten back to me. He informed me that I did not know how it works in regards to a pool project.  He said that I needed to come into the office and go over the project. I explained that we had to do this via email because I lived in Oregon and I could provide him with everything that he needed. To make a long story short it’s a good old boys club and women obviously know nothing.  I thought about our phone conversation and was so irritated by the time I got home that night that I called and left a message for the sales manager and I think it was Steve.  Needless to say I never received a call or email back from either of them. I did not think this was a good start to a long relationship so I immediately deleted them from my bid process.  Later I looked them up through the BBB and heres the link BBB Complaints Rip Off Reports on the Internet and It's clear that I'm not the only one with an issue. From this experience I would not do business with them in the future. The second one was Pioneer Pools because Susie said that Goodyear is out of the service area.  I guess they have an office in Tucson and Estrella is too far.