Holiday Makeover - Demolition

While the well was being drilled we also began work on the yard and pool.  The pool was drained...

The coping and tile was chipped away...

We have a crack in the pool  To repair it, a 3.5" grinder was used to cut the mortar alongside the crack.  Every foot or so a perpendicular cut was made.  A rotohammer drill was used to drill a 1/2" hole on either side of the crack, and a square "U" shaped piece of rebar was hammered into the holes to keep the crack from spreading.

Meanwhile, the landscaping crew demo'd the front walk, which will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.

And the landscape crew had some local help...

Next week we'll be working on the stone patios, pool, and yard.  Merry Christmas!

Holiday Makeover

Now that rains have returned to central Texas we are finally tackling the exterior of the house.  We hired a landscape architect to help us come up with an overall plan.  We're going to be working on:

 - landscaping (irrigation, new plants, rocks)
 - new front walk
 - new hillside seating with firepit
 - new coping, tile, and pebble finish in the pool
 - new deck with cabana around pool
 - natural stone to cover concrete patios

But first we need to address our lack of water.  Our 480' well went dry in August.  Luckily we had just installed a 2500 gallon external water tank.

We've been having water delivered by truck every couple of weeks since August.  Water is a precious resource - this experience has been an eye opener.

We finally drilled a new well yesterday.

We began reaching really good water flow around 720'.  In the picture below you can see the water spraying up as the pipe is drilled down.  In the background between the trucks is a large square silt bag.  The water coming out of the well flows into the silt bag where the particulate matter is trapped.

 

Here's another view of the silt bag and a silt fence to catch the silt while drilling.

Once we reached ~720' we were in the Trinity aquifer.  It is recognizable by the red, sandy drilling waste that comes out of the hole while drilling.  As we drilled further and neared the bottom of the aquifer, we began encountering a more yellowish limestone mixed with black gravel.  This was the indication to stop drilling so as to not reach the shale level.  Here's some of the limestone and gravel that came up at the 800' level.

Our completed well is 820' deep and flows over 60 gallons per minute.  We'll be putting in a pump and connecting it to the 2500 gallon storage tank next week.