The swimming pool – The Big Day so Awaited

End of August, I give my pool representative, Bernard Métivier, a ring. He is not available so I leave a message!

Beginning of september, no news from Bernard Métivier. I call back and ask to speak with someone about my inground swimming pool installation scheduled for september 19th 2012. I am transfered to a certain Jaqcues who informs me that one of his team leaders will get back to me. The guy is called Philippe.

Another week goes by, we are now september 12th. No worries, I tell myself there is still another week before the 19th.

During the week, Philippe calls back to let me know they are running behind on pool installation at this time of the season. He tells me they’ll come in October. WHAT?!!!!!

I won’t be on vacation at that time. So I try to reach my sales representative, Bernard Métivier at TREVI on boulevard Pierre Bertrand in Quebec city, he is off on vacation for 2 weeks. I hit the roof and want to cancel my purchase on the spot. I send him an e-mail that never got a reply.

Once I got my senses back, I remembered that we won’t be using the pool until june 2012 anyhow. So I stay ZEN…..

I call Philippe back to know exactly when they will come, another surprise. It rained all week and they have further delays.

What the heck, I stay ZEN and wait…….  🙂

The swimming pool – Project Start Date

August 21th, we decided on September 19th 2011 to install our new in ground swimming pool in the backward. We need to plan for at least 10 days of work. Happy and slightly excited. I set my summer vacation accordingly to be on site when excavation begins. I tell everyone, my family, my friends, my colleagues, everything is peachy.

Survey certificate in hand, I head to the manufacturer (TREVI) for our second visit. The sales guy digitizes the certificate, opens it in a drawing tool called Google SketchUp and with 2 or 3 clics of his mouse, adjusts the scale to add our bean pool drawing where we want it. He finishes the whole thing with reference lines to show we are in line with our town’s regulations. Wow, I am impressed. In less than 30 minutes, I leave with the plan I will give to the town authorities.

End of August, I meet the town employee, Simon Demers with my plan so I can obtain a construction permit. I am somewhat worried because the town union is on strike and might cause delays. September 2nd, I receive my construction permit that I immediately stick in the window as instructed (Not, it will stay in the file cabinet during all of the work, lol).

Everything was moving along nicely, I could never have imagined the frustration coming…

The swimming pool – An Impulse Decision

August 2011, a little car trip during our summer holiday led us directly to our swimming pool manufacturer (TREVI) on Pierre-Bertrand boulevard in Québec city. After about 30 minutes of discussions with an excellent sales representative, I was throwing down my signature (and my girlfriend’s) on a sales contract for an in ground swimming pool to be installed in October 2011.

What a nice gift, the kids are going crazy, mom is smiling from ear to ear and daddy is imagining himself floating like a little whale sunbathing during the summer of 2012. The next few chronicles  will show how naive I was. I jumped in the project, not the pool yet, and in the work that will have to be done 🙂

These pictures show a project that is similar to what we imagined :