Pool Be Gone

By 2000, we had finished most of the renovations inside the house. Initially, one of our main goals was to address the pool area, which had many issues. The most noticeable problem was that all the concrete block planters around the pool were either cracked or leaning.

The pool deck had severe cracks, and at one corner, it had completely separated and lifted from the pool, creating a large gap big enough to fit an entire arm. A previous owner had added supports to the back of the pool wall, and although it had a visible lean, it seemed stable. The pool was over a story below the house, with access through the downstairs back door, across the veranda, and down a set of stairs at the far west end. This was quite a journey when wet after a swim, leaving you very cold by the time you reached the house. By 2003, we had almost entirely stopped using the pool. It was located on the north side of the house with an eleven-foot deep end and was cooled by the constant ocean breeze. We added a pool cover to help warm it and reduce evaporation, but it only received enough direct sunlight during July and August to raise the water temperature to the mid-70s. There was a pool heater, and we tried heating it to 80 degrees for a summer weekend. The heater ran continuously for several days, resulting in a gas bill of several hundred dollars. We considered installing a solar water heater, but since everything on the hill faced north, it wouldn’t receive enough sunlight unless elevated, which would be visible from inside the house. I occasionally swam alone in the pool at night to watch the SeaWorld fireworks, but after hearing about William Shatner’s wife dying while swimming alone and not being found for several days, I decided it wasn’t a good idea.

Certainly, the biggest issue was that the pool area was unattractive, intimidating, and noisy. The retaining wall that separated the pool from the house faced the freeway, causing the noise to bounce off the wall and into the pool area. Although the freeway wasn’t visible from the pool, it was certainly audible. Interestingly, the neighbors mentioned that when the pool was constructed in 1970, it was intended to be positioned much higher on the hill and closer to the house. However, it was installed while the owners were away, and they had to dig deeper on the hill to find stable ground. Moreover, the fill dirt used around the pool consisted of heavy clay that expanded and contracted with the rainy season, leading to significant cracking of the pool decking. When the city noticed the clear cut on the hill, they mandated the construction of a 15-foot tall by 100-foot long retaining wall to stabilize the hillside. According to the neighbors, this was quite expensive, but we have all the receipts, and the total cost was $3000—which might have been a significant amount in 1970. We also discovered later that the rebar in the pool decking was in direct contact with the soil, causing it to rust and leading to further cracking.

We considered several ideas to make the pool area smaller, shallower, and more attractive, but eventually decided against having a pool due to the maintenance it required. The pool was located on the only flat part of the property, which I wanted to use for gardening. Therefore, the decision to fill it in was easy. We envisioned transforming it into a charming walled garden, similar to some gardens in Balboa Park. We hired a landscape architect to create a plan, but after several drafts, it became clear that he didn’t grasp our priorities. Instead of concealing the freeway views and noise, his designs seemed to exacerbate them. We realized we needed someone who could design a hardscape that complemented the house style and created a cohesive look. I wanted to handle the plants and planting design myself. So, we turned to our restoration architect, Marc Tarasuck, who had designed the remodel of our house. We gave him simple instructions: hide as much of the freeway view and noise as possible and create something that appeared to have been built alongside the house. Marc surprised us with his vision and ideas, proposing a concept we hadn’t considered. He suggested a 30-foot tower against the existing retaining wall, just outside the back door, with a spiral staircase leading down to the former pool area. The tower’s roof would be high enough to block much of the freeway and hotel view from the kitchen balcony and dining room. The pool area would be largely replaced by a 13 x 13 outdoor room, which we called the casita, meaning “little house” in Spanish. A large fountain would be installed against the pool wall to further mask freeway noise. The existing gate from the pool area to the garden would be replaced by a large Spanish-style arch. A new door would be added to the back of the pool wall for additional garden access. Most of the existing pool house, where the pool equipment was stored, would be converted into a storage shed, with extra storage added beneath the stairway. We planned to add a new balcony off the upstairs living room to enjoy the bay view, with an arched portico underneath. All new construction walls would be extra thick to give the appearance of thick adobe.

As you might expect, it was overwhelming to process… yet the artist’s rendering by Marc was fantastic, and it was difficult to believe that all this could be transformed from such an unattractive pool area.

We chose to hire the same contractor who had previously remodeled our house. To our pleasant surprise, the cost of this project was lower than anticipated compared to the house remodel. This was because the project did not involve drywall, paint, plumbing, and only required minor electrical work. Additionally, even though we expanded our outdoor entertaining space significantly, our property taxes stayed the same since we didn’t increase the house’s square footage.

Pool Demolition

The first task was filling in the pool. Scott rented a jackhammer and began removing the old pool decking. I gathered the larger pieces and carried them down the hill to build rubble retaining walls and steps. However, the contractor advised us to use as much material as possible to fill the pool, so we started tossing everything into it. We discovered several older patios beneath the current pool decking, and eventually, the contractor had to bring in additional power tools and personnel to remove everything.

Surprisingly, at that time, the city had no regulations or permit requirements for filling in a swimming pool. Consequently, the contractor created his own plan, and we moved forward. They used a jackhammer to create several large holes in the pool’s bottom and removed the top 3 feet of the pool with the same tool. All the debris, including the broken concrete pool planters, old concrete, tile building materials, and perhaps an old toilet and sink or two, was disposed of in the pool.

After the pool was demolished, a large portable cement mixer was set up on the sidewalk in front of the house. Two firehoses extended from there down the side yard into the old pool. Trucks delivered decomposed granite and topsoil to the street, and a small backhoe loaded the materials one scoop at a time into the cement mixer. The dry material was slightly mixed before being funneled through the firehoses and sprayed into the pool area three stories below. Inside the pool, two people used water hoses while another two operated portable soil compactors. The men with the hoses moistened the material as it entered the pool area, followed by the compactors. Eight hours later, we had a beautiful, level dirt pad.

I stayed home during the process to address any issues with neighbors due to the dust and noise. At one point, the doorbell rang. The men delivering the fill materials wanted to know what to do with the two truckloads of gravel in the street. I assumed it was meant for the pool, but they explained it couldn’t be used because the area needed to be compacted to 95%, and gravel couldn’t be compacted that tightly. I suggested returning it to the supplier, but they said the supplier couldn’t reuse it due to dirt contamination from the street and wanted $3000 for disposal, or I could keep it for free. Initially, I was hesitant, but they suggested using it for pathways on the hillside or another purpose. They blew it down to the side of the pool area, quickly filling the space with a pile over six feet deep and nine feet wide, spilling over the pool wall. I’ll explain later what we did with all that gravel.

Construction Begins

Because the casita was a standalone structure with many open walls, it needed steel posts and beams for its construction. According to building codes, the bottom of the footing had to be 7 feet from daylight on a line drawn horizontally to the downhill slope side. After filling in the pool, they dug four footings, each seven feet deep, into the newly added fill. The footing hole for the new balcony off the living room was even deeper due to the steepness of the hill in that area. The following day, the city inspected the footings, and we passed the inspection without any mention of the swimming pool that had been there just days before.

The next phase was constructing the stair tower. Despite being over 30 feet tall, it didn’t need a steel framework or deep foundations because it was set further back from the slope and would be anchored to the retaining wall. However, it required an unexpectedly large amount of wood, which made us feel quite guilty. Since the tower was octagonal with a spiral staircase inside, a specialized construction team was brought in to handle the precise calculations necessary for its placement. Watching the intricate assembly of wood, spirals, and angles was fascinating and artistic, and we almost regretted seeing it all hidden under stucco.

Following the application of the gray stucco undercoat, we decided to tile some of the walls, arches, and built-in benches before applying the final finish coat. I had a magazine featuring photos of a garden in Coronado with an outdoor room primarily adorned with blue and yellow tiles. Additionally, I had visited an exhibit on Talavera tile at the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City, where I learned that blue, yellow, white, and terracotta were among the first glaze colors used to create Talavera tile. Talavera originated in Puebla, Mexico, crafted by Spaniards attempting to replicate Spanish tiles. However, many of the artisans were Chinese, who had arrived in Mexico via the Spanish Galleon trade route from the Philippines through central Mexico to Spain. This journey also incorporated designs from the area’s indigenous people, resulting in Talavera designs that are a unique blend of various cultural styles.

I had already gained some knowledge about Mexican tile from previous work done on the house during the remodeling of two bathrooms and knew that purchasing such a large amount of tile in the U.S. would be quite costly. So, we borrowed a truck and drove to Tecate to buy most of the tile. I also knew a local tile importer and had used their tile in other house projects. I suggested to them that they might increase sales by expanding beyond Talavera to include more traditional Spanish designs suitable for older homes in San Diego. They asked for ideas on where to find design inspiration, and I recommended Balboa Park. Based on tiles from Balboa Park, they developed a new tile line named after the California Missions. I have some of their first tiles on the floor in the casita and the backsplash of the wall fountain.

Starting to take shape

Scott and I handled most of the tile work on our own. However, when it came to the stair tower, the various angles and sizes of the stairs were too challenging for us. So, we decided to hire an expert to lay the tile. Although they took a bit longer to finish the job, they left their tile saw with us over the weekend. We had a large pile of leftover red S-style roof tiles that had originally been used on the pool house roof. We had retiled the pool house with a different style that matched the house’s original construction. Seeing the tile and saw, I thought, why not cut the tiles in half and lay them on top of the pool wall to shield it from the rain? The result was that the old leaning pool wall gained a much older and more appealing appearance.

During construction, several modifications were made. Arched alcoves were introduced both inside and outside the tower. While buying tile in Mexico, I discovered a concrete statue of San Miguel. Our house’s stairway features a stained glass window of San Miguel, so we regarded him as the house’s patron saint. I decided to add tile and paint the ceiling with gold stars in the alcove of the stair tower, inspired by a shrine I had seen in an old church. San Miguel was placed on a small platform in the arch, along with a pot for the plant tags of all the garden plants that had died. We called it the Shrine to the Dead Plant.

The large gated archway replacing the side gate couldn’t be built to the desired size due to an existing Monterey Pine in the way. The arch was constructed slightly smaller, with a notch in the roof to accommodate the tree. (Eventually, the tree was removed because of excessive pine needle drop and several disease issues.) The white stucco looked too stark, so we painted the old retaining wall and pool wall a golden yellow color, named peanut butter. Inside the tower and casita, a yellow color called cornbread was used for the wainscot, with a blue stripe, blueberry, at the top. We had the thick wood rafters sandblasted and stained them in line with the food-themed colors—cappuccino.

Near the end of construction, we experienced a heavy rainstorm. Previously, water from the house and patios above would flow down the retaining wall, across the pool decking, and exit through drainage holes in the pool wall. However, without the pool decking, the soil level was now well below these drainage holes, leaving the casita in a shallow pool of water. We decided to solve this by adding two new drainage holes below the new soil level and installing French drains to collect and direct the water through the new holes under the pool wall. To cut costs, we did the work ourselves, with Scott renting a jackhammer and starting the excavation. We were surprised to discover that the footing for the leaning pool wall was four feet wide.

As I mentioned in an earlier article, I had read about Keystone Country Manor retaining wall blocks in Sunset Magazine and contacted RCP about purchasing some. They were producing their first batch but were hesitant to sell them until they were fully cured. Nonetheless, I persisted and bought several pallets of blocks. We accidentally broke a few by tossing them over the retaining wall into the pool area. I had already decided to build raised beds in the new garden area, as they would be easier to work in, better showcase the plantings, and offer additional seating. We still had yards of dirt that we had thrown down the hill when we excavated the bathroom area under the house years before. So, we hauled all this dirt back into the former pool area. We needed more dirt, so we dug down several feet for the new pathways in the area. We then laid drainage pipes for French drains at the bottom and filled the walkways with leftover gravel from when the pool was filled in. Despite this, we couldn’t achieve enough elevation change for the water to flow into one of the new pool wall drains. There were windows in the pool wall where you used to be able to watch the Sea World fireworks from the pool. However, this was no longer possible since the raised beds made the windows too low, and the top of the wall was now at eye level. So, we dug a sunken patio in the area with a seat wall around it. Next to the patio, we dug a hole and placed the old bathtub that was left over from when we remodeled the upstairs bathroom.

While digging near the retaining wall, we hit concrete a few inches down that extended seven feet into the garden, which was unsuitable for growing plants. I called the contractor to complain that not all of the pool decking had been removed. He explained that this was the footing for the 15-foot tall retaining wall and could not be removed as it supported the wall. So, we purchased a truckload of topsoil and raised the area by another three feet.

We encountered difficulties finding someone to handle the ironwork for the handrail in the stair tower, two of the arches in the casita, and the side gate. We initially hired someone, paid a deposit, and then lost contact with them. When we tried to call, their phone number was disconnected. I was in the process of interviewing another person to complete the ironwork when the original ironworker reappeared. Their shop had burned down, but they completed the ironwork in Mexico and came to install it!

Next, we needed to address the small wall at the top of the retaining wall. The original wall was made of ornamental concrete blocks with a very 1950s appearance and was too short, with a drainage gutter running in front of it. We were always concerned that someone might trip and fall over it into the pool area. We had the wall removed during the pool demolition. Fortunately, the Country Manor retaining wall blocks fit perfectly into the gutter space. Four large pilasters were constructed at intervals along the wall, and we hired the second ironworker to create an iron banister between them. On top of the pilasters, we placed four large blue pots filled with succulents.

Years later…