Sunday was not a day of rest this week. Steve and I spent the day building fence. It doesn't look like much, but those galvanized fence posts represent a lot physical labor – on Steve's part. I cleaned house while he put in the last 2, hardest posts.

There was no time to take photos through the day but we got this far. We have more to do, but at this stage it looks really good. Our pool contractor, Bill, and Dave the stone man both said it looked professional!

We all worked on Saturday. Dave and his co-worker were back. I didn't take as many pictures because I was working too. Steve took out the fence and I dug up and cut back a lot of plants in the front yard. When he needed me for ballast, I stopped to help remove the fence posts. Seriously – it made me feel skinny because I was not really heavy enough to do my job well. We went to Sonic for burgers and tater tots and that helped.

Steve made a big pile of dead fencing in the front yard and I added the cut plants to the pile. We'll call the city on Monday to take it away. Sherman is very good about doing that for a reasonable price.

That's Bob and Virginia's house across the alley. Joan and Jim live in the house to the right.

The stone is really pretty around the edge of the pool. Dave is good at his job – he's thoughtful about the way the stones go together.

By 4:30 we had had all the fun we could stand for one day. Steve has all but 2 of the new fence posts set. We'll do those first thing Sunday morning. My arms feel like they are going to fall off. I moved a pile of bricks and did my best to dig up a bunch of Turks' Caps that were in a bad place. I even pulled out and used the axe! The sun was getting low in the sky and we decided that it was time to quit.

I took this photo mid-afternoon. It shows a nice view of the shallow end of the pool. Once the fence it up, I won't have this view.

On Friday, the tile and stone guys arrived. They will spend 3 days working on our pool. Dave and his co-worker (whose name I have not yet gotten) know their stuff. First they nailed in strips of a fiber-board that acted as a base for the tile.

Then Dave installed the tile that will be at the waterline. His co-worker began choosing and cutting the stone that will edge the pool.

Our pool will be 6' deep at it's deepest – where Dave is in the photo below. That will be a nice "bobbing" and exercise depth. If you look close you can see the bench on the right side where we can sit in the water and rest (or sip wine).

I decided that it was time for me to climb into the pool. This will be the view of the house from the deep end. Those walls are going to need some plants and/or a variety of pretty things to look at.

Two weekends ago, before we had the new window in the bedroom installed, I decided it was time to freshen up our bedroom (it had been yellow for 10 years). I had come across this photo on a design blog (sorry I can't remember which blog – Now I know. It's from House & Home and here's the link to the photo.) and I knew I wanted a blue ceiling and white walls.

I scraped the popcorn texture off of our ceiling on a Saturday. Steve helped me patch and smooth it after the scraping. The next day I painted ceiling and walls – 2 coats each. It's amazing how much you can do if you don't stop and think about it too much.

Below is the view from the hallway. The window on the left is the new window that was put in after I painted. We trimmed out the window and I painted that woodwork the next week. We can see the backyard and pool (under construction) from it.

This is the other side of the room…

And below is the view of our room from my studio. I am amazed by the amount of light that the new window lets in. Love it! And the white walls are a nice change. They are the only white walls in our house! The blue ceiling is just perfect.

There is a small bathroom off of our bedroom and last weekend I painted it to match. Steve didn't think so, but I really thought it needed it.

The gunnite crew got to our house by 7 AM and they were done before noon. Amazing.

That's the gunnite "gun" blowing concrete. There was a lot of dust in the air. Concrete dust that made me wish all the workmen were wearing masks. Only one was.

That's my neighbor, Jim, inspecting our site. The neighbors are being very nice about the upheaval in the alley.

The Smackdown Auction is over and Hollis' quilt brought in the most so she will wear the belt – way to go Hollis! But all together our four quilts raised $8300. The four of us are very excited. I don't know yet how much was raised by votes on the Viewer's Choice and on t-shirt sales. I'll share that when I know it.

I want to thank all of you for your support! It is much appreciated. I know that I enjoyed taking part in this friendly competition and would do it again without hesitation.

Yesterday was day two of our pool build. They put in the rebar and the plumbing. The crew moved fast and they really knew what they were doing.

Now it's ready for the gunnite.