October 15, 2024 • 54 mins
In this heartfelt episode of the Poolside Perspectives Podcast, Mike Farley pays tribute to his late co-host, Kevin Woodhurst, celebrating his expertise and dedication to the pool and outdoor living industry. Celebration of Life will be held for Kevin at Claffey Pools Design Center 1625 Brumlow, Southlake, Texas from 12-2 on Saturday November 2
The episode delves into various topics, including the functionality and benefits of different types of griddles, designing perfect spas and lazy rivers, and much more.
00:00 Welcome to Poolside Perspectives 01:08 A Tribute to Kevin Woodhurst 01:52 Kevin's Journey and Contributions 08:06 BBQ Bits: The EVO Griddle 15:49 Design Concepts: The Perfect Spa 22:00 True Crime Segment: Lazy River Pumps 26:28 Planning Your Pool: Essential Tips 27:36 Honoring Kevin: A Tribute 29:46 Clips of Episodes 1-10 with KevinMark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:00):
Hello everybody.
Welcome to the poolsideperspectives podcast.
I am Kevin Woodhurst and with me is mygood friend, Mike Farley, and we're so
glad you found this podcast together.
We have been homeowner advocatesand outdoor living and the pool
industry for over 30 years.
So we understand the challenges youface creating your backyard paradise.
We know your curiosity is notenough to ensure your success.
(00:21):
So on this podcast, we're going to talkabout the design process and practical
steps to help you create that space.
We'll have some fun mixed in with it.
Some aha moments.
And this is no fluff.
No one has time for that.
So we're going to get serious and getvery particular about all of these topics.
Whether you are a new homeowner with yourfirst remodel or a seasoned homeowner
(00:41):
competing your last dream home, we arehere to help you end up with what you
dreamed of from pools to patios, pizza,ovens, to pergolas, porcelain, to pumps.
Pool Party to Permits, Ping Pong Tablesto the Processes to your Paradise.
This is Straight Talk and Action Steps.
Let's get started.
Mike (01:08):
Good afternoon.
This is Mike Farley with PoolsidePerspectives Podcast here with
Trey (01:14):
I'm Trey Farley.
hoping y'all are having a good day.
Mike (01:17):
we wanted to start off this episode and let you know that yesterday I got
to visit with Kevin in the morningsee him and spend some time with him.
But in the afternoon Kevin finished hisbattle with cancer and Kevin passed away.
At this point in time, he's not in aplace that having to battle that anymore.
(01:38):
So we're happy for him in that aspect,but sad for our personal losses that we
don't have our friend around anymore.
Some of you know Kevin very well.
Some of you don't know him very well.
So I just want to give you someinformation about Kevin here a little
bit and explain a few things Kevin is thereason there is a podcast without a doubt
(02:02):
because I would have never ever done thisby myself and Kevin was a let's get going
type of guy and he came to me and said,Hey, we need to do this and I was like,
let me analyze this for a while and he'slike, we don't have time to analyze this.
need to get going on it.
And I'm like, but I but, but, but,but he would be like, let's go.
(02:24):
What?
And it was funny cause he said hewas the gasoline to the vehicle
and I was the brakes which you needboth of those things to work well.
But he wanted to get things movingbecause he had a tremendous passion for
people and the people that he reallywanted to serve was the homeowner.
(02:45):
loved helping people figure out whatwas best for them in their backyard.
He said.
We're two old guys that have beendoing this a long time, and there's
a lot of places that people don'thave the resources and information
that we gathered over decades.
And he said, we need to sharethat so people can end up with
(03:07):
better things in their backyards.
ideally it wasn't ever about, gee, wewant to have a huge podcast or we want
to get sponsors or any of those things.
Kevin just wanted peopleto get information.
He wanted to be a resource hewanted to share what he had.
So what was cool is.
(03:27):
He was a little bit different than me.
I have been a designer for a long time.
I've also been a superintendentfor a brief period of time with one
company where you had to do both,but I've always been a designer and
Kevin worked in all kinds of aspects.
Yeah.
So you saw that and thedifferent things that he did.
Trey (03:46):
Yeah, we were talking about this before the episode and I
mentioned that it would be really cool.
Cause I knew Kevin as your peer.
briefly and I've never hada bad interaction with him.
He was awesome.
And I just want to speak on I came in tosub in one time for him just to help out,
and I was a nervous wreck, and he was sopositive, he texted me after he listened
(04:07):
to the episode, and he was like, hey man,I know your dad said you were nervous,
but I didn't get that vibe at all, youdid incredible he was very supportive
and I was in a very awkward position,with Kevin I was always curious because
I saw him as the designer that came in towork They hired a couple designers in that
time period and he was really interesting.
Because I'm curious on everythinghe did before he got to Texas
Mike (04:28):
to start with, we were the same age, and one of the things that happened
very young when he was out of high schoolis he actually joined the Air Force.
And he served for a number of years.
He worked on the planes and got to travelextensively and really loved that aspect
of it and, loved serving the countryand was very proud of our country.
(04:51):
But then he went back to Idaho where hegrew up and started doing construction.
And so he was doing everything frombuilding wooden decks and putting hot
tubs on them and all kinds of differentthings from a construction standpoint.
A young guy trying to make a living.
And then he moved to Arizona wherehe got into the pool industry.
(05:12):
He thought it would be funto work with swimming pools.
And so he went andfound somebody and just.
Convince them that he would be good at
Trey (05:20):
doing that.
I mean, The crossover knowledgeyou would have for making wood
decks and putting hot tubs on itthere's a little crossover there.
So that's cool.
Mike (05:27):
So eventually he did everything from running a service
department with a whole bunch of,routes and stuff like that, too.
He managed a store.
And all the retail aspects ofit, he had a sales department,
he had his own pool company.
so he worked in a lot of different venues.
again, I'm the guy thatjust designs things.
(05:49):
did all those things.
Yeah.
he had a a very different approachfrom like education where I
was always focused design.
His was very broad and, he learned froma lot of different people and had a lot
of different mentors in that aspect.
but he learned, the wholegamut of the industry now.
When you eventually focusedon design later in his career.
(06:14):
And then when he came to Texas,that's all he's done was doing design.
But was really cool that he basicallywould bring a lot of different things.
He would debate me on some things.
would argue about different perspectives.
And that was one of the reasons thisis named poolside perspectives, because
he had one perspective and sometimesI had a different one and we would
(06:35):
discuss things and so he had really goodinsight that's what makes things better.
But it's hard to Lose your friends.
he will definitely be missedespecially for what he wanted to
do he just wanted to help people tolearn about things in the industry.
One of the things that I thoughtwas really cool is, He had a
(06:56):
sales department and he was likeme, he drew everything by hand.
but his sales team all used pool studio.
And so he realized better know how to dothis so I can help my sales department.
Trey (07:09):
That makes sense.
Mike (07:09):
So he learned to do pool studio.
And that was one of the big thingswe argued about all the time.
Cause he was like, youwould be so much better.
If you would learn pool studio and usea computer and get rid of your pencil.
And I'm like, no, I like my pencil.
I'm going to keep it.
but he came very proficient.
In fact he offered to do trainingand things like that for people to
(07:30):
help them learn, tricks and, thingson how to make, be better at that.
Trey (07:34):
We did a class and he was leading it pretty much.
And it was a great class we did.
And we had a bunch of people there,a lot of people that use pool studio
before their knowledge, some peoplewere experts, some were novice
and he had a lot of great insight.
Mike (07:47):
Yeah.
But again, that's theway he tackled things.
He didn't know anything about it.
He just go learn about it.
He was always trying to getsmarter at what he does.
And it was really cool to see how he wasso rounded all aspects of the industry.
Trey (08:03):
He will be missed for sure.
And I think we just needmore people like Kevin.
BBQ Bits (08:08):
We're going to take a break here for a second and get into outdoor living.
So with outdoor living, we liketo go to barbecue bits here.
We're going to share some informationof everything that you may want to
consider in your outdoor living space.
As far as features,especially for the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy this.
Mike (08:28):
the griddle has gotten really popular.
And so we get more andmore requests for griddles.
And if you're going to talk about the bestgriddle to install, where would you start?
Bobby (08:39):
We would definitely start with Evo, another American made
product drive, 12th and Oregon,, all American made, but why Evo?
I'm just not going to sell a product.
What's the value added piece of this?
Well, There's two types of griddlesas a consumer you want to look at,
and as specifiers, in salespeople,we want to go into a discovery phase.
Is this the right griddle?
(09:00):
In other words, is this goingto be a connection piece?
am I going to have, , like Kevin justdid and you have done, the radius bars?
we're doing a particular job that has afull radius bar that wraps around the Evo.
This is recessed in it, and I believeit's a deck pond or a granite top.
We're going to omit this piece here andnow I'm connected with the whole family.
Right.
It's really important.
(09:21):
Or are you going to buy a griddle?
That's going to be in linewith the equipment away from
that entertainment area.
That's the questions we ask.
Well, a lot of peoplewant a connection piece.
If you don't configure table andchairs by this, you will get a
lot of congregation around this.
Everybody wants to cook on Evo.
they make a commercialside like Mongolian grill.
(09:41):
Then they make a residential side.
I make two versions.
They make a.
They call it 25, and they make it 30.
We do 30 in Texas,because bigger is better.
This is a hardened steel plate thathas been seasoned from the factory,
and it gets better and betterevery time that you cook on it.
Two zone burner system.
I've got an interior burnerand an exterior burner.
(10:03):
Can you bake on this?
Yes, there's bakingracks that are on here.
You can do pizzas on here.
I didn't believe this at first.
I have Evo, , foodie guys that comein here and say, here's my pizza.
And, I have not learned how to do a pizza.
I'm more of a alpha oven guy,but you can do it on here.
Kevin (10:20):
When I first came to CU the first time, year and a half ago or
so, whenever it was, that is the onething that has always Stuck in my mind.
Is that evil?
Because when my kids were growing up,we love going to the hibachi grills
and teppanyaki and everything else.
And I love cooking breakfaston Sunday mornings.
And that is just perfect.
They had to have one of those.
Bobby (10:39):
So if you've got a large family , how does this value added to hold?
, if I have a lot of community orfamily friends over, can use that
vehicle and even as a warmer.
In other words, I can use this.
I set this outside burner for lowand put my food in the middle of
this and this acts as a huidor.
You can put a lid on it and yourmoisture control is up here in
(11:02):
the top with this daisy wheel.
It's more of a moisture control.
I have a lot of customers, , HeyBobby, where's the grease go?
You get some fall off, but your accesspoints for clean outs are right here.
And they have little cups thatyou actually can line and coil
and you can actually slide out.
No electricity is needed to this.
It's battery op.
They make it simple.
(11:23):
It's what they do.
Pros and cons.
So many pros we can go on andon and kill about an hour.
The only con, and I'll tell you, Where doI domicile or where do I set the lid at?
Where does that go?
Big?
it's like Captain America'sShield, . So that's one thing that
you guys have done really well.
It's like, Hey, listen,we need that lid kit.
(11:45):
There is a, a device that holds it.
So where it would go, wouldit probably on the end of this
island when I'm not using it.
You want to, think in advanceof where to put the lid at.
So
Mike (11:55):
good thought.
I see here in this cabinet thatit's sticking out past the,
island, the cooking island.
Yes.
Is it designed to do that allthe time or can you actually have
the counter follow it around?
Bobby (12:08):
This is a great question.
, I'm glad you let me on this becauseI was going to bring that up next.
Two ways to build this in, youguys know, looter's stone
comes out of looter's Texas.
This is what they call abuff It's a chiseled edge.
Whenever I do a, whenever we doa looter's stone, the stone is
so thick it's hard Can you do it?
Yes, but it's hard to do a radius cut.
So we'll always recommend thetrim kit It can be a buff.
(12:30):
Now, you're gonna see more evosthat are flushed and it'll look
like it's monolithic with thetime We see a lot of Dekton
now, , higher end man made surfaces.
Do you need this?
Not exactly.
you can omit this and then build thisparticular piece in to let, to make it get
a more of a contemporary and soft feel.
As you look in this picture here withbuddy, the cake guy or whatever the buddy
(12:53):
Velastro, this is built into a granite topand we have some consumers that want that.
They want that more of that streamlinedlook and that contemporary and soft feel.
They don't want it so bulky.
But to answer your question, yes,it does come outside a little bit
so I can access more of the centerand back of the griddle itself.
(13:13):
Two zone system, interiorand exterior murder.
They make a built in cover for this,that you can cover this when not in use.
Mike (13:20):
You recommend having the storage below?
Bobby (13:23):
I do.
, the drawers are real popular becauseit's ease of use for your hard lines
from flippers, cleaning kit, thingslike that that can go inside of here.
And something that's really popularthat, that I've seen with a lot
of clappy islands is under counterlighting that we don't sell.
The reason why is that really popular?
You can see in the drawer systemsat night and then give them a knosh
(13:45):
at nighttime versus what daytimecan give you just a different look.
So
Kevin (13:49):
have any of the manufacturers started making.
Storage systems that actuallyhave lighting in them, low
voltage lighting in them.
Bobby (13:55):
they do.
There's two types.
There's, there's one that has a lowvoltage lighting that's, 12 volt, which
Winks makes and that's their exclusive.
That's a brand, out of Mississippi.
And then most of them, , have motionactivated, , watch battery in the drawer
and they last an extremely long time.
They found out that that's.
More ease of use and less, lessstrain on the power supply.
(14:18):
Pointless.
Wired.
That's correct.
BBQ Ends (14:20):
So I hope you enjoyed the barbecue bits that we just featured today
and we'll have more coming up next week.
If there's something in particular thatyou're interested for, let us know and
we'll get back into the episode now.
Mike (14:34):
So one of the things we're going to do with this episode is
we're going to pull a bunch of clipsfrom Kevin and some of his insight.
So if you didn't know him wellyou'll get a feeling for Kevin.
Also we're going to have something thatwe're going to do in Kevin's memory.
I'm not sure what that is at thispoint in time that we're going to
work out with through the podcast.
(14:55):
But if you've got suggestions onthings like that, I'd be really open
to hear some of those things that wemight be able to do in his memory.
one of the things he loved todo is, was answer questions.
We haven't answered as many questionson the episodes because quite honestly,
not many people send in questions.
if you do have questions sendthem in on our social media.
(15:17):
And Kevin would really want usto answer those all the time.
Wanted us to acknowledge where peoplewere and where they got their questions
and all those types of things.
So, Continue to send those incause we'd love to answer those.
Trey (15:32):
And you can get some.
poolside perspective swag.
If you do, you can send it your way.
Yeah.
So that was one thing
Mike (15:38):
Kevin wanted us to do as well.
Anyway, we got to get that worked out.
You
Trey (15:42):
wanted to spread the drip.
We're going to take a breakfor design concepts now.
So design concepts, what we're goingto do is talk about why we did the
Mike (16:00):
one of the things that me and Kevin argued about a was spas.
Trey (16:06):
Okay.
Mike (16:07):
Kevin thought everybody should have a spa.
Trey (16:10):
agree with him in a way.
Yeah, I love spas.
Mike (16:13):
I know you do.
Trey (16:14):
So.
Spas are awesome.
Now are we talking just spas?
Are we talking hot tubs?
Just in ground spas?
Because some people listeningto this might not know the
difference if this is the firsttime they're hearing this podcast.
Sure.
Mike (16:24):
You want to explain the differences between the two?
Trey (16:26):
To my knowledge, a spa is pretty much built in the ground, typically with
the pool, but it could also be isolated.
Like another episode we did, youmentioned you had a spa on a job that
was pretty much set up isolated fromthe pool and it looked like a fountain.
A hot tub on the other end willbe a pre constructed hot tub.
It's like the eight by eight.
Yeah.
At appliance.
(16:46):
It's always hot.
Typically put a cover on it.
Usually sits four to six people.
Mike (16:52):
Yeah.
So the industry, we call hot tubs, theportable appliance, the spa is something
that is constructed in the field, notconstructed in a manufacturing plant.
So he liked both of them.
Cause he had both when he was inPhoenix, he had a hot tub right outside.
He used to go out every morning andsit in his hot tub for 15 minutes,
(17:13):
and then he'd go out and hang out inthe evening and that type situation.
This particular project.
Wanted to talk about it and the designconcepts with this because it had
the features that he was looking for.
He thought all spas.
Should be flush.
That was his preference.
Okay.
Because he wanted it to seem seamless.
If you look at our logo poolsideperspective podcast, there is a
(17:38):
perimeter overflow spa on that.
And so that was one of Kevin's designs.
loved to have the spa close becausewanted to be able to get to it
fairly easy for privacy reasons, for,temperature reasons, all those things that
somebody outside of Phoenix, anything.
Else is probably cold.
So you want the hot tub fairlyclose, the Villamar project that
(18:01):
was the case we had a spa, it waslocated very close to the house.
But this particularproject was on a hillside.
And so we had to do some terracing.
So the upper terrace, you walkdown to the spa in the center.
And there was a center line that wentthrough the middle of this project.
And so it created a very strongarchitectural feel and the architecture
(18:25):
of the house had three arches on it.
And so this particular project hadthree arches as the focal point at
the back, which was also This focalpoint was providing some screening.
So their back fence wasbasically an iron fence.
Actually, before we started theproject, it was barbed wire.
Okay.
They looked out on a farm behind them.
(18:45):
but they knew the farmwas going to be developed.
And so they wanted to create someprivacy for their personal space.
And so we came in withthese three stucco arches.
Which blended with the archeson the home and in those arches,
there were three rainfalls.
And so the rainfallscreated a really nice sound.
And then in the center as you wentthrough the center arch back towards the
(19:09):
house, that's where the spa was centeredon, which was a perimeter overflow spa.
It was round to play off thearch aspect of the architecture.
And then on the other side ofthe arches, there was a fire pit.
So you could sit in the spa andlook through the rainfall and see
the fire pit as a focal point.
But it was also a gatheringspace back behind there.
(19:30):
And so they didn't mind that beingin the semi public area because.
Currently, there's nothing been done onthe farm and it would be years before,
but also that's a gathering in at night.
Not that is a big deal.
They wanted privacy more whenthey were in the pool itself.
Now, the fun thing is they wantedto slide also going into the pool.
(19:51):
So out of one corner, there was a slide.
The other corner was the ledgeand so it was really fun.
There was a bridge that connectedthe spa was in the pool.
So you could actually swim underneaththe bridge in around the spa itself.
So the spa was an island into itself.
So it was.
(20:12):
Fairly traditional in design, but itwas not formal in design because of
the, all the arches that we used andthe plantings that we used around it
still gave a fairly softer feel, but itfit with the architecture of the home.
There was also some coollions that we incorporated.
Your standard old schooltraditional spitting lion.
(20:33):
Which they had a fountain on the,in the courtyard, which had that.
And so they wanted to incorporate those.
We incorporated some tilethat matched some of the
architecture, the stucco match.
So everything was about fittingtheir needs which was to have
some fun area, some hangoutarea, some floating around area.
They wanted some privacy.
They wanted some architectural.
(20:55):
Cool elements to look at and then sowe wanted to have all those functions,
but also something that looked goodand something that fit the yard,
which there was terraces down hillside.
So the backside of the arches,which were level with the pool.
On the backside of them,they were seat walls.
So you could sit there as you weregathering around the fire pit.
(21:16):
So anyway, that was the projectthere in Fort Worth, Texas.
it's a fun project that incorporatedwhat Kevin liked best, which was
a flush spa close to the house.
Trey (21:27):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Do you know what the selection wasfor the the pavers for the coping?
Mike (21:32):
that was I believe a travertine and that particular coping color is called
scabos and scabos was used because we wereSome of the colors of the house and then
also some of the stone that was used onthe project as well And so it was a nice
Blend and it has a nice range in color.
(21:54):
Oh, it does.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Trey (21:56):
Thank you for telling me about
Mike (21:57):
certainly
Trey (22:00):
we're gonna do our little true crime segment and today I want to ask you
We've talked about lazy rivers often onthis podcast Let's talk about the pumps.
Do you think it's a true crimeto not use a lazy river pump?
Mike (22:13):
the lazy river pump that I've used in the past is Riverflow.
we have an episode that focuses on them.
So is it a crime to build alazy river and Riverflow pump?
Yes.
Eric, who was on last week.
Yes, he was.
When Eric was on we talked aboutthe first Lazy River that I did
(22:34):
and he published it in a magazine.
And after it was published inthat magazine, it got picked up
on a lot of different places.
And so I started gettingphone calls every week.
I'd probably get four to fiveto six, sometimes 10 phone
calls a week about lazy rivers.
Trey (22:53):
Cause I remember discussing the actual flow I think you're
alluding to like they are askingwhat kind of pump you use to get that
kind of flow and not be stagnant.
Right?
Mike (23:01):
Right.
thing that these phone calls weregenerating is there were two groups of
people and it was almost a split 50 50and half the people that were calling me.
were contractors that were building a lazyriver and their lazy river didn't work.
Yeah, it was way too slow.
It was way too slow.
Too lazy.
(23:22):
Too lazy.
Trey (23:23):
what was the other 50 then?
Mike (23:24):
The other 50 percent were homeowners that had a lazy
river that was way too slow.
And the common comment that I got wasWe figured if we took a typical pool
pump and we put five or six of thoseon here, we could get enough flow rate
going that it would move the river.
(23:45):
And what people don't understandis it'll create circulation.
Yeah.
But when you're moving a river, you'removing not just the surface water, you're
moving all the water in this channel.
This channel's three anda half to five feet deep.
It's six feet wide.
I've got to get all thiswater moving in a circle.
(24:08):
It takes a tremendousamount of energy to do that.
Trey (24:12):
If you take five or six regular pumps, like you're saying.
I guess it might work if youget on like a floatie and you're
on the top of the water, right?
It pushes the top water around.
But if you're like a normalperson, just jump in.
It's not going to push you much at all.
Mike (24:26):
No.
And one guy, I'll never forget this.
He said I measured the flow ratebecause I heard you were supposed
to have a certain flow rate withit and I've got that flow rate.
And I said how did you measure it?
And he said I threw a stickon the surface and counted how
many feet it went in a second.
pump that I use and the pump thatI've used on every Lazy River project.
(24:49):
And the thing that I told peopleall the time is they were trying
to move pumps with a two inchpipe they had five of them.
And so they were likeit should move things.
the pump that I use has a 12 inch pipe.
you need something thathas a very high flow rate.
And also is energy efficient.
(25:09):
So if you just put a big pump on it onceyou get the water moving, it doesn't
take hardly anything to keep it moving.
You don't need 10 horsepower all the time.
You just need 10 horsepowerto get it moving.
Once it's moving, then it can be runningon a very small amount of horsepower.
So if you use just a standardpump, I think it's a crime because
it, from a utility standpoint,you're going to pay for running.
(25:32):
A big pump all the time.
Yeah.
Okay.
So if you don't have the highenough flow rate, you're not even
gonna get going in the first place.
The other thing that comes into playis that particular pump is very quiet.
So when you're sitting in the backyardand everybody's hanging out in the
lazy river and stuff like that,you're not having to shout over some.
Big, huge motor that's runningto make this all happen.
(25:56):
So there's that aspect as well isthe sound that you're going to hear.
other aspect to think about isthere something in the pool that's
making all this happen, or is thistaking place outside of the pool?
So all the equipment's outside of it.
So in this particularsetup, it's all outside.
(26:17):
I think that.
It is a crime to use the wrong pumpwhen you are going to have multiple
pumps to try to do the same thingand it won't achieve that aspect.
My recommendation to all these people.
Was you need to core a bighole on the side of your pool
and plumb in some big pipe?
Yeah And you need to call River flowand give them the layout of it so
(26:41):
they can suggest where the properLocations are going to be as well.
Trey (26:45):
Yeah, they need to engineer it for sure.
Mike (26:46):
You know when you look at The placement of these things in the
beginning, before it's constructed,you can look and maybe make some
slight modifications and things likethat, like we did on the last project.
we were able to get less turbulencein certain areas and eddies and areas.
Now you may want to create that effect,but they can help you plan it out.
(27:09):
If you look at the front end, if you'retrying to figure this on the back end
and the structure's already built you'relocked into a certain amount of stuff.
Okay.
But I think the crime is if you spend allthe money to do something cool, like a
lazy river, that you don't have somethingthat's going to work it properly.
Trey (27:26):
Oh yeah.
And don't cut corners.
Go to what they say to do.
Don't use a river flow pumpand smaller pipe because you
think you can get away with it.
Mike (27:36):
So one of the things that was really amazing is when we
put this whole thing together.
Kevin was in a hurry to get going andso we started producing things the first
episode came out On October 6th last year.
So Kevin passed away on October6th this year, a year to the day
(27:59):
after we released our first episode.
So we've put together a bunch of clipshere so you can enjoy, Kevin and his
words of wisdom and All the fun thatwe had and hopefully you guys can learn
some more reviewing those things and justpass this on to other people that are
looking for information and we'll keepthe resources coming to provide more and
(28:26):
more information and just Kevin's memoriesalive on the things that he helped create.
Trey (28:32):
Yeah, I agree.
One thing I want to add is these are justsome of the clips from y'all's podcast.
If you want to hear more insight fromKevin cause he's a very smart guy.
Just go look at the old episodes.
Mike (28:42):
Oh yeah.
The first 10 were really theprocess for every homeowner, the
things they need to go through.
So lots of good information there.
Yeah, it is.
the last thing, just in closing,just want to thank everybody,
for spending this time with us.
Hope you enjoyed theremembrance we had of Kevin.
one thing I can say about Kevin isKevin was a true pool professional.
(29:06):
Every sense of the matter.
He, did what he tried to dothe best of his ability and
with the skills that he had.
he will be greatly missed.
there is going to be acelebration of life service.
That's going to take place on Saturday,November 2nd, from 12 to two at
Claffey pools design center, whichis at 1625 Brumlow in South Lake.
(29:31):
All are welcome to come to that eventand, look forward to, celebrating
with lots of people and telling funstories and antidotes about Kevin
and all that he's been to all of us.
We all have a good day.
Thanks for sharing time with us.
Kevin (29:46):
Well, I think that we need to give our audience a little bit of understanding
of who we are and where we came fromand what makes us tick and clearly on
education, because you and I have knowneach other for a very, very long time.
And I know that you got involvedwith one of the early design training
organizations early on with the GenesisGroup and went through all of their
certification program, which folks,it is a massive amount of education.
(30:10):
The college degree.
That somebody goes throughto get to Mike's level.
Not only with the landscape design,but even on the pull side, there's
just so much that he's done and hasn'tbeen involved in these last 20 years.
So tell me a little bit about your SWDtitle and what that took to get it and how
long it took and the level of commitmentit really took to be where you're at.
(30:33):
Let's tell our audience a littlebit about why we're doing this.
Why are you here with me and this journeythat we're going to take for everybody?
And I think you'd agree that aneducated buyer is the best buyer.
That's really what the show is allabout everyone is Mike and I really
have an innate need or desire ifyou will to educate people to train
(30:53):
people to help people make reallygood decisions when it comes to pools.
I mean, let's face it.
It's expensive to have aswimming pool, but it's also.
A really awesome thing to have intoyour backyard to enjoy 365 days a year.
That's why we're doing this.
And so the show is much gearedtowards not only consumers, but
also many of our industry friendsand colleagues that want to learn
(31:14):
a little something here and there.
And we're really excited about this.
Well, for me, I bought a house in themid 1990s and we didn't have a pool.
And I was thinking about changing careers.
I'd been in real estate.
I had spent 13 years in the air force,traveled all over the world, worked
not only as an aircraft mechanic,but also as a civil engineer tech.
(31:35):
And oddly enough, I had myfirst exposure to swimming pools
while I was in the military.
Without ever thinking or knowingor acknowledging maybe someday I'm
going to be designing, designingand building these things.
So I had a couple of years there.
And then when we bought this house,I decided that I would call around
and see if there was a pool companythat would hire me with no experience.
(31:57):
Although I'd had a lot of experienceprior to that with design work,
building, construction, maintenance.
So pretty handy anyway,relatively good with the pen,
relatively good with my hands.
You know, once I found a companyto hire me, I started, I mean,
I didn't last there long.
I lasted there about nine months, butI learned everything that I didn't
want to know about the pool industry.
(32:19):
There can be a lot about that.
It was really, you know, as I look backon it now, it was a great experience
because I genuinely mean it when Isay I learned everything that I didn't
want to be about being in the swimmingpool industry from this company.
And I'm not going to name the companyor anybody involved, but at the end
of the day, there was just stuffgoing on that I would never do.
From there, I moved on to an ownerbuilder company in Phoenix and got
(32:42):
to be very good friends with thefounder and owner of that company.
And him and I built that up toabout 500 pools between Tucson
and Phoenix until I finally got tothe point I wanted my own company.
I wanted to do it myself.
I wanted to see if I could do it.
And nobody thought I could.
Because I had been an owner builderguy, so what do you know about pools?
Well, here's the thing, likeMike, I like to know stuff.
(33:03):
My brain works very much like anengineer's brain, and so for me, I've
got to understand how things work,otherwise I can't explain it to people.
And you know as well as I do that thejargon in the pool industry, and we're
going to talk about that at some point,is like a foreign language to most people.
So how do you break it down so theaverage consumer can understand?
Well, unless you have a really thoroughunderstanding of how pools are built.
(33:27):
You can't.
You're basically just pitching outof a can of what you've been told.
And there's a big difference betweenwhat people have been told and what
actually works or doesn't work.
So, I got involved with the GenesisGroup like you did very early on.
I didn't stick with it as long.
I spent quite a bit of time in thereand had a good time, but I ended
up going a little bit differentroute through the associations.
(33:49):
Because the associations were startingto have certification programs.
And so I went and got everysingle last one of them.
Definitely did not put the timeinto it that you did, but got
a really good sound education.
Plus, I just had some mentors alongthe way that I wouldn't say demanded,
because I do things freely anyway.
Suggested to me, as I would suggestto anybody out there listening,
(34:10):
that if you really want to be aprofessional at this and get good at
it, then you need professionalism.
To get out into the world, you needto meet people, you need to go to
shows, you need to go to educationalseminars, you need to listen, you
need to find a mentor or two in yourarea that's willing to help you.
And I believe that there's a lot of usthat are willing to help and give our time
away pretty freely as we tried to elevatethe industry and continue to pull it up.
(34:34):
And that's how I got my start.
And then I was very activein the associations.
Whether or not I was president, oron the Builders Council, or Education
Committee on National, or whateverelse, and I just happened to get really
lucky with some really, really goodmentors along the way that helped Kind
of showed me the way so why water versussomething else oddly enough I'm a cancer
(34:56):
that makes me a water baby if you will
Mike (34:58):
Yeah,
Kevin (34:58):
and so I think it's a little ironic that I found a career in water
and everybody loves water It's justsomething that soothes our soul.
It makes us feel good.
We like to swim it.
We love the way it feels It feeds life.
I mean, what would itbe like without water?
Obviously very dry, but what's Texas?
West Texas, right?
Or Phoenix or SouthernCalifornia or Florida.
(35:21):
It's pretty hot here though.
Yes, it is.
It's pretty hot here though.
So how did you end up in Texas?
We had five kids.
Our youngest, who turned 18 abouta year ago, she was going to go to
trade school and my wife said to me,Let's move to Boca Raton, Florida.
And I said, let's not, it'stoo far away from the kids.
(35:44):
And she said, well, what'syour next best choice?
I don't know.
Where do you want to go?
She said, how about Texas?
And well, I know a lot of people in Texas.
I knew of you.
I know you.
I've got plenty of friends here.
It was not hard to reach out.
And to find a great organization anda place to work and come over here
from Phoenix and, you know, I wishI'd come over here a long time ago
(36:06):
because we absolutely love it here.
Aside from the fact that the market isfantastic, the weather doesn't bother
us because we're used to being hot.
Mike (36:14):
But, you know, because it's
Kevin (36:15):
hot, people need pools.
Mike (36:17):
Yes, they do.
Kevin (36:18):
Yeah.
I have a few projects there in the500, 000 plus range and more, but I
want to make it clear to everybody.
Yeah.
We've done some really nice pools.
Mike has done some spectacular stuff.
I've done some great stuff in the past.
Got some great stuff going now, butthis is really not about just a hundred
thousand dollar pools or million dollarpools is about swimming pools as a whole.
(36:39):
What this industry is about,what's the best way to look
into buying a swimming pool?
You're thinking about it.
Your wife says, Hey honey,I want to have a pool.
Our kids need to swim.
And you're going to start that process.
And as we go through the segments andthrough each episode, we're going to
start from the very beginning, as Isaid before, really try to hone in on
how you can be a better buyer and howyou can be well armed with the right
(37:03):
questions and the right informationso that you can relatively easy.
Start chipping away at whoyou want or who you don't want
to build your swimming pool.
A lot of great companies out there.
There's a lot of fantastic designers herein the DFW area and all over the country.
It's a matter of finding them and reallyfinding somebody that you can resonate
with that can get your vision and that canalso help you make the right decisions.
(37:27):
We have to sell justby proxy of what we do.
I mean, we're, we're designersthat have to sell our projects.
So it just comes with the territory.
But at the end of the day, if you canfind somebody that you can, again,
resonate with and really start buildingrapport with so that they can help
you and coach you into designing,This beautiful backyard, this oasis,
(37:47):
this, uh, staycation destination, youknow, and after COVID, I mean, during
COVID, the market completely changed.
Everything changed.
People got crazy about what itwas that they were doing, and it
became, to your point earlier,not just about swimming pools.
Now it's outdoor living.
It's outdoor structures.
It's.
Yeah, people are adding ramadasnext to their pools with
bathrooms and full kitchens andentertaining areas for pool tables.
(38:11):
And I mean, you nameit, we've seen it all.
It's crazy.
I've never surprised anymorewhat people are doing.
Oh, it's a lot of fun.
Mike had alluded to this after episodeone or during episode one about the
resources that are things that you need.
Say I just moved over here froma different state and I bought
a house that's 30 years old.
Yes.
Yes.
And I decided I want to get a pool.
(38:32):
Where do I get a form survey from?
Where do I find the most current,the correct one, the right one?
I can't find it.
And then the builder's out of business.
And as a consumer here in Texas, if Ineed that, where do I resource that from?
Yeah.
So that's a great point too.
And that is if you're buying a house andthey can't find one, that probably needs
to be a stipulation on closing that youneed to provide me with one, because
you're going to need one at some point.
(38:52):
It's not even just for pools.
If you do an addition on your house,if you do improvements in your
house, you Any sort of a permit,they're going to ask for the survey.
So that's definitely probably themost important thing to have, or
one of the most important things.
Mike (39:04):
One of them.
What would you say
Kevin (39:05):
would be another one?
Besides the survey, each town andcity is going to have some different
requirements on different things.
I think that it's important that yourdesigner or sales person is doing all
this stuff, but man, there's just somuch that you need to be following
up with and following along with, forinstance, some cities require that you
have to have a, Backwash line goingfrom your filter to your sewer line.
(39:30):
And you might not even have afilter that requires backwashing.
Each municipality is going to have somevery different and unique rules and
considerations for your swimming pool.
Just like every city has differentsetbacks from the property lines.
I thought today, I think a reallygood topic would be to talk about
shade structures and just structuresin general in the backyard.
(39:51):
Because after all, the show isnot just about swimming pools.
It is about swimmingpools and outdoor living.
And here in North Texas, we get a lotof requests for outhouses, outbuildings.
Really?
Oh, yeah, I guess not an outhouse couldbe in a harbor not an arbor, but a cabana.
Oh, yeah We called a bathroom.
I'm from Idaho.
(40:11):
Oh, well understand funny thing when I wasin the military I would tell people I was
from Idaho and they would be like, I knowright where that's right next to Nebraska.
And I'm like, Oh yeah, it's right there.
Just missing the D anda couple other letters.
Oh, there's a few
Mike (40:24):
states
Kevin (40:24):
in between.
Exactly.
So I think that shades andstructures, how about that?
Mike (40:29):
Okay.
Kevin (40:30):
So we know that there's quite a few different types.
So I think maybe a way to tackle this is.
Let's each talk about some differentshade structures or shade items, and then
we can comment back and forth on themand tell people about the ins and outs.
But this is totally focused on shade.
I mean, we're in Texas where it's hot.
In Arizona, it's hot.
California, it's hot.
(40:50):
Florida, it's hot.
Anywhere in the sunbelt, if you'rebuilding a pool outdoors, you may very
well be looking for a way to find someshade and some reprieve from the sun.
And that's really whatthis episode's about.
I don't really have a favorite.
I think that shade is undervalued,especially when it's so hot out.
I like them all.
It just depends on the job.
Pergolas look really cool in some places.
(41:11):
Shed roofs are great at the endof a pool, especially if you got a
sunken fireplace area or a sunkenkitchen, it becomes part of the pool.
And that's really what thesepools have morphed into.
They've just morphed into morethan pools or just these entire
outdoor entertaining areas.
Shade cells can look really good.
Retractable shades.
There's a lot of them.
I'm going to start with one.
Yes.
Which one?
(41:31):
Let's start with pergolas because I thinknot everybody understands what pergola
is because it's called a couple differentthings depending on where you're at.
So what's your definition?
So pergola is going to besomething that's not going to
have a completely enclosed roof.
It's going to have slats on it.
So it could be built out of wood, it couldbe built out of metal, it can be specified
and built in different dimensions soyou could get different percentage of
(41:53):
sun coverage straight above or not.
You can also do essentially anEquinox as a pergola, but it just
happens to be powered, so youcan close and open the slats.
So pergola is going to not give you 100percent shade protection, but it's going
to give you some shade on those hot days.
It's also not going to give youany protection from the rain,
but again, it gives you shade.
Here in Phoenix, where itdoesn't rain very much, that's
(42:16):
not necessarily a big deal.
And our intention is to expand and giveyou as much information as possible so
that when you get around to doing this,you can make a very sound decision.
So today here, Mike, on episodefour, we are going to be
talking about site analysis.
That's boring.
Yeah.
But it's important.
It is very important.
(42:36):
And so because of its importance, wehope that you will listen because this
could be the information that could saveyou from making a really bad decision.
It could also help you makea really good decision.
Yeah.
The site analysis is I enjoy it too, butyou've got to spend some time out there.
I'm typically spending two, three hoursout there cause I'm droning the property.
(42:57):
I am taking two, 300 pictures.
I'm measuring everything thatI can think of out there.
And then you've got to find all thisstuff on the property that you're
going to have to have access to.
And it's a lot of stuff.
If you haven't even bought a houseyet, and I'm going to, I'm going to get
off into the weeds here a little bit,cause this is, I believe is important.
I was realtor for a lot of years.
And my wife is also a realtor, but whenyou go to buy a house and you think
(43:19):
you want to have a pool or you knowthat you want to have a pool, you got
to be thinking about the orientationof the house and how that's going to
affect that living space out there.
And I think a lot of times peopleare so excited about buying a home,
they overlook a lot of things.
And one of the things I believe thathelped us over the years because I
build homes is just, there's a lot ofthings in the home building that if you
(43:40):
don't think of while you're building.
That are really expensive to add later on.
And so this process that we'retalking about and the whole premise
of all of this is how do we bestprepare people for having a pool?
And if you haven't bought your home yet,you're in a good position to have all
this information at your fingertips or toyour ears so that you can hopefully find
(44:01):
a place that's going to be best suited forwhat it is that you want and not have some
of the challenges that we've talked about.
If you're already in the house, youhave what you have to work with.
And if you're there for the longhaul, again, you have what you have
to work with, but there could be adifference in hundreds of thousands of
dollars just based upon the property.
That's yet something else to consideris the trees and the locations.
(44:23):
Are they protected?
Are they not protected?
As long as we're on this topic, what wouldbe some of the other things to consider?
I mean, one that comes off thetop of my head really quickly
is the access into the backyard.
We've got to be able to get intothe backyard, dig the pool, can't
just crane a bobcat over the house.
You still got to get the dirt out of it.
It's just not feasible.
So you could do yourself a favorby understanding all of this.
(44:43):
So if you're buying your first houseor your second house or your third
house, or even getting ready to sellyour home where you already have
a pool, hey, let's jump in on it.
And have all the information so thatyou can save yourself some money and
a lot of hassle and probably a lot offrustration more than anything else.
My wife, she shops like this and thenit's funny because it maybe it could
compare, but she'll look at somethingand I'll say, Oh, that looks really nice.
(45:04):
That's pretty, whatever.
And she'll go, but it's 200and it's only worth 60 to me.
So if it's 60, I'd buyit, but I'm not buying it.
You've got to figure outwhat it's going to be.
What's the value to you.
And it's different for everybody.
And that's again, part of thediscovery phase, which is what we've
spent the last couple of episodes on.
And we're going to talk aboutit even more now today, because
(45:24):
we're going to talk about.
What are you gonna use your pool for?
You're either going to be Exercisingplaying in it or you're gonna
be relaxing and enjoying it orsomewhere in the middle It's both.
I think the both situation is a pool'svery really good size I've been riding
motorcycles most my life and there'sstreet bikes and then there's dirt
bikes And they make a dual purpose bike,which isn't good at either one of them.
(45:49):
It does the job.
You can make it work, but itdoesn't do either job really good.
And so that's really something toconsider is what am I using this pool for?
And then of course if you'rebuilding it for, for entertainment
and relaxation, now you're goingto have lots of places to sit.
Lots of places to be inside thepool, maybe to your point, a
swim, a bar, a spa, a big ledge.
(46:11):
And when Phoenix 20 years ago, whenI built the first pool, now 25 years
ago, when I built the first pool formy family, when the kids were little,
now it's between is about 20 years ago.
We need a third of the pool.
The ledge, a whole third, andthat's where everybody stayed at.
That's where everybody liked to be at.
The spa was right next to it,the same level as the pool.
And then you had the swimmingarea out in the main pool.
(46:33):
But I think since the ledges came out,and especially with the ledge loungers
and some of the furniture that's nowavailable, people just want to be close
to the water and just want to feel it,experience it, see it, and just enjoy it.
And that would be theentertainment pool, to your point.
I've had four pools.
I've not had a diving pool.
We did quite a few in Phoenix.
(46:54):
I'm working on several here.
It's a great explanation betweenthe two and I think you've got to
figure out what it is that you want.
And furthermore, I'm going to add to thefact that you either make the commitment
to your point of building a divingpool if that's what you're going to do
versus just making the pool a little bitdeeper and allowing people to do that.
That's just silly.
Certainly as an adult, I coulddive into four feet of water, but
(47:17):
I wouldn't dive straight down.
But kids don't know the difference.
People make mistakes.
Oh, it's usually the drunk 20year old who goes, look, watch me.
That's the one you have toprotect himself against.
We have an exciting show for youbecause we're going to talk about
entertainment and who doesn'tlike to be entertained, Mike?
Oh, I think everybody enjoys that.
(47:38):
So it's a great adventure.
It's a great adventure is right.
And when somebody decides to get aswimming pool, I got to think they need
to be thinking about entertainment.
This isn't just a pool.
There's a lot going on here and a lotneeds to be taken into consideration.
And at the very least someplanning, because you may not be
able to like everybody works offbudgets and different things.
(47:58):
You may not be able to do it all the time.
But one of the things you and Iboth do is we create master plans.
So you could piecemeal and go, okay,we're going to do the pool this year.
And next year we'll add thekitchen or whatever it may be.
And that's just.
That way all the pieces gotogether in this jigsaw puzzle.
And it is a puzzle.
Yes.
Very much.
And it's one that you don't want to getdone with and go, where's that piece?
(48:20):
We talked about this in a previousepisode about this line of sites,
windows, all of those views.
And that's what I think that anybodythat's been doing this for a while.
Is going to help you understand islet's look at and at least consider
some of these other views and some ofthese other areas, which are going to
impact how you enjoy it, because I knowthat in a lot of areas of the country,
(48:42):
you can't enjoy your pulled five daysa year because it just gets too cold.
Or sometimes it gets too hot.
So if you could at least have the poolrunning and hear the water features and
look out at it and dream about the timewhen it's not so hot or not so cold, it
helps, I think, absorb the investment inthis whole project is you are enjoying it.
(49:03):
We're trying to make it so thatyou're getting some level of
enjoyment out of it every single day.
All right, everybody, it's time for.
Our Poolside PerspectivesPodcast Vocabulary Lesson.
Is it not, Mike?
It would be, yes.
And I think that the word ofthe day should be drop beam.
So what is a drop beam?
(49:24):
A drop beam would be, I mean,if you listen to the word drop,
it means that the beam itselfis dropping down below the pool.
So you might be on the hillside.
Or the pool might be elevated in theyard and something's got to finish that
side of the pool because it's elevatedout of the ground where you can see it.
And so if you could see it and it'sgot to be finished with the material,
then it would be a drop beam.
(49:45):
So what's the difference betweena drop beam and a retaining?
They could be similar, but with the dropbeam as part of the pool and the retaining
wall is not, and they are not connected.
To the point before is like, whattype of entertainment do you do?
What's important to you?
I mean, I'm not a griller.
Yeah.
Right.
So that wouldn't be super important to me.
Although if I was going to buildone, I'd put a nice grill there
(50:06):
just because the next person thatbuys the house may be a griller.
I'm just not.
Now, if I had a really nice griller in asunken area, maybe I would use it more.
I don't know.
Currently, I probably couldn't.
Understood.
But it's a compelling thing tohave in the pool because it's
a cool place to hang out in.
And it brings up the questionfor me, at least, the size of the
sunken area is going to dictatereally what you can put in it.
(50:28):
To some degree, I actually thismorning scrolling on Facebook saw a
massive home in Dallas that actuallyhas a real water park built into the
backyard with the colored slides.
People are getting really serious now.
Is that the one in Plano?
It didn't say where it was at.
It just said, look at this monster witha theme water park in the backyard.
(50:51):
There's one in Planothat has multiple slides.
Yeah, it does.
And it is like a water park,lazy river, the whole thing.
So this is what we're talking abouttoday is we're talking about all the
cool features that you can put on a pool.
And there's a lot of them.
What's your favoritefeature to start with?
I have favorite features basedon the style of the pool.
(51:11):
To me, there are certain featuresthat go with certain styles of pools.
And I don't know my favorite poolright now, probably I love the
look of a perimeter overflow pool.
I like simple, but I also likestuff that's got everything going on
and it fire features are big deal.
The stuff that's going on withlighting right now is going to change.
I believe design trends as we moveforward, because now there's just so much.
(51:32):
More lighting available.
And we just get stimulated by lighting.
Okay.
So let's start with lightingwith a typical swimming pool.
What do you see versuswhat was done in the past?
Well, in the past there was atypically a large incandescent
light put in a pool, a single light.
It was a white light.
We transitioned there to a coloredlights and they were led lights.
(51:52):
And then we went to the smaller lightsand now we've got the strip lighting.
We've got colored lighting.
We can actually.
Light a pool in such a way now thatthe lights will change with music.
It just goes on and on.
It's totally true.
They just look different dependingon the yard, but also depending
on the day and the time and theweather and the water clarity and on.
So looking at pictures, it's toughto really see what that's going
(52:16):
to look like because that's apicture of what that looks like
that day under those circumstances.
Right then I did a pool for my familyyears ago, and it was Bordeaux and you
know what great color It was amazing.
But now that pool was what you callan organic style pool with flagstone
decking now granted I never used pinkflagstone, but the buffs the tans those
(52:38):
colors I definitely did with naturalrock waterfalls, but use that Bordeaux
color and it's really a good color Youstay involved with your projects from
start to finish because any designerI'm assuming You Maybe not any.
I like to stay involved in them aswell because we're creating these
spectacular projects for peopleand we want to turn out good.
I was at a PK earlier today, freezing mytail off because it's cold in North Texas.
(53:02):
Yes.
Was a little bit taken backof how cold it actually was
and also the wind was blowing.
And when I was flying, my drone was havinga really hard time, even just staying
in one place, the wind is blowing itall over the place, but it is very fun.
And it's just exciting to see ajob go from your creative genius,
our creative genius, whatever,and watching it go through the
(53:22):
process and seeing it completed.
I don't know how you can't not stayinvolved with some of these projects.
Outro (53:29):
This show is all about helping you become a better
buyer, a better pool owner.
And hopefully you're going to find someinsights into how to enjoy your pool, even
more so how to help your friends, yourfamily, anybody looking to buy a pool in
the future or that want to remodel theirbackyard, add an outdoor fireplace, fire
pit, add an outdoor kitchen area, addsome shade cells or whatever else it is.
(53:53):
We want to be that resource for you.
And that's the end goal here.
And we promise.
That there's going tobe a ton of information.
We'll try to go through it, youknow, as relatively quickly, but
also slow so people can understand.
But the intent of the show, thereason Mike and I are doing this
is because we just got a lot inour heads and we want to share it.
So we hope to see youhere every single week.
Thanks for listening.
Hello everybody.
Welcome to the poolsideperspectives podcast.
I am Kevin Woodhurst and with me is mygood friend, Mike Farley, and we're so
glad you found this podcast together.
We have been homeowner advocatesand outdoor living and the pool
industry for over 30 years.
So we understand the challenges youface creating your backyard paradise.
We know your curiosity is notenough to ensure your success.
(00:21):
So on this podcast, we're going to talkabout the design process and practical
steps to help you create that space.
We'll have some fun mixed in with it.
Some aha moments.
And this is no fluff.
No one has time for that.
So we're going to get serious and getvery particular about all of these topics.
Whether you are a new homeowner with yourfirst remodel or a seasoned homeowner
(00:41):
competing your last dream home, we arehere to help you end up with what you
dreamed of from pools to patios, pizza,ovens, to pergolas, porcelain, to pumps.
Pool Party to Permits, Ping Pong Tablesto the Processes to your Paradise.
This is Straight Talk and Action Steps.
Let's get started.
Mike (01:08):
Good afternoon.
This is Mike Farley with PoolsidePerspectives Podcast here with
Trey (01:14):
I'm Trey Farley.
hoping y'all are having a good day.
Mike (01:17):
we wanted to start off this episode and let you know that yesterday I got
to visit with Kevin in the morningsee him and spend some time with him.
But in the afternoon Kevin finished hisbattle with cancer and Kevin passed away.
At this point in time, he's not in aplace that having to battle that anymore.
(01:38):
So we're happy for him in that aspect,but sad for our personal losses that we
don't have our friend around anymore.
Some of you know Kevin very well.
Some of you don't know him very well.
So I just want to give you someinformation about Kevin here a little
bit and explain a few things Kevin is thereason there is a podcast without a doubt
(02:02):
because I would have never ever done thisby myself and Kevin was a let's get going
type of guy and he came to me and said,Hey, we need to do this and I was like,
let me analyze this for a while and he'slike, we don't have time to analyze this.
need to get going on it.
And I'm like, but I but, but, but,but he would be like, let's go.
(02:24):
What?
And it was funny cause he said hewas the gasoline to the vehicle
and I was the brakes which you needboth of those things to work well.
But he wanted to get things movingbecause he had a tremendous passion for
people and the people that he reallywanted to serve was the homeowner.
(02:45):
loved helping people figure out whatwas best for them in their backyard.
He said.
We're two old guys that have beendoing this a long time, and there's
a lot of places that people don'thave the resources and information
that we gathered over decades.
And he said, we need to sharethat so people can end up with
(03:07):
better things in their backyards.
ideally it wasn't ever about, gee, wewant to have a huge podcast or we want
to get sponsors or any of those things.
Kevin just wanted peopleto get information.
He wanted to be a resource hewanted to share what he had.
So what was cool is.
(03:27):
He was a little bit different than me.
I have been a designer for a long time.
I've also been a superintendentfor a brief period of time with one
company where you had to do both,but I've always been a designer and
Kevin worked in all kinds of aspects.
Yeah.
So you saw that and thedifferent things that he did.
Trey (03:46):
Yeah, we were talking about this before the episode and I
mentioned that it would be really cool.
Cause I knew Kevin as your peer.
briefly and I've never hada bad interaction with him.
He was awesome.
And I just want to speak on I came in tosub in one time for him just to help out,
and I was a nervous wreck, and he was sopositive, he texted me after he listened
(04:07):
to the episode, and he was like, hey man,I know your dad said you were nervous,
but I didn't get that vibe at all, youdid incredible he was very supportive
and I was in a very awkward position,with Kevin I was always curious because
I saw him as the designer that came in towork They hired a couple designers in that
time period and he was really interesting.
Because I'm curious on everythinghe did before he got to Texas
Mike (04:28):
to start with, we were the same age, and one of the things that happened
very young when he was out of high schoolis he actually joined the Air Force.
And he served for a number of years.
He worked on the planes and got to travelextensively and really loved that aspect
of it and, loved serving the countryand was very proud of our country.
(04:51):
But then he went back to Idaho where hegrew up and started doing construction.
And so he was doing everything frombuilding wooden decks and putting hot
tubs on them and all kinds of differentthings from a construction standpoint.
A young guy trying to make a living.
And then he moved to Arizona wherehe got into the pool industry.
(05:12):
He thought it would be funto work with swimming pools.
And so he went andfound somebody and just.
Convince them that he would be good at
Trey (05:20):
doing that.
I mean, The crossover knowledgeyou would have for making wood
decks and putting hot tubs on itthere's a little crossover there.
So that's cool.
Mike (05:27):
So eventually he did everything from running a service
department with a whole bunch of,routes and stuff like that, too.
He managed a store.
And all the retail aspects ofit, he had a sales department,
he had his own pool company.
so he worked in a lot of different venues.
again, I'm the guy thatjust designs things.
(05:49):
did all those things.
Yeah.
he had a a very different approachfrom like education where I
was always focused design.
His was very broad and, he learned froma lot of different people and had a lot
of different mentors in that aspect.
but he learned, the wholegamut of the industry now.
When you eventually focusedon design later in his career.
(06:14):
And then when he came to Texas,that's all he's done was doing design.
But was really cool that he basicallywould bring a lot of different things.
He would debate me on some things.
would argue about different perspectives.
And that was one of the reasons thisis named poolside perspectives, because
he had one perspective and sometimesI had a different one and we would
(06:35):
discuss things and so he had really goodinsight that's what makes things better.
But it's hard to Lose your friends.
he will definitely be missedespecially for what he wanted to
do he just wanted to help people tolearn about things in the industry.
One of the things that I thoughtwas really cool is, He had a
(06:56):
sales department and he was likeme, he drew everything by hand.
but his sales team all used pool studio.
And so he realized better know how to dothis so I can help my sales department.
Trey (07:09):
That makes sense.
Mike (07:09):
So he learned to do pool studio.
And that was one of the big thingswe argued about all the time.
Cause he was like, youwould be so much better.
If you would learn pool studio and usea computer and get rid of your pencil.
And I'm like, no, I like my pencil.
I'm going to keep it.
but he came very proficient.
In fact he offered to do trainingand things like that for people to
(07:30):
help them learn, tricks and, thingson how to make, be better at that.
Trey (07:34):
We did a class and he was leading it pretty much.
And it was a great class we did.
And we had a bunch of people there,a lot of people that use pool studio
before their knowledge, some peoplewere experts, some were novice
and he had a lot of great insight.
Mike (07:47):
Yeah.
But again, that's theway he tackled things.
He didn't know anything about it.
He just go learn about it.
He was always trying to getsmarter at what he does.
And it was really cool to see how he wasso rounded all aspects of the industry.
Trey (08:03):
He will be missed for sure.
And I think we just needmore people like Kevin.
BBQ Bits (08:08):
We're going to take a break here for a second and get into outdoor living.
So with outdoor living, we liketo go to barbecue bits here.
We're going to share some informationof everything that you may want to
consider in your outdoor living space.
As far as features,especially for the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy this.
Mike (08:28):
the griddle has gotten really popular.
And so we get more andmore requests for griddles.
And if you're going to talk about the bestgriddle to install, where would you start?
Bobby (08:39):
We would definitely start with Evo, another American made
product drive, 12th and Oregon,, all American made, but why Evo?
I'm just not going to sell a product.
What's the value added piece of this?
Well, There's two types of griddlesas a consumer you want to look at,
and as specifiers, in salespeople,we want to go into a discovery phase.
Is this the right griddle?
(09:00):
In other words, is this goingto be a connection piece?
am I going to have, , like Kevin justdid and you have done, the radius bars?
we're doing a particular job that has afull radius bar that wraps around the Evo.
This is recessed in it, and I believeit's a deck pond or a granite top.
We're going to omit this piece here andnow I'm connected with the whole family.
Right.
It's really important.
(09:21):
Or are you going to buy a griddle?
That's going to be in linewith the equipment away from
that entertainment area.
That's the questions we ask.
Well, a lot of peoplewant a connection piece.
If you don't configure table andchairs by this, you will get a
lot of congregation around this.
Everybody wants to cook on Evo.
they make a commercialside like Mongolian grill.
(09:41):
Then they make a residential side.
I make two versions.
They make a.
They call it 25, and they make it 30.
We do 30 in Texas,because bigger is better.
This is a hardened steel plate thathas been seasoned from the factory,
and it gets better and betterevery time that you cook on it.
Two zone burner system.
I've got an interior burnerand an exterior burner.
(10:03):
Can you bake on this?
Yes, there's bakingracks that are on here.
You can do pizzas on here.
I didn't believe this at first.
I have Evo, , foodie guys that comein here and say, here's my pizza.
And, I have not learned how to do a pizza.
I'm more of a alpha oven guy,but you can do it on here.
Kevin (10:20):
When I first came to CU the first time, year and a half ago or
so, whenever it was, that is the onething that has always Stuck in my mind.
Is that evil?
Because when my kids were growing up,we love going to the hibachi grills
and teppanyaki and everything else.
And I love cooking breakfaston Sunday mornings.
And that is just perfect.
They had to have one of those.
Bobby (10:39):
So if you've got a large family , how does this value added to hold?
, if I have a lot of community orfamily friends over, can use that
vehicle and even as a warmer.
In other words, I can use this.
I set this outside burner for lowand put my food in the middle of
this and this acts as a huidor.
You can put a lid on it and yourmoisture control is up here in
(11:02):
the top with this daisy wheel.
It's more of a moisture control.
I have a lot of customers, , HeyBobby, where's the grease go?
You get some fall off, but your accesspoints for clean outs are right here.
And they have little cups thatyou actually can line and coil
and you can actually slide out.
No electricity is needed to this.
It's battery op.
They make it simple.
(11:23):
It's what they do.
Pros and cons.
So many pros we can go on andon and kill about an hour.
The only con, and I'll tell you, Where doI domicile or where do I set the lid at?
Where does that go?
Big?
it's like Captain America'sShield, . So that's one thing that
you guys have done really well.
It's like, Hey, listen,we need that lid kit.
(11:45):
There is a, a device that holds it.
So where it would go, wouldit probably on the end of this
island when I'm not using it.
You want to, think in advanceof where to put the lid at.
So
Mike (11:55):
good thought.
I see here in this cabinet thatit's sticking out past the,
island, the cooking island.
Yes.
Is it designed to do that allthe time or can you actually have
the counter follow it around?
Bobby (12:08):
This is a great question.
, I'm glad you let me on this becauseI was going to bring that up next.
Two ways to build this in, youguys know, looter's stone
comes out of looter's Texas.
This is what they call abuff It's a chiseled edge.
Whenever I do a, whenever we doa looter's stone, the stone is
so thick it's hard Can you do it?
Yes, but it's hard to do a radius cut.
So we'll always recommend thetrim kit It can be a buff.
(12:30):
Now, you're gonna see more evosthat are flushed and it'll look
like it's monolithic with thetime We see a lot of Dekton
now, , higher end man made surfaces.
Do you need this?
Not exactly.
you can omit this and then build thisparticular piece in to let, to make it get
a more of a contemporary and soft feel.
As you look in this picture here withbuddy, the cake guy or whatever the buddy
(12:53):
Velastro, this is built into a granite topand we have some consumers that want that.
They want that more of that streamlinedlook and that contemporary and soft feel.
They don't want it so bulky.
But to answer your question, yes,it does come outside a little bit
so I can access more of the centerand back of the griddle itself.
(13:13):
Two zone system, interiorand exterior murder.
They make a built in cover for this,that you can cover this when not in use.
Mike (13:20):
You recommend having the storage below?
Bobby (13:23):
I do.
, the drawers are real popular becauseit's ease of use for your hard lines
from flippers, cleaning kit, thingslike that that can go inside of here.
And something that's really popularthat, that I've seen with a lot
of clappy islands is under counterlighting that we don't sell.
The reason why is that really popular?
You can see in the drawer systemsat night and then give them a knosh
(13:45):
at nighttime versus what daytimecan give you just a different look.
So
Kevin (13:49):
have any of the manufacturers started making.
Storage systems that actuallyhave lighting in them, low
voltage lighting in them.
Bobby (13:55):
they do.
There's two types.
There's, there's one that has a lowvoltage lighting that's, 12 volt, which
Winks makes and that's their exclusive.
That's a brand, out of Mississippi.
And then most of them, , have motionactivated, , watch battery in the drawer
and they last an extremely long time.
They found out that that's.
More ease of use and less, lessstrain on the power supply.
(14:18):
Pointless.
Wired.
That's correct.
BBQ Ends (14:20):
So I hope you enjoyed the barbecue bits that we just featured today
and we'll have more coming up next week.
If there's something in particular thatyou're interested for, let us know and
we'll get back into the episode now.
Mike (14:34):
So one of the things we're going to do with this episode is
we're going to pull a bunch of clipsfrom Kevin and some of his insight.
So if you didn't know him wellyou'll get a feeling for Kevin.
Also we're going to have something thatwe're going to do in Kevin's memory.
I'm not sure what that is at thispoint in time that we're going to
work out with through the podcast.
(14:55):
But if you've got suggestions onthings like that, I'd be really open
to hear some of those things that wemight be able to do in his memory.
one of the things he loved todo is, was answer questions.
We haven't answered as many questionson the episodes because quite honestly,
not many people send in questions.
if you do have questions sendthem in on our social media.
(15:17):
And Kevin would really want usto answer those all the time.
Wanted us to acknowledge where peoplewere and where they got their questions
and all those types of things.
So, Continue to send those incause we'd love to answer those.
Trey (15:32):
And you can get some.
poolside perspective swag.
If you do, you can send it your way.
Yeah.
So that was one thing
Mike (15:38):
Kevin wanted us to do as well.
Anyway, we got to get that worked out.
You
Trey (15:42):
wanted to spread the drip.
We're going to take a breakfor design concepts now.
So design concepts, what we're goingto do is talk about why we did the
Mike (16:00):
one of the things that me and Kevin argued about a was spas.
Trey (16:06):
Okay.
Mike (16:07):
Kevin thought everybody should have a spa.
Trey (16:10):
agree with him in a way.
Yeah, I love spas.
Mike (16:13):
I know you do.
Trey (16:14):
So.
Spas are awesome.
Now are we talking just spas?
Are we talking hot tubs?
Just in ground spas?
Because some people listeningto this might not know the
difference if this is the firsttime they're hearing this podcast.
Sure.
Mike (16:24):
You want to explain the differences between the two?
Trey (16:26):
To my knowledge, a spa is pretty much built in the ground, typically with
the pool, but it could also be isolated.
Like another episode we did, youmentioned you had a spa on a job that
was pretty much set up isolated fromthe pool and it looked like a fountain.
A hot tub on the other end willbe a pre constructed hot tub.
It's like the eight by eight.
Yeah.
At appliance.
(16:46):
It's always hot.
Typically put a cover on it.
Usually sits four to six people.
Mike (16:52):
Yeah.
So the industry, we call hot tubs, theportable appliance, the spa is something
that is constructed in the field, notconstructed in a manufacturing plant.
So he liked both of them.
Cause he had both when he was inPhoenix, he had a hot tub right outside.
He used to go out every morning andsit in his hot tub for 15 minutes,
(17:13):
and then he'd go out and hang out inthe evening and that type situation.
This particular project.
Wanted to talk about it and the designconcepts with this because it had
the features that he was looking for.
He thought all spas.
Should be flush.
That was his preference.
Okay.
Because he wanted it to seem seamless.
If you look at our logo poolsideperspective podcast, there is a
(17:38):
perimeter overflow spa on that.
And so that was one of Kevin's designs.
loved to have the spa close becausewanted to be able to get to it
fairly easy for privacy reasons, for,temperature reasons, all those things that
somebody outside of Phoenix, anything.
Else is probably cold.
So you want the hot tub fairlyclose, the Villamar project that
(18:01):
was the case we had a spa, it waslocated very close to the house.
But this particularproject was on a hillside.
And so we had to do some terracing.
So the upper terrace, you walkdown to the spa in the center.
And there was a center line that wentthrough the middle of this project.
And so it created a very strongarchitectural feel and the architecture
(18:25):
of the house had three arches on it.
And so this particular project hadthree arches as the focal point at
the back, which was also This focalpoint was providing some screening.
So their back fence wasbasically an iron fence.
Actually, before we started theproject, it was barbed wire.
Okay.
They looked out on a farm behind them.
(18:45):
but they knew the farmwas going to be developed.
And so they wanted to create someprivacy for their personal space.
And so we came in withthese three stucco arches.
Which blended with the archeson the home and in those arches,
there were three rainfalls.
And so the rainfallscreated a really nice sound.
And then in the center as you wentthrough the center arch back towards the
(19:09):
house, that's where the spa was centeredon, which was a perimeter overflow spa.
It was round to play off thearch aspect of the architecture.
And then on the other side ofthe arches, there was a fire pit.
So you could sit in the spa andlook through the rainfall and see
the fire pit as a focal point.
But it was also a gatheringspace back behind there.
(19:30):
And so they didn't mind that beingin the semi public area because.
Currently, there's nothing been done onthe farm and it would be years before,
but also that's a gathering in at night.
Not that is a big deal.
They wanted privacy more whenthey were in the pool itself.
Now, the fun thing is they wantedto slide also going into the pool.
(19:51):
So out of one corner, there was a slide.
The other corner was the ledgeand so it was really fun.
There was a bridge that connectedthe spa was in the pool.
So you could actually swim underneaththe bridge in around the spa itself.
So the spa was an island into itself.
So it was.
(20:12):
Fairly traditional in design, but itwas not formal in design because of
the, all the arches that we used andthe plantings that we used around it
still gave a fairly softer feel, but itfit with the architecture of the home.
There was also some coollions that we incorporated.
Your standard old schooltraditional spitting lion.
(20:33):
Which they had a fountain on the,in the courtyard, which had that.
And so they wanted to incorporate those.
We incorporated some tilethat matched some of the
architecture, the stucco match.
So everything was about fittingtheir needs which was to have
some fun area, some hangoutarea, some floating around area.
They wanted some privacy.
They wanted some architectural.
(20:55):
Cool elements to look at and then sowe wanted to have all those functions,
but also something that looked goodand something that fit the yard,
which there was terraces down hillside.
So the backside of the arches,which were level with the pool.
On the backside of them,they were seat walls.
So you could sit there as you weregathering around the fire pit.
(21:16):
So anyway, that was the projectthere in Fort Worth, Texas.
it's a fun project that incorporatedwhat Kevin liked best, which was
a flush spa close to the house.
Trey (21:27):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Do you know what the selection wasfor the the pavers for the coping?
Mike (21:32):
that was I believe a travertine and that particular coping color is called
scabos and scabos was used because we wereSome of the colors of the house and then
also some of the stone that was used onthe project as well And so it was a nice
Blend and it has a nice range in color.
(21:54):
Oh, it does.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Trey (21:56):
Thank you for telling me about
Mike (21:57):
certainly
Trey (22:00):
we're gonna do our little true crime segment and today I want to ask you
We've talked about lazy rivers often onthis podcast Let's talk about the pumps.
Do you think it's a true crimeto not use a lazy river pump?
Mike (22:13):
the lazy river pump that I've used in the past is Riverflow.
we have an episode that focuses on them.
So is it a crime to build alazy river and Riverflow pump?
Yes.
Eric, who was on last week.
Yes, he was.
When Eric was on we talked aboutthe first Lazy River that I did
(22:34):
and he published it in a magazine.
And after it was published inthat magazine, it got picked up
on a lot of different places.
And so I started gettingphone calls every week.
I'd probably get four to fiveto six, sometimes 10 phone
calls a week about lazy rivers.
Trey (22:53):
Cause I remember discussing the actual flow I think you're
alluding to like they are askingwhat kind of pump you use to get that
kind of flow and not be stagnant.
Right?
Mike (23:01):
Right.
thing that these phone calls weregenerating is there were two groups of
people and it was almost a split 50 50and half the people that were calling me.
were contractors that were building a lazyriver and their lazy river didn't work.
Yeah, it was way too slow.
It was way too slow.
Too lazy.
(23:22):
Too lazy.
Trey (23:23):
what was the other 50 then?
Mike (23:24):
The other 50 percent were homeowners that had a lazy
river that was way too slow.
And the common comment that I got wasWe figured if we took a typical pool
pump and we put five or six of thoseon here, we could get enough flow rate
going that it would move the river.
(23:45):
And what people don't understandis it'll create circulation.
Yeah.
But when you're moving a river, you'removing not just the surface water, you're
moving all the water in this channel.
This channel's three anda half to five feet deep.
It's six feet wide.
I've got to get all thiswater moving in a circle.
(24:08):
It takes a tremendousamount of energy to do that.
Trey (24:12):
If you take five or six regular pumps, like you're saying.
I guess it might work if youget on like a floatie and you're
on the top of the water, right?
It pushes the top water around.
But if you're like a normalperson, just jump in.
It's not going to push you much at all.
Mike (24:26):
No.
And one guy, I'll never forget this.
He said I measured the flow ratebecause I heard you were supposed
to have a certain flow rate withit and I've got that flow rate.
And I said how did you measure it?
And he said I threw a stickon the surface and counted how
many feet it went in a second.
pump that I use and the pump thatI've used on every Lazy River project.
(24:49):
And the thing that I told peopleall the time is they were trying
to move pumps with a two inchpipe they had five of them.
And so they were likeit should move things.
the pump that I use has a 12 inch pipe.
you need something thathas a very high flow rate.
And also is energy efficient.
(25:09):
So if you just put a big pump on it onceyou get the water moving, it doesn't
take hardly anything to keep it moving.
You don't need 10 horsepower all the time.
You just need 10 horsepowerto get it moving.
Once it's moving, then it can be runningon a very small amount of horsepower.
So if you use just a standardpump, I think it's a crime because
it, from a utility standpoint,you're going to pay for running.
(25:32):
A big pump all the time.
Yeah.
Okay.
So if you don't have the highenough flow rate, you're not even
gonna get going in the first place.
The other thing that comes into playis that particular pump is very quiet.
So when you're sitting in the backyardand everybody's hanging out in the
lazy river and stuff like that,you're not having to shout over some.
Big, huge motor that's runningto make this all happen.
(25:56):
So there's that aspect as well isthe sound that you're going to hear.
other aspect to think about isthere something in the pool that's
making all this happen, or is thistaking place outside of the pool?
So all the equipment's outside of it.
So in this particularsetup, it's all outside.
(26:17):
I think that.
It is a crime to use the wrong pumpwhen you are going to have multiple
pumps to try to do the same thingand it won't achieve that aspect.
My recommendation to all these people.
Was you need to core a bighole on the side of your pool
and plumb in some big pipe?
Yeah And you need to call River flowand give them the layout of it so
(26:41):
they can suggest where the properLocations are going to be as well.
Trey (26:45):
Yeah, they need to engineer it for sure.
Mike (26:46):
You know when you look at The placement of these things in the
beginning, before it's constructed,you can look and maybe make some
slight modifications and things likethat, like we did on the last project.
we were able to get less turbulencein certain areas and eddies and areas.
Now you may want to create that effect,but they can help you plan it out.
(27:09):
If you look at the front end, if you'retrying to figure this on the back end
and the structure's already built you'relocked into a certain amount of stuff.
Okay.
But I think the crime is if you spend allthe money to do something cool, like a
lazy river, that you don't have somethingthat's going to work it properly.
Trey (27:26):
Oh yeah.
And don't cut corners.
Go to what they say to do.
Don't use a river flow pumpand smaller pipe because you
think you can get away with it.
Mike (27:36):
So one of the things that was really amazing is when we
put this whole thing together.
Kevin was in a hurry to get going andso we started producing things the first
episode came out On October 6th last year.
So Kevin passed away on October6th this year, a year to the day
(27:59):
after we released our first episode.
So we've put together a bunch of clipshere so you can enjoy, Kevin and his
words of wisdom and All the fun thatwe had and hopefully you guys can learn
some more reviewing those things and justpass this on to other people that are
looking for information and we'll keepthe resources coming to provide more and
(28:26):
more information and just Kevin's memoriesalive on the things that he helped create.
Trey (28:32):
Yeah, I agree.
One thing I want to add is these are justsome of the clips from y'all's podcast.
If you want to hear more insight fromKevin cause he's a very smart guy.
Just go look at the old episodes.
Mike (28:42):
Oh yeah.
The first 10 were really theprocess for every homeowner, the
things they need to go through.
So lots of good information there.
Yeah, it is.
the last thing, just in closing,just want to thank everybody,
for spending this time with us.
Hope you enjoyed theremembrance we had of Kevin.
one thing I can say about Kevin isKevin was a true pool professional.
(29:06):
Every sense of the matter.
He, did what he tried to dothe best of his ability and
with the skills that he had.
he will be greatly missed.
there is going to be acelebration of life service.
That's going to take place on Saturday,November 2nd, from 12 to two at
Claffey pools design center, whichis at 1625 Brumlow in South Lake.
(29:31):
All are welcome to come to that eventand, look forward to, celebrating
with lots of people and telling funstories and antidotes about Kevin
and all that he's been to all of us.
We all have a good day.
Thanks for sharing time with us.
Kevin (29:46):
Well, I think that we need to give our audience a little bit of understanding
of who we are and where we came fromand what makes us tick and clearly on
education, because you and I have knowneach other for a very, very long time.
And I know that you got involvedwith one of the early design training
organizations early on with the GenesisGroup and went through all of their
certification program, which folks,it is a massive amount of education.
(30:10):
The college degree.
That somebody goes throughto get to Mike's level.
Not only with the landscape design,but even on the pull side, there's
just so much that he's done and hasn'tbeen involved in these last 20 years.
So tell me a little bit about your SWDtitle and what that took to get it and how
long it took and the level of commitmentit really took to be where you're at.
(30:33):
Let's tell our audience a littlebit about why we're doing this.
Why are you here with me and this journeythat we're going to take for everybody?
And I think you'd agree that aneducated buyer is the best buyer.
That's really what the show is allabout everyone is Mike and I really
have an innate need or desire ifyou will to educate people to train
(30:53):
people to help people make reallygood decisions when it comes to pools.
I mean, let's face it.
It's expensive to have aswimming pool, but it's also.
A really awesome thing to have intoyour backyard to enjoy 365 days a year.
That's why we're doing this.
And so the show is much gearedtowards not only consumers, but
also many of our industry friendsand colleagues that want to learn
(31:14):
a little something here and there.
And we're really excited about this.
Well, for me, I bought a house in themid 1990s and we didn't have a pool.
And I was thinking about changing careers.
I'd been in real estate.
I had spent 13 years in the air force,traveled all over the world, worked
not only as an aircraft mechanic,but also as a civil engineer tech.
(31:35):
And oddly enough, I had myfirst exposure to swimming pools
while I was in the military.
Without ever thinking or knowingor acknowledging maybe someday I'm
going to be designing, designingand building these things.
So I had a couple of years there.
And then when we bought this house,I decided that I would call around
and see if there was a pool companythat would hire me with no experience.
(31:57):
Although I'd had a lot of experienceprior to that with design work,
building, construction, maintenance.
So pretty handy anyway,relatively good with the pen,
relatively good with my hands.
You know, once I found a companyto hire me, I started, I mean,
I didn't last there long.
I lasted there about nine months, butI learned everything that I didn't
want to know about the pool industry.
(32:19):
There can be a lot about that.
It was really, you know, as I look backon it now, it was a great experience
because I genuinely mean it when Isay I learned everything that I didn't
want to be about being in the swimmingpool industry from this company.
And I'm not going to name the companyor anybody involved, but at the end
of the day, there was just stuffgoing on that I would never do.
From there, I moved on to an ownerbuilder company in Phoenix and got
(32:42):
to be very good friends with thefounder and owner of that company.
And him and I built that up toabout 500 pools between Tucson
and Phoenix until I finally got tothe point I wanted my own company.
I wanted to do it myself.
I wanted to see if I could do it.
And nobody thought I could.
Because I had been an owner builderguy, so what do you know about pools?
Well, here's the thing, likeMike, I like to know stuff.
(33:03):
My brain works very much like anengineer's brain, and so for me, I've
got to understand how things work,otherwise I can't explain it to people.
And you know as well as I do that thejargon in the pool industry, and we're
going to talk about that at some point,is like a foreign language to most people.
So how do you break it down so theaverage consumer can understand?
Well, unless you have a really thoroughunderstanding of how pools are built.
(33:27):
You can't.
You're basically just pitching outof a can of what you've been told.
And there's a big difference betweenwhat people have been told and what
actually works or doesn't work.
So, I got involved with the GenesisGroup like you did very early on.
I didn't stick with it as long.
I spent quite a bit of time in thereand had a good time, but I ended
up going a little bit differentroute through the associations.
(33:49):
Because the associations were startingto have certification programs.
And so I went and got everysingle last one of them.
Definitely did not put the timeinto it that you did, but got
a really good sound education.
Plus, I just had some mentors alongthe way that I wouldn't say demanded,
because I do things freely anyway.
Suggested to me, as I would suggestto anybody out there listening,
(34:10):
that if you really want to be aprofessional at this and get good at
it, then you need professionalism.
To get out into the world, you needto meet people, you need to go to
shows, you need to go to educationalseminars, you need to listen, you
need to find a mentor or two in yourarea that's willing to help you.
And I believe that there's a lot of usthat are willing to help and give our time
away pretty freely as we tried to elevatethe industry and continue to pull it up.
(34:34):
And that's how I got my start.
And then I was very activein the associations.
Whether or not I was president, oron the Builders Council, or Education
Committee on National, or whateverelse, and I just happened to get really
lucky with some really, really goodmentors along the way that helped Kind
of showed me the way so why water versussomething else oddly enough I'm a cancer
(34:56):
that makes me a water baby if you will
Mike (34:58):
Yeah,
Kevin (34:58):
and so I think it's a little ironic that I found a career in water
and everybody loves water It's justsomething that soothes our soul.
It makes us feel good.
We like to swim it.
We love the way it feels It feeds life.
I mean, what would itbe like without water?
Obviously very dry, but what's Texas?
West Texas, right?
Or Phoenix or SouthernCalifornia or Florida.
(35:21):
It's pretty hot here though.
Yes, it is.
It's pretty hot here though.
So how did you end up in Texas?
We had five kids.
Our youngest, who turned 18 abouta year ago, she was going to go to
trade school and my wife said to me,Let's move to Boca Raton, Florida.
And I said, let's not, it'stoo far away from the kids.
(35:44):
And she said, well, what'syour next best choice?
I don't know.
Where do you want to go?
She said, how about Texas?
And well, I know a lot of people in Texas.
I knew of you.
I know you.
I've got plenty of friends here.
It was not hard to reach out.
And to find a great organization anda place to work and come over here
from Phoenix and, you know, I wishI'd come over here a long time ago
(36:06):
because we absolutely love it here.
Aside from the fact that the market isfantastic, the weather doesn't bother
us because we're used to being hot.
Mike (36:14):
But, you know, because it's
Kevin (36:15):
hot, people need pools.
Mike (36:17):
Yes, they do.
Kevin (36:18):
Yeah.
I have a few projects there in the500, 000 plus range and more, but I
want to make it clear to everybody.
Yeah.
We've done some really nice pools.
Mike has done some spectacular stuff.
I've done some great stuff in the past.
Got some great stuff going now, butthis is really not about just a hundred
thousand dollar pools or million dollarpools is about swimming pools as a whole.
(36:39):
What this industry is about,what's the best way to look
into buying a swimming pool?
You're thinking about it.
Your wife says, Hey honey,I want to have a pool.
Our kids need to swim.
And you're going to start that process.
And as we go through the segments andthrough each episode, we're going to
start from the very beginning, as Isaid before, really try to hone in on
how you can be a better buyer and howyou can be well armed with the right
(37:03):
questions and the right informationso that you can relatively easy.
Start chipping away at whoyou want or who you don't want
to build your swimming pool.
A lot of great companies out there.
There's a lot of fantastic designers herein the DFW area and all over the country.
It's a matter of finding them and reallyfinding somebody that you can resonate
with that can get your vision and that canalso help you make the right decisions.
(37:27):
We have to sell justby proxy of what we do.
I mean, we're, we're designersthat have to sell our projects.
So it just comes with the territory.
But at the end of the day, if you canfind somebody that you can, again,
resonate with and really start buildingrapport with so that they can help
you and coach you into designing,This beautiful backyard, this oasis,
(37:47):
this, uh, staycation destination, youknow, and after COVID, I mean, during
COVID, the market completely changed.
Everything changed.
People got crazy about what itwas that they were doing, and it
became, to your point earlier,not just about swimming pools.
Now it's outdoor living.
It's outdoor structures.
It's.
Yeah, people are adding ramadasnext to their pools with
bathrooms and full kitchens andentertaining areas for pool tables.
(38:11):
And I mean, you nameit, we've seen it all.
It's crazy.
I've never surprised anymorewhat people are doing.
Oh, it's a lot of fun.
Mike had alluded to this after episodeone or during episode one about the
resources that are things that you need.
Say I just moved over here froma different state and I bought
a house that's 30 years old.
Yes.
Yes.
And I decided I want to get a pool.
(38:32):
Where do I get a form survey from?
Where do I find the most current,the correct one, the right one?
I can't find it.
And then the builder's out of business.
And as a consumer here in Texas, if Ineed that, where do I resource that from?
Yeah.
So that's a great point too.
And that is if you're buying a house andthey can't find one, that probably needs
to be a stipulation on closing that youneed to provide me with one, because
you're going to need one at some point.
(38:52):
It's not even just for pools.
If you do an addition on your house,if you do improvements in your
house, you Any sort of a permit,they're going to ask for the survey.
So that's definitely probably themost important thing to have, or
one of the most important things.
Mike (39:04):
One of them.
What would you say
Kevin (39:05):
would be another one?
Besides the survey, each town andcity is going to have some different
requirements on different things.
I think that it's important that yourdesigner or sales person is doing all
this stuff, but man, there's just somuch that you need to be following
up with and following along with, forinstance, some cities require that you
have to have a, Backwash line goingfrom your filter to your sewer line.
(39:30):
And you might not even have afilter that requires backwashing.
Each municipality is going to have somevery different and unique rules and
considerations for your swimming pool.
Just like every city has differentsetbacks from the property lines.
I thought today, I think a reallygood topic would be to talk about
shade structures and just structuresin general in the backyard.
(39:51):
Because after all, the show isnot just about swimming pools.
It is about swimmingpools and outdoor living.
And here in North Texas, we get a lotof requests for outhouses, outbuildings.
Really?
Oh, yeah, I guess not an outhouse couldbe in a harbor not an arbor, but a cabana.
Oh, yeah We called a bathroom.
I'm from Idaho.
(40:11):
Oh, well understand funny thing when I wasin the military I would tell people I was
from Idaho and they would be like, I knowright where that's right next to Nebraska.
And I'm like, Oh yeah, it's right there.
Just missing the D anda couple other letters.
Oh, there's a few
Mike (40:24):
states
Kevin (40:24):
in between.
Exactly.
So I think that shades andstructures, how about that?
Mike (40:29):
Okay.
Kevin (40:30):
So we know that there's quite a few different types.
So I think maybe a way to tackle this is.
Let's each talk about some differentshade structures or shade items, and then
we can comment back and forth on themand tell people about the ins and outs.
But this is totally focused on shade.
I mean, we're in Texas where it's hot.
In Arizona, it's hot.
California, it's hot.
(40:50):
Florida, it's hot.
Anywhere in the sunbelt, if you'rebuilding a pool outdoors, you may very
well be looking for a way to find someshade and some reprieve from the sun.
And that's really whatthis episode's about.
I don't really have a favorite.
I think that shade is undervalued,especially when it's so hot out.
I like them all.
It just depends on the job.
Pergolas look really cool in some places.
(41:11):
Shed roofs are great at the endof a pool, especially if you got a
sunken fireplace area or a sunkenkitchen, it becomes part of the pool.
And that's really what thesepools have morphed into.
They've just morphed into morethan pools or just these entire
outdoor entertaining areas.
Shade cells can look really good.
Retractable shades.
There's a lot of them.
I'm going to start with one.
Yes.
Which one?
(41:31):
Let's start with pergolas because I thinknot everybody understands what pergola
is because it's called a couple differentthings depending on where you're at.
So what's your definition?
So pergola is going to besomething that's not going to
have a completely enclosed roof.
It's going to have slats on it.
So it could be built out of wood, it couldbe built out of metal, it can be specified
and built in different dimensions soyou could get different percentage of
(41:53):
sun coverage straight above or not.
You can also do essentially anEquinox as a pergola, but it just
happens to be powered, so youcan close and open the slats.
So pergola is going to not give you 100percent shade protection, but it's going
to give you some shade on those hot days.
It's also not going to give youany protection from the rain,
but again, it gives you shade.
Here in Phoenix, where itdoesn't rain very much, that's
(42:16):
not necessarily a big deal.
And our intention is to expand and giveyou as much information as possible so
that when you get around to doing this,you can make a very sound decision.
So today here, Mike, on episodefour, we are going to be
talking about site analysis.
That's boring.
Yeah.
But it's important.
It is very important.
(42:36):
And so because of its importance, wehope that you will listen because this
could be the information that could saveyou from making a really bad decision.
It could also help you makea really good decision.
Yeah.
The site analysis is I enjoy it too, butyou've got to spend some time out there.
I'm typically spending two, three hoursout there cause I'm droning the property.
(42:57):
I am taking two, 300 pictures.
I'm measuring everything thatI can think of out there.
And then you've got to find all thisstuff on the property that you're
going to have to have access to.
And it's a lot of stuff.
If you haven't even bought a houseyet, and I'm going to, I'm going to get
off into the weeds here a little bit,cause this is, I believe is important.
I was realtor for a lot of years.
And my wife is also a realtor, but whenyou go to buy a house and you think
(43:19):
you want to have a pool or you knowthat you want to have a pool, you got
to be thinking about the orientationof the house and how that's going to
affect that living space out there.
And I think a lot of times peopleare so excited about buying a home,
they overlook a lot of things.
And one of the things I believe thathelped us over the years because I
build homes is just, there's a lot ofthings in the home building that if you
(43:40):
don't think of while you're building.
That are really expensive to add later on.
And so this process that we'retalking about and the whole premise
of all of this is how do we bestprepare people for having a pool?
And if you haven't bought your home yet,you're in a good position to have all
this information at your fingertips or toyour ears so that you can hopefully find
(44:01):
a place that's going to be best suited forwhat it is that you want and not have some
of the challenges that we've talked about.
If you're already in the house, youhave what you have to work with.
And if you're there for the longhaul, again, you have what you have
to work with, but there could be adifference in hundreds of thousands of
dollars just based upon the property.
That's yet something else to consideris the trees and the locations.
(44:23):
Are they protected?
Are they not protected?
As long as we're on this topic, what wouldbe some of the other things to consider?
I mean, one that comes off thetop of my head really quickly
is the access into the backyard.
We've got to be able to get intothe backyard, dig the pool, can't
just crane a bobcat over the house.
You still got to get the dirt out of it.
It's just not feasible.
So you could do yourself a favorby understanding all of this.
(44:43):
So if you're buying your first houseor your second house or your third
house, or even getting ready to sellyour home where you already have
a pool, hey, let's jump in on it.
And have all the information so thatyou can save yourself some money and
a lot of hassle and probably a lot offrustration more than anything else.
My wife, she shops like this and thenit's funny because it maybe it could
compare, but she'll look at somethingand I'll say, Oh, that looks really nice.
(45:04):
That's pretty, whatever.
And she'll go, but it's 200and it's only worth 60 to me.
So if it's 60, I'd buyit, but I'm not buying it.
You've got to figure outwhat it's going to be.
What's the value to you.
And it's different for everybody.
And that's again, part of thediscovery phase, which is what we've
spent the last couple of episodes on.
And we're going to talk aboutit even more now today, because
(45:24):
we're going to talk about.
What are you gonna use your pool for?
You're either going to be Exercisingplaying in it or you're gonna
be relaxing and enjoying it orsomewhere in the middle It's both.
I think the both situation is a pool'svery really good size I've been riding
motorcycles most my life and there'sstreet bikes and then there's dirt
bikes And they make a dual purpose bike,which isn't good at either one of them.
(45:49):
It does the job.
You can make it work, but itdoesn't do either job really good.
And so that's really something toconsider is what am I using this pool for?
And then of course if you'rebuilding it for, for entertainment
and relaxation, now you're goingto have lots of places to sit.
Lots of places to be inside thepool, maybe to your point, a
swim, a bar, a spa, a big ledge.
(46:11):
And when Phoenix 20 years ago, whenI built the first pool, now 25 years
ago, when I built the first pool formy family, when the kids were little,
now it's between is about 20 years ago.
We need a third of the pool.
The ledge, a whole third, andthat's where everybody stayed at.
That's where everybody liked to be at.
The spa was right next to it,the same level as the pool.
And then you had the swimmingarea out in the main pool.
(46:33):
But I think since the ledges came out,and especially with the ledge loungers
and some of the furniture that's nowavailable, people just want to be close
to the water and just want to feel it,experience it, see it, and just enjoy it.
And that would be theentertainment pool, to your point.
I've had four pools.
I've not had a diving pool.
We did quite a few in Phoenix.
(46:54):
I'm working on several here.
It's a great explanation betweenthe two and I think you've got to
figure out what it is that you want.
And furthermore, I'm going to add to thefact that you either make the commitment
to your point of building a divingpool if that's what you're going to do
versus just making the pool a little bitdeeper and allowing people to do that.
That's just silly.
Certainly as an adult, I coulddive into four feet of water, but
(47:17):
I wouldn't dive straight down.
But kids don't know the difference.
People make mistakes.
Oh, it's usually the drunk 20year old who goes, look, watch me.
That's the one you have toprotect himself against.
We have an exciting show for youbecause we're going to talk about
entertainment and who doesn'tlike to be entertained, Mike?
Oh, I think everybody enjoys that.
(47:38):
So it's a great adventure.
It's a great adventure is right.
And when somebody decides to get aswimming pool, I got to think they need
to be thinking about entertainment.
This isn't just a pool.
There's a lot going on here and a lotneeds to be taken into consideration.
And at the very least someplanning, because you may not be
able to like everybody works offbudgets and different things.
(47:58):
You may not be able to do it all the time.
But one of the things you and Iboth do is we create master plans.
So you could piecemeal and go, okay,we're going to do the pool this year.
And next year we'll add thekitchen or whatever it may be.
And that's just.
That way all the pieces gotogether in this jigsaw puzzle.
And it is a puzzle.
Yes.
Very much.
And it's one that you don't want to getdone with and go, where's that piece?
(48:20):
We talked about this in a previousepisode about this line of sites,
windows, all of those views.
And that's what I think that anybodythat's been doing this for a while.
Is going to help you understand islet's look at and at least consider
some of these other views and some ofthese other areas, which are going to
impact how you enjoy it, because I knowthat in a lot of areas of the country,
(48:42):
you can't enjoy your pulled five daysa year because it just gets too cold.
Or sometimes it gets too hot.
So if you could at least have the poolrunning and hear the water features and
look out at it and dream about the timewhen it's not so hot or not so cold, it
helps, I think, absorb the investment inthis whole project is you are enjoying it.
(49:03):
We're trying to make it so thatyou're getting some level of
enjoyment out of it every single day.
All right, everybody, it's time for.
Our Poolside PerspectivesPodcast Vocabulary Lesson.
Is it not, Mike?
It would be, yes.
And I think that the word ofthe day should be drop beam.
So what is a drop beam?
(49:24):
A drop beam would be, I mean,if you listen to the word drop,
it means that the beam itselfis dropping down below the pool.
So you might be on the hillside.
Or the pool might be elevated in theyard and something's got to finish that
side of the pool because it's elevatedout of the ground where you can see it.
And so if you could see it and it'sgot to be finished with the material,
then it would be a drop beam.
(49:45):
So what's the difference betweena drop beam and a retaining?
They could be similar, but with the dropbeam as part of the pool and the retaining
wall is not, and they are not connected.
To the point before is like, whattype of entertainment do you do?
What's important to you?
I mean, I'm not a griller.
Yeah.
Right.
So that wouldn't be super important to me.
Although if I was going to buildone, I'd put a nice grill there
(50:06):
just because the next person thatbuys the house may be a griller.
I'm just not.
Now, if I had a really nice griller in asunken area, maybe I would use it more.
I don't know.
Currently, I probably couldn't.
Understood.
But it's a compelling thing tohave in the pool because it's
a cool place to hang out in.
And it brings up the questionfor me, at least, the size of the
sunken area is going to dictatereally what you can put in it.
(50:28):
To some degree, I actually thismorning scrolling on Facebook saw a
massive home in Dallas that actuallyhas a real water park built into the
backyard with the colored slides.
People are getting really serious now.
Is that the one in Plano?
It didn't say where it was at.
It just said, look at this monster witha theme water park in the backyard.
(50:51):
There's one in Planothat has multiple slides.
Yeah, it does.
And it is like a water park,lazy river, the whole thing.
So this is what we're talking abouttoday is we're talking about all the
cool features that you can put on a pool.
And there's a lot of them.
What's your favoritefeature to start with?
I have favorite features basedon the style of the pool.
(51:11):
To me, there are certain featuresthat go with certain styles of pools.
And I don't know my favorite poolright now, probably I love the
look of a perimeter overflow pool.
I like simple, but I also likestuff that's got everything going on
and it fire features are big deal.
The stuff that's going on withlighting right now is going to change.
I believe design trends as we moveforward, because now there's just so much.
(51:32):
More lighting available.
And we just get stimulated by lighting.
Okay.
So let's start with lightingwith a typical swimming pool.
What do you see versuswhat was done in the past?
Well, in the past there was atypically a large incandescent
light put in a pool, a single light.
It was a white light.
We transitioned there to a coloredlights and they were led lights.
(51:52):
And then we went to the smaller lightsand now we've got the strip lighting.
We've got colored lighting.
We can actually.
Light a pool in such a way now thatthe lights will change with music.
It just goes on and on.
It's totally true.
They just look different dependingon the yard, but also depending
on the day and the time and theweather and the water clarity and on.
So looking at pictures, it's toughto really see what that's going
(52:16):
to look like because that's apicture of what that looks like
that day under those circumstances.
Right then I did a pool for my familyyears ago, and it was Bordeaux and you
know what great color It was amazing.
But now that pool was what you callan organic style pool with flagstone
decking now granted I never used pinkflagstone, but the buffs the tans those
(52:38):
colors I definitely did with naturalrock waterfalls, but use that Bordeaux
color and it's really a good color Youstay involved with your projects from
start to finish because any designerI'm assuming You Maybe not any.
I like to stay involved in them aswell because we're creating these
spectacular projects for peopleand we want to turn out good.
I was at a PK earlier today, freezing mytail off because it's cold in North Texas.
(53:02):
Yes.
Was a little bit taken backof how cold it actually was
and also the wind was blowing.
And when I was flying, my drone was havinga really hard time, even just staying
in one place, the wind is blowing itall over the place, but it is very fun.
And it's just exciting to see ajob go from your creative genius,
our creative genius, whatever,and watching it go through the
(53:22):
process and seeing it completed.
I don't know how you can't not stayinvolved with some of these projects.
Outro (53:29):
This show is all about helping you become a better
buyer, a better pool owner.
And hopefully you're going to find someinsights into how to enjoy your pool, even
more so how to help your friends, yourfamily, anybody looking to buy a pool in
the future or that want to remodel theirbackyard, add an outdoor fireplace, fire
pit, add an outdoor kitchen area, addsome shade cells or whatever else it is.
(53:53):
We want to be that resource for you.
And that's the end goal here.
And we promise.
That there's going tobe a ton of information.
We'll try to go through it, youknow, as relatively quickly, but
also slow so people can understand.
But the intent of the show, thereason Mike and I are doing this
is because we just got a lot inour heads and we want to share it.
So we hope to see youhere every single week.
Thanks for listening.
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