Tom Ralston Concrete of Santa Cruz, Calif., won the 2014 DCC “Wow!” Award for this hillside residential pool and deck project.
The site before the pool and deck installation.
The barren hillside is ready for a pool.
Installing the drain system.
Diversion pits in the foreground and background slow down-hillside water.
Materials and fill had to be carried up- and downhill, often by tractor.
Footing excavation.
In the trenches.
In the trenches.
After the wall pour.
Gunnite walls against the concrete walls.
The crew pours side walls to support the deck.
Custom lighting.
Custom lighting.
Bird’s eye view of the lap pool.
Finished side steps leading to the pool.
Finished bar, couch, fire bowl, and fire pit.
Finished couch and fire pit.
Simple yet elegant side stairs travel through an organic garden to access the pool deck.
Two fire bowls with four colors of blue glass stand on top of columns at each end of the lap pool.
Designer lights.
With deck colors of sandstone, platinum-colored walls and columns, and classic gray caps and coping, this once-barren hillside became an elegant pool and hardscape.