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Olympic Pool Plastering handled the final layer. The foundation for the wall is what is known as "crush and run." "Its gravel mixed in with like a decomposed granite," explains Peek. "When you compact it and wet it, it's almost like concrete." The crush and run was 18 inches thick. The first course of the eight-inch-high wall block and much of the second course was also installed below grade. For the two- tiered wall, Peek estimates that they used about 40 pallets of the block that came in a blend called driftwood. "It didn't necessarily need two tiers," he says. "But because of the aesthetics of what I was trying to achieve with the natural look, I didn't want to see a big wall. And I wanted some planting in front of (the upper tier) to give it a little depth." To help the walls blend into the landscape better, Peek designed a natural looking waterfall and custom-built slide to one side of them. As he describes it, "The waterfall with slide just kind of flows into the yard. There is not a hard line where the wall just stops." And Peek prefers to use as few manmade materials as possible when creating wa- terfalls. He admits that sometimes setting boulders in concrete has to be done for stability reasons, but planting the boulders – Peek used 80 tons of them in this proj- ect – into the ground is how he would rather set them. "The boulder may be six feet long and you only see two and a half to three feet of it because we're using what is back inside the hill to hold it," says Peek. Also included in the installation was a 3,000 square foot paver patio with a fire pit and seat wall, and closer to the house, an outdoor kitchen. Installing the softscape was not part of the original plans but that changed to make sure the project was ready for its beauty shots. Peek hired JVI Secret Gardens, which picked out and supplied all the plants, and installed them in one day with help from the contracting crew. Segura Masonry was another subcontractor with a contributing role - install- ing the tile on the vanishing edge, the stairs' risers and the tile and coping around the pool. That's a Wrap Building the stairs was one of the few challenges on the project that Peek mentioned. "They were difficult because as the wall graduates up, it goes back," he explains. "So as the stairs graduate higher, they get wider and it's very difficult to space cut and to make sure you have a nice clean line, and that you have your compaction right." Unsurprisingly, having the camera crews on site for three months made the whole project more challenging. As Peek puts it, "You get miked up at six in the morning and they turn the mikes off at six at night." He was happy with the Pool Kings episode but wouldn't have minded a longer running time. "It was a three-month project cut down to thirty minutes." But still, the exposure that national television can bring should provide dividends for Peek Pools and Spas. The company's owner summed up the project's objective simply: "I just wanted something natural looking and free flowing." The final result was a television debut delight. Left: The blocks and caps in the fire pit and the seat wall were sourced from the same place as the rest of the hardscape materials. The fire ring came from local landscape supplier Embers Grill and Fireplace Store. Nothing was used to cover the ring at the homeowner's request because they wanted the option to burn wood in it. Middle, Left: A 31' slide was designed by Peek Pools and manufactured nearby at Paradise Slides. It was installed on 6 piers that are set 6' to 8' in the ground. Sono tubes, thick, hollow, cardboard cylinders, were used as forms for the piers. The tubes get stripped off after the concrete dries. Bottom, Left: Half of the boulders in the waterfall were set in concrete, mainly for stability such as was needed with the rock stairs. The rest were set back into dirt for a more natural look. Those boulders are as long as 6' but may only have as little as 2 ½' exposed. 40 LC DBM DBM LC