The dirt disappeared

After months of walking around mountains of dirt, it was time to backfill over the completed plumbing and get reaquainted with the yard. It brought back fond memories of digging it out in the first place and the distinct feeling that it would never be done and that I had made a big mistake!
I took a few last pictures of the plumbing before I covered it. It is amazing how much plumbing went into this thing.
I built a border around the equipment because it had to be placed a little lower than the grade of the yard for the pumps to operate properly.
I set mortar around a form that I made that will be where the topside controller will be placed. It needed to be a good fit so that the tile will fit around it snuggly. I ran rigid conduit to put the cord from the controller to the control unit by the equipment just so it will be protected.
I ordered the concrete cap for around the top of the spa, and we picked out tile that has the look of stone that will be a very exciting effect.

Placing the equipment

I finished priming and gluing all of the pvc plumbing for the spa a couple of weeks ago. I had "Dry fitted" most of the plumbing around the spa, then I took all of the pieces apart to prime and glue them for real.
When I first calculated the size of the hole I needed to dig I didn't want to dig it any bigger than I had to for obvious reasons. I allowed just enough room for the plumbing around the spa and not much room to work, so I got into some pretty interesting positions trying to get some leverage to glue the pipes together. I actually got smart and bought some inexpensive gloves to use to do the priming and gluing. I really missed getting that glue and purple stuff all over me like I usually do!
I will eventually report on how many hundreds (Thats right, hundreds) of feet of 1, 1 1/2, 2 and 2 1/2 inch pvc pipe that are in that hole, not to mention the dozens of fittings! It is too bad that all of this sculpture is going to be buried, but I guess I'll always have the pictures.
I put a lot of thought into the order that I had to put the pipes in, and the most efficient route for them to take to maximize the water flow to and from the equipment. Now I had to design the placement of the equipment on the slab that I poured to maximize its efficiency and fit all the plumbing to and from the equipment.
The pumps had to be placed so their intakes were below the filled water line for them to prime properly. Pumps need to have the most efficient flow to them because they are better suckers than pushers (Technical terms I've picked up along the way).
Every item of equipment needs to be able to be isolated for servicing, so ball valves are used so I don't have to drain the spa to service something.
The air line from the blower to the spa jets has a loop to keep condensation from going back into the blower.
I had to carefully plan where the lines from the spa came in from the spa and connected to the equipment. Its one of those things that looks so simple and right if its done correctly, but took so long to figure out!
I haven't made any of the electrical connections yet. In fact, I haven't even run the service to the equipment location yet. I think I'm afraid. But I'm not really concerned about it right now.
The days are short now and there is no time during the week to do anything in the daylight. But I've ordered the waterproofing materials and we're looking at wall caps and tile.
The next step is to fill the areas around the interior housings in the spa and do the waterproofing.