Watermom's New Pool Adventure

Ok. So, today the old pool was taken down. I had replaced my liner about 6 years ago and at that time, there was some rust on the pool walls. They took a wire brush and knocked the rust off and then sprayed it with Rustoleum. That bought me another 6 years. Apparently, today the rust was back in the same areas as before and there were a couple of pinholes in one area of the wall. The bottom tracks and frame were still in good shape however.

After the pool was removed today, the guy used some kind of a thing to pack down my sand. Not so much for the final prepping for the floor, but more to bring the water to the surface. We have had a lot of rain lately and its gonna have to dry out some before we can install. The problem is that in Charleston, the summer forecast is the same every day -- hazy, hot and humid with a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm. (And, even though today is the first day of spring, it is summer here already. Temps in the mid 80s. We don't really get much spring around here. We go from winter, which is typically mild, to summer. Maybe a week or two of spring at most.) They are calling for quite a bit of rain this weekend, so we are hoping that a lot of it will dry out tomorrow and he'll be able to work Thursday and Friday and get it installed before the weekend.

While he was doing this, my dogs were on the deck by the house with the gate closed. I told him that his nice smooth sand that he had just packed was not going to look that way when he returned on Thursday because there is no way my dogs are going to stay out of it. He said it didn't matter. He'd just pack it down again and that today's packing was to help it dry more than to actually be prepping the ground. Five minutes after he was gone, all three of them were out there prancing over every square inch of the area where the old pool had been. So far, I haven't seen any of them digging, but that doesn't mean they won't do it later!

I also had a return call from the carpenter that we had contacted for an estimate on the new deck which will be put up after the pool is installed. We made tentative plans for him to come back Monday evening to have a look.

I'm anxious to have it all done and have my yard all put back together. Plus, with as hot as it is, if I can get the pool filled, the solar panels hooked up and the solar cover on there (after I buy a new one), then we can start getting some heat in there!

Here are some pictures. This first couple are from several years ago. In them, you can see how my pool and deck are in my yard. (Or I guess I should say "were" since right now the pool and deck have both been removed.)

From the road behind my house looking into my yard:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...Spring-web.jpg


The next was taken from the house looking out into my backyard. Ignore the ugly white lattice "fence." Puppies like to chew pump cords, ya know!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T...G_2196-web.jpg



This one shows the pool after the light blue liner was replaced. It was taken in 2006.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-y...G_1292-web.jpg



And, now, some pictures taken this afternoon after my pool was dismantled and removed from the yard. Notice all the pawprints in the sand. My "little girls" quickly decided they needed to play in the sandpit and they spent much of the afternoon in there. I looked outside one time and they were all asleep in a pile in the middle of it.


First is Kylie. She is 11 months old and the most mischievous of the three. She is always in the middle of any and everything that is going on. Fortunately for her, she is so cute that you can't stay mad at her for long.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-q...G_3138-web.jpg



Next, comes her sister, Malia, also 11 months old --- same litter. Malia is a little more aloof than Kylie and more reserved. She kind of just does her own thing most of the time.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-S...G_3142-web.jpg



Last but not least is our sweet Kenzie. Kenzie will be 8 in May and is the sweetest and most gentle dog we have ever had. (We've had 6 golden retrievers -- all female -- over the last 24 years.) She tolerates the puppies' nonsense pretty well and lets them crawl all over her in all their rambunctiousness. A lot of people ask us if she is the mother of these pups, and the answer is no. But, she is a good big sister to them and we love her to pieces. She is the only curly golden we have ever had. She still has all her winter hair and it is a heavy coat. But, all three are starting to shed. They need to. It was 87 degrees in Charleston today! You can also see the pool area in this pic, uh.... I mean, play arena!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-L...G_3130-web.jpg



I just noticed that in some of the pictures, it looks like my pool is not level. That is not true. It is just the photographer who can't hold a camera straight, apparently!

Hey Watermom, that sand pad isn't looking too smooth!!! :) :)

The pups are really growing up. They're cute!

Hoping the storm system that's coming through here now doesn't make it up your way....lots of tornadoes around, and they're saying the system is moving so slowly that were in for 3 days of pretty solid rain. Glad I shocked the pool before the pump quit....

Keep us posted on your new pool progress--can't wait to see it finished!!

Jan

What sweet dogs! One of our shepherds turned 8 in January. He would LOVE to come play in your sand!

Jan,
That is the storm that is heading our way. That's why we are really hoping this will dry up tomorrow so the pool can go up Thursday and Friday before it gets here. It has only been 3 weeks since there were tornadoes flying all around this part of the country, too, which isn't the norm for these parts. This time it isn't expected to be so devastating but I think they are calling for pretty heavy rain. In a place as mountainous as WV, that means flooding! Although I don't like living on top of a mountain when it snows, when the valleys are flooding, I'm glad for my mountain. If we ever have to worry about flooding up here, then everybody better get busy building an ark!

Pool installation today! The guys were here yesterday evening dropping off lots of big cardboard boxes. So, we spent the evening and this morning puppy watching as they are pretty interested in those boxes and want to get into them. They'll have to 'supervise' from within the closed gate of the deck right outside the house. I know they aren't gonna like being cooped up on the deck all day but there is no other way. We have a couple of chains that have stakes on the end. We'll stick them in the ground and use them to give the dogs some time off the deck occasionally throughout the day.

We had that problem with a franchised pool store in my area... (I don't know if I can post the name of the store so I won't) We went in twice, & never did this man put in our finances to make this judgement... But everytime we stated and then showed him what we wanted, he told us it was either unavailable or "out of our price range"! Never did we tell this man how high we were willing to go, but he just kept pointing us over to the tiny little pools & trying to talk us into basic packages. On the third visit, we pretty much told him we weren't interested.

We took our business else & get a bigger & better package for less... ;) But now we are in the same situation as you, we want to get rid of our 24 ft round pool for a 27 ft round!! lol

Our pool is installed. We have two hoses currently filling it. It's gonna take awhile. The guys are coming back tomorrow to cut out the skimmer and return, put down some stone around the perimeter of the pool and do some cleanup. On Monday, I have a different guy coming to give me an estimate on a new deck. I'll post some pics a little later.

How exciting! Looking forward to the pictures.

Gotta love spring!

The first sign of mid 70s here in nj and my attention goes straight to the pool.

Congrats WM, the shame of the scenario at your pool store is that employee will put them out of business. The owner did the right thing.