I were in your situation, I would

#1 - Buy the Taylor kit -- you MUST have a way to test high chlorine levels
#2 - Use your tabs as you husband prefers BUT use my "Best Guess" table to set, and the Taylor kit to measure, your chlorine levels
#3 - Re-visit that decision if you end up with the house after the summer.

One caution: if you have the pool next spring, and let it get slimy this winter, you could open to an impossible situation in 2012. Stabilizer is sometimes biodgraded to ammonia, and with your high levels it would literally take 100's of gallons of bleach to get rid of the ammonia, if all the CYA were converted to ammonia.

Ben