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!