Sunday was productive. We got the liner adjusted and started filling as we had hoped. Clothespin trick worked like a champ. Basically I installed V-Bead per normal instructions, then I pulled the liner wall up and overlapped it and secured with one clothespin between each tower.

I have the Ocean Aquarium pool liner which have fish pattern that is really easy to use as depth gague for clothespin technique. I pulled up to Coral fan top for first part of filling, then dropped back to pink fish, then back once more (to yellow fish of somesort) before releasing final amount. I only had two wrinkles. One is minor and the other was trivial to smooth out by hand. (I used an old wave inner tube to lay on so I could smoothe out the wrinkle without making footprints. I could tell the sand wasn't compressed yet with just 3" of water in the bottom.

I had to stop filling almost immediately when I did a double-check on the wall seating within the bottom rail. Two sections had pulled up and I hadn't noticed. I carefully set them back in... no problems, but only because I followed the instructions to double-check (though almost too late ).

We called it quits with pool water up to the big yellow fish (perhaps 1.5 feet of water). I haven't gotten back in to see if the sand has compressed. We assembled the top stabilizer rail and all column top plates. We are ready to install the top rails next (while filling more).


ISSUES:
1. For some reason the liner filled with one side edge seam hitting right at bottom of coving. I guess I didn't stretch it quite right during initial clothespin filling. I'm hoping this is OK. So far it doesn't look like a showstopper. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

2. I haven't researched what piping and connections I need to do the plumbing. I'm probably just going to ask my local Aquaquip pool store for some help and buy whatever parts they carry (ball valves, solar heater bypass/drain valve, etc.) I hope I don't get gouged, but I want to install plumbing on this Wed (July 4th) while every kid, neighbor, and family member starts jumping into our newly finished pool for the holiday.

3. My 9 year old is really itching to get into the pool! Patience grasshopper..