Hello!
My husband and I recently (September) bought a house with a pool (details in signature).
Here is our fun story:
We have never owned a pool before. When we walked through the house (4 times before we put an offer in), the pool was sparkly, clear, and lovely. The day of the inspection (plus we had a separate pool inspection [more on that another time; it was basically a waste of money]), it was sparkly, clear, and lovely.
When we did our final walk-through prior to closing, it was clear that the owners had completely stopped taking care of it.
We had approximately 7 days between house closings to move all our stuff from our old house to the new. I think between the two of us we maybe took 2-3 days off work in that time. We didn't hire movers and we have a LOT of stuff. So of course...pool maintenance was the last thing on our mind, and we didn't have the time or energy to learn how anything worked.
The day after we closed on the Pool Palace, we went on vacation for almost 2 weeks.
When we came back, of course, our pool was a lovely and uniform shade of green. By this time it was October and so we just had the professionals come close it for us.
We had the same professionals open it this year. Since then, we've had nothing but trouble. Losing water, can't keep the water clear, etc. That is what brought us to TFP. So far, the information we've found has been super helpful!
I just dumped 7 jugs of 8.25% chlorine in the pool, and I've put some CYA (our test strips say we have 0 FC and 0 CYA [I know, I know, we're going to order a kit]) in a sock in the skimmer and some more in the other skimmer. Then I put our solar cover on to hopefully (?) protect the chlorine.
Debating now if I should uncover and try to brush now, or wait. It is a beautiful, warm, and sunny day here, so....yeah.
Anyway, that's my story...and I'm sticking to it!
My husband and I recently (September) bought a house with a pool (details in signature).
Here is our fun story:
We have never owned a pool before. When we walked through the house (4 times before we put an offer in), the pool was sparkly, clear, and lovely. The day of the inspection (plus we had a separate pool inspection [more on that another time; it was basically a waste of money]), it was sparkly, clear, and lovely.
When we did our final walk-through prior to closing, it was clear that the owners had completely stopped taking care of it.
We had approximately 7 days between house closings to move all our stuff from our old house to the new. I think between the two of us we maybe took 2-3 days off work in that time. We didn't hire movers and we have a LOT of stuff. So of course...pool maintenance was the last thing on our mind, and we didn't have the time or energy to learn how anything worked.
The day after we closed on the Pool Palace, we went on vacation for almost 2 weeks.
When we came back, of course, our pool was a lovely and uniform shade of green. By this time it was October and so we just had the professionals come close it for us.
We had the same professionals open it this year. Since then, we've had nothing but trouble. Losing water, can't keep the water clear, etc. That is what brought us to TFP. So far, the information we've found has been super helpful!
I just dumped 7 jugs of 8.25% chlorine in the pool, and I've put some CYA (our test strips say we have 0 FC and 0 CYA [I know, I know, we're going to order a kit]) in a sock in the skimmer and some more in the other skimmer. Then I put our solar cover on to hopefully (?) protect the chlorine.
Debating now if I should uncover and try to brush now, or wait. It is a beautiful, warm, and sunny day here, so....yeah.
Anyway, that's my story...and I'm sticking to it!
At least you know our speach about the test kit. 
Do the best you can at the moment until you get it. Definitely keep the pump running 24/7 and sweep/vacuum each day to assist in the break-up of algae and debris. As you may have read already on TFP, stay far away from the pool store. We'll help you through this one. When you get your test kit, post some numbers for us. In the meantime, stay current on the links below which will be valuable to you as you begin to "SLAM" your pool. Again, welcome!
