linen - thanks for the advice, I did start step 7 today.
I told my wife at 10 that I would be done around noon so we could slack off the rest of the day. Needless to say, I just finished around 5. I learned a lot about sand filters, plumbing, and patience lol.
After spending about 7 hours with the pump off as I replaced the media, the results were
FC - 7
CC - 1.0
I decided that I will see if the pool passes the OCLT tonight and add the CYA tomorrow if it does, sun is on its way down anyway. Below is the photolog of my adventures today...
got the top off the filter
and then proceeded to suck out the sand
you can see here that the previous home owners sort of built a make-shift pad that was not holding up
after sucking all the sand out, I took out the return pipe and the bottom had a crack. It made no sense to put it back in, then put the new gravel and sand on top of it just to have it completely fail and get sand in the pool. So, I packed up the old return pipe and fingers and went and got a new one...
Finally got everything back together, and took the opportunity when the filter was sandless to add a makeshift pad with old materials I had left behind my shed. It's not the best, but better than what was there
The wife and I agree, though, that the pool NEVER looked this good last year. It is funny how you don't realize how murky your water is until you see it crystal clear.
I'll keep everyone posted, but thanks so much for the support!