The past 3 days have been a whirlwind. But it's already worth it. Thursday morning I woke up with no pool in my yard, and today I swam at home in 87-degree water. Here's a recap of the events:
Here's where we decided to install our new pool, a 15x30 oval above-ground (Vera the cat approves):
We had 2 major deliveries arrive on Wednesday afternoon: the pool itself, and all the materials for our new pool deck. The pool heater was already waiting in the garage, since I'd ordered it online. Here's the pool site early Thursday morning:
Then the fun started. First my plumber arrived with a 3-person crew and an excavator, to dig 1 trench for the gas and electric, and another trench to re-route the storm water from my sump pump away from the pool.
This rock was in the way and had to be moved:
Next, the 6-person pool building crew arrived and got right to work (with Bobcat #2), and finally the electrician and his assistant came and did their work. The skill and work ethic of all the workers was impressive, and they did a nice job cooperating with one another to work toward the common goal of getting our pool up and running.
They blew out a wheelbarrow tire, so my son came to the rescue with his own wheelbarrow:
By late afternoon, it was complete and filling with water:
We have great tap water pressure, so the pool was full by Friday afternoon. The water temperature was 62. When a kid is excited enough, he'll brave the cold:
Friday was a huge day, too. Around 8am our deck builder arrived with yet another large tractor to dig post holes for the new pool deck. The electrical inspection was in the afternoon, and the town building inspector came to look at the post holes (they're strict on footer depth here because our winters are cold and frost heave can ruin a deck if they're not buried deep enough).
In the meantime, I had to balance the water, install the steps (with a ladder temporarily mounted until the deck is complete), backfill dirt around the pool (there isn't enough-- we're short on fill dirt because the huge boulder left such a void), and connect the heater to the pool's circulation system. I had asked my plumber to complete that installation when I made the appointment, but apparently they misunderstood and thought they were only expected to run the gas line. Thankfully, they left behind their PVC pipe cutter, which I found very useful as I built a bypass for the heater (I will call them on Monday and let them know they left the tool at my house). By late afternoon on Friday I had the heater working, which allowed me to get the water temperature to 74 before we turned it off for the day.
The pool steps are too buoyant to work without weights, but the weights needed to be filled with sand, and I needed to dry some sand before I could funnel it into the spouts on the weights. So the steps floated out of control until today when I got the weights attached. Then I re-did a portion of my plumbing that hadn't come out very good the first time. Finally, with the water approaching the mid-80s, I quit for the day and spent the next couple of hours in the pool. Now the solar cover is on and hopefully saving all that heat for tomorrow.
Tomorrow we're having friends over for swimming and a campfire. Can't wait to show off the new pool!
Here's where we decided to install our new pool, a 15x30 oval above-ground (Vera the cat approves):
We had 2 major deliveries arrive on Wednesday afternoon: the pool itself, and all the materials for our new pool deck. The pool heater was already waiting in the garage, since I'd ordered it online. Here's the pool site early Thursday morning:
Then the fun started. First my plumber arrived with a 3-person crew and an excavator, to dig 1 trench for the gas and electric, and another trench to re-route the storm water from my sump pump away from the pool.
This rock was in the way and had to be moved:
Next, the 6-person pool building crew arrived and got right to work (with Bobcat #2), and finally the electrician and his assistant came and did their work. The skill and work ethic of all the workers was impressive, and they did a nice job cooperating with one another to work toward the common goal of getting our pool up and running.
They blew out a wheelbarrow tire, so my son came to the rescue with his own wheelbarrow:
By late afternoon, it was complete and filling with water:
We have great tap water pressure, so the pool was full by Friday afternoon. The water temperature was 62. When a kid is excited enough, he'll brave the cold:
Friday was a huge day, too. Around 8am our deck builder arrived with yet another large tractor to dig post holes for the new pool deck. The electrical inspection was in the afternoon, and the town building inspector came to look at the post holes (they're strict on footer depth here because our winters are cold and frost heave can ruin a deck if they're not buried deep enough).
In the meantime, I had to balance the water, install the steps (with a ladder temporarily mounted until the deck is complete), backfill dirt around the pool (there isn't enough-- we're short on fill dirt because the huge boulder left such a void), and connect the heater to the pool's circulation system. I had asked my plumber to complete that installation when I made the appointment, but apparently they misunderstood and thought they were only expected to run the gas line. Thankfully, they left behind their PVC pipe cutter, which I found very useful as I built a bypass for the heater (I will call them on Monday and let them know they left the tool at my house). By late afternoon on Friday I had the heater working, which allowed me to get the water temperature to 74 before we turned it off for the day.
The pool steps are too buoyant to work without weights, but the weights needed to be filled with sand, and I needed to dry some sand before I could funnel it into the spouts on the weights. So the steps floated out of control until today when I got the weights attached. Then I re-did a portion of my plumbing that hadn't come out very good the first time. Finally, with the water approaching the mid-80s, I quit for the day and spent the next couple of hours in the pool. Now the solar cover is on and hopefully saving all that heat for tomorrow.
Tomorrow we're having friends over for swimming and a campfire. Can't wait to show off the new pool!