Hi, my wife and are new to owning/operating a pool. We recently moved and bought a house that has an 18' x 32' in ground gunite pool. To give some background neither of us have ever had or owned a pool before so there has definitely been a learning curve, but, one we are enjoying. It's so nice to take a dip on those hot days to cool off, relax and refresh. I think we've become spoiled lol. I never thought I'd own a pool, my wife is more the beach/pool person than I was growing up, but now having one I don't think I would want to not have one. I figured a good resource would be to join a pool owner forum/message board. The previous owner gave us a good long crash course on pool maintenance, and how it all works and we tried to take as good of notes as we could. It was good and I'm glad he took the time to go over things with us. The difference between the cliff notes rundown and actually doing it has been a little like being dropped off in the deep end so to speak. Slowly getting the hang of it. It took a little time to get my mind wrapped around the mechanics of how the pump, filter, water-flow, etc. all works. Still learning the chemistry side of things, so I'll definitely be posting some questions in the different forum sections as this is just an intro.
A little about us, my wife works in the banking industry currently works in the back office. She started out as a teller and has moved around a bit. I'm a graphic artist and currently work as a production artist for a company that mainly designs and produces RV/Marine graphics. We got married back in 2016, and till recently lived in the home I'd owned for several years. After a a few years we grew tired of the lack of space and various issues we had at the house (namely water in basement from various random causes the water line to our home breaking was the final straw). We wanted a bigger house, that we could entertain, with lots of storage, so we could breathe. We ended up with a house that had a pool and visions of having pool parties/cookouts danced in my head. I've posted some pictures of the pool below, not the best pictures but it gives an idea of what we've got. Sadly the previous owners neglected some things on the house, and that includes the pool. While all the equipment and circulation/filter is in good working order, they had allowed the tile to fall off completely minus a few random spots where the old (butt ugly) tile remains. There also were a handful of coping stones that are crumbling, as you can see in the pictures. They claimed all that it needed was 4 or 5 coping stones replaced and that they had a quote for about $1,100... Not sure how old that quote was or what it involved. Previous owners were quite frugal. Thankfully there is a local pool service and contractor who specializes in gunite pools and come to find out they were the ones that built the pool back in the 70's and still had the blueprints/specs. We are having them retile, replace the coping stones, and reseat some of the ones that are starting to separate, re-do the caulking, and acid wash the pool. Needless to say we'll be in for quite a bit more than $1,100, but it is what it is. They were so booked out that it'll be next spring. The bright side is it gives us time to save up for that renovation and gives us something to look forward to. It was fun picking out tile that we liked which will make it feel more like our pool and once it's done it should last us a long time and look nice. It's more of an investment than an expense. At least we can still use the pool as is this season it just doesn't look as nice as it will next year.
This picture taken earlier in the season shortly after opening, before the ladder got installed, and the floaters still in the pool, and the area around the pool was cluttered.
This picture is from the realtor listing of the house. The remaining bits of tile can be seen as well as some crumbling coping.
A little about us, my wife works in the banking industry currently works in the back office. She started out as a teller and has moved around a bit. I'm a graphic artist and currently work as a production artist for a company that mainly designs and produces RV/Marine graphics. We got married back in 2016, and till recently lived in the home I'd owned for several years. After a a few years we grew tired of the lack of space and various issues we had at the house (namely water in basement from various random causes the water line to our home breaking was the final straw). We wanted a bigger house, that we could entertain, with lots of storage, so we could breathe. We ended up with a house that had a pool and visions of having pool parties/cookouts danced in my head. I've posted some pictures of the pool below, not the best pictures but it gives an idea of what we've got. Sadly the previous owners neglected some things on the house, and that includes the pool. While all the equipment and circulation/filter is in good working order, they had allowed the tile to fall off completely minus a few random spots where the old (butt ugly) tile remains. There also were a handful of coping stones that are crumbling, as you can see in the pictures. They claimed all that it needed was 4 or 5 coping stones replaced and that they had a quote for about $1,100... Not sure how old that quote was or what it involved. Previous owners were quite frugal. Thankfully there is a local pool service and contractor who specializes in gunite pools and come to find out they were the ones that built the pool back in the 70's and still had the blueprints/specs. We are having them retile, replace the coping stones, and reseat some of the ones that are starting to separate, re-do the caulking, and acid wash the pool. Needless to say we'll be in for quite a bit more than $1,100, but it is what it is. They were so booked out that it'll be next spring. The bright side is it gives us time to save up for that renovation and gives us something to look forward to. It was fun picking out tile that we liked which will make it feel more like our pool and once it's done it should last us a long time and look nice. It's more of an investment than an expense. At least we can still use the pool as is this season it just doesn't look as nice as it will next year.
This picture taken earlier in the season shortly after opening, before the ladder got installed, and the floaters still in the pool, and the area around the pool was cluttered.
This picture is from the realtor listing of the house. The remaining bits of tile can be seen as well as some crumbling coping.
