Phase 1 – The Great Mistake
Gather ‘round friends, let me tell you a tale born of many mistakes, some perseverance, plenty of wallet-induced pain, and finally, the road to pool redemption…
It all began way back in early 2019 when my wife and I had decided to purchase a home we really liked. It had an amazing pool, pool house, the works. Unfortunately, the owner was in a very strange financial situation, had rented the house out, and ultimately the renter made it impossible for him to sell the home to us. So, after months into this deal, and thousands in home inspection fees, we had to walk away, but we hung on to the dream of that pool.
After a month or so, we found another place we really loved, and while the pool wasn’t as grand it was still nice and we looked forward to the day we could crack the cover off and open it up and have friends and family over to enjoy it. Oh, the naïve fools that we were.
At that time, it was still late winter, just bordering on early spring. The owners, who had assured us they opened the pool every year, and that they did their own maintenance, lived on the east coast. I noticed the pool equipment in the garage as well as a ton of chlorine. That lines up with doing their own pool maintenance. Their story is starting to check out. The above ground equipment is all tarped up and tied down, bricks holding the tarps down. I mean it looks really well covered up. “This guy sure knows how to winterize his pool equipment!” I say to myself… I mean I can’t see any of the equipment but it’s obviously there. and it’s not like I would know what I’m looking at anyways, I’ve never owned a pool before. So, I walk away at least feeling good that he winterizes things properly.
As part of the home inspection process we wanted to get a pool inspection, but numerous calls to pool companies basically ended with the consistent theme… that unless the pool was up and running, there wasn’t a whole lot they could inspect. We offered the owners to pay for an opening to inspect it, but they were worried it was too cold and declined. That, combined with the fact that we had never seen the pool without the cover on it as well should have been a red flag… I’ve believed I’ve mentioned being naïve before.
Fast forward to early May, we’ve closed on the property after negotiating a $5,000 pool credit to cover any unseen issues as well as a home warranty that covered pool equipment failure. We had done what we had thought would be enough to cover ourselves should this thing go downhill on us. What was that word again? Ah, yes... Naiveté .
Pool crew #1 is brought on to assess the situation. This is what we find after spending $1,000 with them.
Pool crew #1 is in over their heads. If you live in the Chicago area, I’m happy to let you know which company this is so you can avoid them. At this point they take my $1,000 to clean/open the pool and run, and start filling up the pool with water calling it “opened”. They stop responding to my calls / texts / emails.
Gather ‘round friends, let me tell you a tale born of many mistakes, some perseverance, plenty of wallet-induced pain, and finally, the road to pool redemption…
It all began way back in early 2019 when my wife and I had decided to purchase a home we really liked. It had an amazing pool, pool house, the works. Unfortunately, the owner was in a very strange financial situation, had rented the house out, and ultimately the renter made it impossible for him to sell the home to us. So, after months into this deal, and thousands in home inspection fees, we had to walk away, but we hung on to the dream of that pool.
After a month or so, we found another place we really loved, and while the pool wasn’t as grand it was still nice and we looked forward to the day we could crack the cover off and open it up and have friends and family over to enjoy it. Oh, the naïve fools that we were.
At that time, it was still late winter, just bordering on early spring. The owners, who had assured us they opened the pool every year, and that they did their own maintenance, lived on the east coast. I noticed the pool equipment in the garage as well as a ton of chlorine. That lines up with doing their own pool maintenance. Their story is starting to check out. The above ground equipment is all tarped up and tied down, bricks holding the tarps down. I mean it looks really well covered up. “This guy sure knows how to winterize his pool equipment!” I say to myself… I mean I can’t see any of the equipment but it’s obviously there. and it’s not like I would know what I’m looking at anyways, I’ve never owned a pool before. So, I walk away at least feeling good that he winterizes things properly.
As part of the home inspection process we wanted to get a pool inspection, but numerous calls to pool companies basically ended with the consistent theme… that unless the pool was up and running, there wasn’t a whole lot they could inspect. We offered the owners to pay for an opening to inspect it, but they were worried it was too cold and declined. That, combined with the fact that we had never seen the pool without the cover on it as well should have been a red flag… I’ve believed I’ve mentioned being naïve before.
Fast forward to early May, we’ve closed on the property after negotiating a $5,000 pool credit to cover any unseen issues as well as a home warranty that covered pool equipment failure. We had done what we had thought would be enough to cover ourselves should this thing go downhill on us. What was that word again? Ah, yes... Naiveté .
Pool crew #1 is brought on to assess the situation. This is what we find after spending $1,000 with them.
- Failed tile line
- Black death looking staining on the plaster
- Frogs
- Multiple freeze broken plumbing lines
- More frogs
- Some tree branches
- Cracked concrete cantilever coping
- Broken plumbing above ground
- All dead equipment except the heater
- A broken gas line to the heater
Pool crew #1 is in over their heads. If you live in the Chicago area, I’m happy to let you know which company this is so you can avoid them. At this point they take my $1,000 to clean/open the pool and run, and start filling up the pool with water calling it “opened”. They stop responding to my calls / texts / emails.
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