Monday, August 11, 2008

The pool post(updated with more pictures)

O.k. you've been waiting patiently so here it is... the pool post. As most of you know, our kids are part fish. We have a neighbor with an in-ground pool who very generously allows us to swim frequently and the kids ask us to take them there every day. They would be serious pests if I let them. Whenever I say no, the kids ask if we can get our own pool. We really don't have the space or inclination for an in-ground or larger above-ground pool so we've always said no. But I've been considering the idea of one of these easy-set 12 foot pools for a while.

Recently, our friend, Barby, got one on clearance at Big Lots. Well, you know that "clearance" is the magic word for me and when I saw how much fun her kids were having, I decided to try to convince Derek to let us get one too. Turns out he didn't need a ton of convincing. He didn't say he wanted one but he didn't say not to get one either. So off I went to Big Lots to get a $50 pool.

Then I had to figure out where to put it. We didn't really want to ruin any more grass (not that our grass is great) so we decided to put it in the back corner. This meant clearing out the playhouse and over-grown landscaping. I don't have a great before picture. But if you look behind Andy in this picture you can see the back corner filled with mulch, stones & general debris.

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Derek had figured that I'd give up after a little bit, but after seeing me work all day he decided to take pity on me and help. 3 full days of really hard work and $100of new sand later, we put our $50 pool up.

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Then of course we realized we'll have to run a new electrical line out to that corner of the yard for the pump & filter, and buy some clorine, and a pool cover, oh and a ladder (which I still haven't found!) LOL!


Pool........................................... $50
New Sand...........................................$100
Clorine start-up kit & Pool Cover............. $32.98
Electrical Line & Ladder ..................... I don't know!

The look on your kids faces.......................Priceless

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3 comments:

beckyjomama said...

We'll be over in an hour!

The Kneppers said...

The pool looks awesome . . . more level than ours. Consider no ladder so that little curious 1-2 yr. olds do not climb into the water and maybe run a long extension cord from the house? Just some cost savings since my $50 pool idea has cost you much more already! Nice job guys!

Qtpies7 said...

Oh, how fun! I would love to get a pool for our kids, but we live in town with no fence.
It is worth all the extra expense, too, though. Exercise is good for them, and exhausting them is good for YOU at bed time! LOL