Pool Progress Shots

Brooke here:

If I crane my neck in an uncomfortable way, I can see the pool from my office window; it no longer drives me to Irish up my tea (helpful hint: liquor-tea is an abomination).   Since the pool is the single largest project we’ve accomplished thus far, I thought it would be nice to collect all of the status shots for each phase.  Links to past blog posts on these topics are included.

The pool as we found it. May of 2010.

When we first moved in, our friend Jo came over to check out the house.  He brought over his daughter, four-year-old Maggie, who peered over the edge of the pool and then backed away as fast as she could.  Jo asked Maggie if she’d like to go for a swim; young Maggie, an enthusiastic swimmer, wrapped her arms around her father’s legs and shouted “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Removing bricks. Mmmm, green! June of 2010.

Here’s the original post about brick removal at the Broke-ass Pool.

And a follow-up.

And a picture of me on top of several tons of bricks (our lives revolved around bricks for a good while there).

Pool, with bricks removed. The water was drained and the pool and concrete were pressure-washed. Damage to concrete was patched. August of 2011.

The previous shot came soon after we got sick of enormous estimates from pool repair people and decided to do the repair work ourselves.

Water was replaced to keep the pool from "popping," which occurs when the weight of the water is removed and the concrete shell moves in its bed. It turned green almost immediately. September of 2010.

We removed some of the trees surrounding the pool in the fall, and then took the winter off from pool repairs.  Zu fell in sometime around Thanksgiving, but otherwise it was just a big, watery hole in the ground until the thaw.

Tranquil. Peaceful. Less green, more ice. Plus dogs. January of 2010.

When we examined the pool in March, all of the work we had done on it the previous year had been torn apart by the winter.  We said screw it; we didn’t have the tools, the knowledge, or the experience to fix something this far gone ourselves.  I called a few more companies for estimates, and we ended up using the same company that had built the pool 50 years earlier.  This company typically handles wealthy clients, which we are not, so they had us on their back burner until mid-June but when they got going, they got going.

Pool before renovations. June of 2011.

Original concrete deck has been torn up, with debris ready to be hauled away. June of 2011.

A post on the concrete tear-up and haul-off…

Concrete deck has been removed and the gravel is being prepared for a new deck. I can't tell if that's Puppy Butt or Old Dog Butt. I think it's Old Dog Butt. June of 2011.

New tiles are being mounted at the waterline. June of 2011.

The same person who installed the tiles 50 years ago retiled the pool.  He said he remembers this pool as it was one of his first jobs when he was just starting out at eighteen.

Tiles have been seated and grouted, and forms for the concrete have been placed. June of 2011.

A five-foot wide deck was poured and was then covered with burlap. We had to keep the burlap damp at all times to let the concrete cure evenly. June of 2011.

Technically the entire pool should have been replastered at this step in the renovations, but we had limited funds and we elected to paint the pool for now and come back and replaster in several years.  Besides, you guys remember how I bought pool paint out of the back of a truck, right?  Sure would be a shame to let it go to waste.

After pressure-washing and a sparkling new paint job. June of 2011.

Water! Clean water! July of 2011.

Somewhere in this chaos, they replaced the pool filter.  Apparently the previous filter was designed for an above-ground vinyl pool half the size of this one.  Oh, you previous owners, you!  Such rapscallions!

Pool is full and old concrete pad has been pressure-washed to prepare it for painting. July of 2011.

One of my finds was four gallons of industrial-grade non-slip pool patio paint in the bargain bin at Home Depot.  Someone had placed a special order and hadn’t bothered to pick it up.  I grabbed them all for $25 in total and had them tinted to match the new concrete, then painted the gray concrete slabs.

Done! September of 2011.

I ran out of paint before I finished the entire deck.  Ooops.  Time to order four more gallons of that special order paint.  I’ll wait until next spring before I finish painting the concrete, though, so I can repair any winter weathering that might occur.

Technically we cheaped out on several large steps: the pool should have been replastered and the old, damaged concrete patio should have been redone or covered over with pavers, but there were budget restrictions so we’ve put those projects off for several years.  For the time being, we’re just so happy to be rid of the damned hellswamp!

And Maggie loves to come over to swim.