Pool "Party"

Ah, the joys of home ownership...when your new home comes with a pool.

Personally, buying a new home would be much easier if the previous owners left a "to-do" list of how they maintained their home. The previous owners of our house were here for nearly 40 years - essentially the life of our house. Since we are not only new to home ownership, but also new to life in Arizona (read: keeping grass alive in the desert), as well as pool maintenance - a little list of "this is how we kept everything that was supposed to be green, green - and the pool, blue" would have been a God-send.

Ah, shoulda-woulda-coulda. It didn't happen, and so, we've been learning by trial-and-error the last 10 months. One of the biggest areas of trial-and-error has been the pool. I have already regaled our trials with the pool - so I'm not revisiting those.

Early last summer, we were informed by one of the local pool companies that our water was so saturated with chemicals that the water molecules couldn't "latch on" to what chemicals were being added. So, we planned to empty the pool this spring and refill it.

About a month ago, we got a wicked windstorm/rainstorm. A lot of leaves and dirt got deposited in our pool. Then, a week or two later, another came. So, the pool got pretty dark. Then, Dan went out of town and our "Kreepy Krawley" (the thing that sucks up stuff from pool) wasn't sucking a lot. So, I got to "learn" the ins and outs of the pool...and, the pool just kept getting darker.

So, yesterday, we rented a submersible pump and 100 ft of hose. As the water drained, Dan and I took turns "sweeping" the sides of the pool - so the rings around the pool aren't as pronounced as they could be. With all the rings in our pool, maybe we should start referring to it as Saturn....

It looks much grosser than it really was. It smelled like a lake. (and why wouldn't it with all that algae?)

In the bottom were decaying leaves, one itty-bitty lizard (pretty gross), a plastic label from the Kreepy, and a metal, rectangular form from paper lanterns that we had hanging up this summer. We noticed rust imprints on the bottom of the pool, but couldn't figure out what it was. Then, I was looking closer and realized what it was. 

Sometime soon, we are going to rent a power-washer to attack those rings. 

Typically, pools get acid-washed, but we've been informed that our pool is so old that it can't be acid washed. One company gave us an estimate for refinishing the pool at $10,000. Um, no. Sorry. I think we'll need to "come into some" money for that to happen. So, hopefully, we can just refill this and in another year thinking about refinishing the surface. .....

Ah, the joys of home ownership. Maybe we should start charging pool user fees.... ;)