The pool was scheduled to be opened May 1st, so when we came home from work we were pretty excited. We had only seen glimpses of the pool by peeking under the cover, so we had no clue what we were in for. This is what we came home to.
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| The Black Lagoon |
We could barely see 1 foot into the water. Halley was so excited by seeing there was a real pool under the cover that she decided we had to rent a power washer that night to clean the pure evil that has built up on the concrete around the pool (see the black in the bottom left of the first picture).
We set out to Home Depot to pick up the power washer and picked up a few other things as well. (baseboard, crown molding, quarter-round for the Pit, and a surface cleaner that was supposed to clean concrete more evenly than using the wand). After getting a quick tutorial, signing all the red tape and getting the truck home it was around 7:45. We get all of the equipment out of the truck (of course rented because we cannot haul anything of significant size in our Honda Civic's), and follow all of our training meticulously. We try the surface washer first, which does nothing... The saleperson had openly admitted that he gave us an underpowered power washer for this surface cleaner, but he assured us that it would work fine.
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| Low visibility, check |
This was our very first full day fail with our house. We've had fails here and there, but we've always had at least one "win" during the day to sit back on.
The pool guy let us know he was coming back Wednesday to do some more cleaning, so the pool looked much better when we got home.
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| I can see the bottom! |
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| We finally find out what the stairs look like |
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| Getting better |
Halley cut out early to go back to Home Depot and redeem ourselves. I came home and saw the Home Depot rental truck in the driveway. This time we got the larger power washer, and the surface cleaner still worked terribly. Sad faces again :-( We move onto the wand, and once again it doesnt fit. Halley goes back to home depot, and it turns out the salesperson is color blind and was putting the wrong O-ring in the fitting... *facepalm*
Halley gets back with the new wand, and we're ready to go. In order to start the power washer you need to be pressing the trigger on the wand so the motor isn't trying to start and pressurize at the same time, so Halley is holding it towards the pool (so any extra water is saved? I'm guessing?), I start the engine, and *POP*... the tip shoots directly into the pool. We both look at each other for a few minutes... and I facepalm harder than I ever have before... We now laugh about this and reference one of the finest home shopping network fail videos...now it's locked.
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| Found it! |
The power washer came with other tips fortunately, so we pushed forward.
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| Matt pressure washing |
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| Halley pressure washing |
After finishing with the power wash the concrete really did look a ton better.
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| Before after comparison |
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| Looks so much better |
That night I decided to take a picture of the pool with our awesome led flood lights. Our pool looks like its lit by football stadium lights at night so we can fully see the terrible state of the grass.
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| Late night pool party anyone? |
Saturday we decided to hit to local pool place and pick up a test kit, and whatever other junk we needed to make the pool less terrible. The test shows that everything looks fine (for the things it tests for at least)
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| Pool test looks good |
We decided to have the pool place do a test as well, and they found a bunch of stuff wrong... maybe we're getting taken for a ride...but the salespeople are really nice, they even let molly come in the store :) and...we have no idea what we're doing, so we need to trust someone. We also picked up a solar thermometer for the pool.
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| Way too cold for Halley |
And... The pool looks ALOT better now :)
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