The last week or so my life has been wrapped around my feet: blisters, hot spots, the right socks, the wrong socks, is the Glide working, is it not...? I walk, I whine. I think if I liked wine, I'd whine less.
While I've been preoccupied with my feet, the Spouse Thingy has been leveling a 19' diameter circle in the back yard; he dug up the grass, figured out how many inches each side needed to be, and has hauled around 30 sixty pound bags of sand, 6-8 at a time, home from Home Depot to aid in leveling the area.
When it's ready, we have a cheap assed Intex pool we're going to put up. You know, the vinyl kind you buy at Sam's Club on a “Hey, that looks spiffy!” impulse, though it was less impulse than that we've wanted a pool, but we don't have 30 grand lying around, and we want to be sure we'll actually use a pool enough to warrant popping for something like a Doughboy in a few years, and a house we rented before this one had a giant Intex pool that was nice to have. Yes, I know that was a run-on sentence. no, I'm not going back and fixing it.
Still. While it's cheap it's been a lot of work for him. I've watched as he's sweated (and sometimes slept because sometimes? He's a little odd and gets up at bumfrak o'clock in the morning and goes outside to dig) and I've sat inside and rubbed my tender feets, but when it's done, I'll reap the benefits.
A pool will be good for cross training, you know.
Tomorrow or Thursday the space should be ready for the pool (you know we actually set it up once before, only to discover that our level-looking backyard was five inches higher on one side than the other...we couldn't get the box back into the car to return the pool, so a-leveling he went...) and hopefully by Sunday or Monday it will not only have water in it, be level, but will be warm enough to use.
I'm delicate, you know.
9 comments:
It may take a couple of days to fill and another couple to warm
I hope you reward your Spouse Thingy well for all his exertion!
We got one of those this year too. We had to do some digging to level ours too and it's still not level, but it sounds like you are doing it right. We just dug and guessed. Not a good strategy.
Be prepared to spend some time testing the water, adding chemicals, scooping out bugs, and vacuuming the floor.
Really though, it is totally worth it once you're kicking back on a floating chair with an ice cold beverage in your cup holder.
This will be a great way to maintain endurance while your foot heals a bit. Shorter walks and longer swims! :)
When you get that pool up and filled, you'll need to get yourself a swim harness. It is like a bungee cord with a waist belt. You tie the cord part off to an appropriate length and bingo - a lap pool of your very own. I just tie mine off to the pool ladder and away I go.
One neighbor has an inground but several have the intex ones and are quite happy with them. A great place to float, or float your boat, whichever with an umbrella drink.
I just went to the Intex Pool website because you piqued my interest.
I am sorry to tell you that, in their FAQs, Intex says not to use sand to level one of their pools.
Intex says sand can shift. Perhaps they are in the business of selling other leveling media - I don't know. But you might want to ask other folks what they used and if sand worked fine for them. Or considering how hard the Spouse Thingy has been working, I'll just shut up . . .
pool...drool. I'd love one here, but the work it takes to keep it up for the few times we could use it here in Wisconsin just isn't worth it.
Kinda late now...the sand is down and I don't think it's coming up now. And it's less than an inch thick, so I think we'll be good.
LOL I hope...
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