It's been quite a journey to get to this point. I've spared you, gentle reader, from the gory details, as I think I doubted that this day would ever come, but my swimming pool is finally operational.

The journey started over a year ago, when we discovered that the previous owner had not winterized the pool. This, at a minimum would have required "shocking" the pool with chlorine, and vacuuming out the pipes or treating them with non-corrosive alcohol to prevent freezing. Result: A murky yucky pool with all sorts of critters, algae and other "gunk" growing in it, with no ability to operate the filter or pump since the PVC pipes were totally broken.

The pool was so utterly disgusting, the only reasonable approach was to purge the pool of the gunk, which I accomplished with a standard garden water feature pump (~$20 at your local hardware store) and wet/dry vac (~$125 at your local hardware store). So after vacuuming out and cleaning the pool, it was time to fix the PVC pipes (~$10 for replacement PVC pipes and PVC glue). I also used this opportunity to buy a Dremel (~$70 at the local hardware store) to cut and shape the pieces to my needs.

With all the pipes re-fit, it was time to test my plumbing work, so I started to run some water through the skimmer into the pump, through the filter and into the heater. Alas, it turns out, the pipes were not the only thing that had cracked! Apparently, there pump filter housing had also cracked right down the middle, in the most invisible spot, so now, it was time to start calling around to the various Jacuzzi supply stores to try and identify the perfect part for my particular pump, which, of course, ended its production run four years ago. Amazingly, the proper housing was located and shipped on the first try (~$50 for a pump filter housing, lid and o-ring).

With all the pipes and equipment working, we began to refill the pool. Within 24 hours, we were unpleasantly surprised to find out that the liner had a leak. So we fix the leak (vinyl patch kit ~$12 at your local pool supply store), but the water level continues to go down. We find and patch another leak, and the water continues to go down. We did that a couple times until a larger order magnitude problem arose.

Little did we know that once a vinyl above-ground pool is filled, it should always stay full of at least one foot of water, otherwise the vinyl liner will slip! And slip it did, and start to sag, and despite all our attempts to put together our humpty dumpty of a pool, all we ended up doing was tearing the liner to shreds. Had the cleanup of the pool, repair of the pipes, waiting for the pool filter housing not taken several weeks, we could have had a chance of keeping our existing liner. So that's how 2004 ended for our pool. We ended up draining it all the way, expecting to start anew next year, with a replacement liner and skimmer, and we'd be on our way!

When 2005 came around, we started looking for contractors to fix the liner. Western Washington, compared to say, Los Angeles, isn't exactly the pool capitol of the world. So in this area there is (count 'em) exactly one contractor who installs and repairs above-ground pools. And after taking a few minutes to examine our pool, he was convinced it needed to be ripped out. The liner was destroyed, and finding a replacement liner for our off-brand pool walls and towers wouldn't be easy, which, as he pointed out, the previous owner had addressed by badly cobbling together an incompatible skimmer with the liner with big ole beads of silicone all around the edge of the skimmer. The conclusion was that this pool had had a storied past before we came along, and it was about time to do it right.

In any case, it was time for the pool to come down, and we were faced with either ripping everything out, and planting some grass seed, or replacing the pool. Having bought the house with the expectation that we'd be swimming in our back yard, we were inclined to get the pool working again, particularly with what appeared to be a fully functional pump, filter, and gas heater awaiting a brand new pool.

Pardon the pun, but we took the plunge. Within three weeks of ordering the replacement pool, we chose to have a deep end excavated (queue up the contractor with the backhoe, which barely fit through the fence gate), the fill dirt hauled away (queue the second contractor with a tractor, and two guys with wheelbarrows), all the dirt cleaned up (and this was the excuse for the ~$100 1800 PSI Karcher pressure washer I picked up at the local hardware store), and the pool filled to the brim.

So today, we finished work on cleaning up the patio, and getting the gas pool heater furnace pilot light lit, and the chemical balance set. With a minor modification to the ladder (the old pool wall was 4" shorter), the only thing remaining to call the job "done" will be to affix the ladder semi-permanently to the pool wall (gotta leave something to do tomorrow), but an unstable ladder certainly wasn't going to stop me from taking a plunge into the 70 degree water today, what with the highs in the 80s today.

And, as the picture demonstrates, we finally got everything all working. I'm 99.9% happy with it, the remaining .1% consisting of landscaping around the edges, affixing the ladder, and tightening up a few hoses and gaskets to stem all the drip-drip-drip leaks around the various fittings. And while I initially questioned the idea of excavating a deep end (Christine was dead set on it), in the end I've got to admit she was totally right. If the whole pool was as deep as the shallow end, it wouldn't nearly feel like the pool it feels like now.

So who's interested in taking a dip? Drop me an email and I'll include you on the evite that's most likely going to be scheduled for next weekend! It's going to be a a lot of fun!

(P.S. Rus, happy belated birthday, even though you're just going to tease me about the fact that your daily swims don't require the use of a dremel, PVC pipes, pressure washer, wheelbarrows, or chlorine to accomplish. Yeah, yeah.)