Until now!
We checked into several pool companies and finally decided to hire a friend of ours (member at my club) to do the work. He came out to give us the bid and do the contract and was surprised that the pool appeared to be in as good of shape as it was. We could see cracks in the pool and the light clearly didn't work, but overall the pool had held up pretty well. His main two concerns were that the cracks weren't structural and that the pool wasn't so old that is had copper piping running to the pool. We signed the contract and they began pumping. Something you should know about our house is it is built higher than the next door neighbors and therefor the emptying of the pool would be flowing into other neighbors yards. He warned us of this and made every atempt to get it to flow down the street. Bryan and I waited to hear complaints from the neighbors, but none came. Instead...they all came out to thank us for doing the work to the pool and making it look nice and getting rid of the mosquitos! We have quickly become the new favorite neighbors! They like a lot of things we are doing, but this was sort of the first run in. It took several days to empty the pool and several more days to clean it, fill cracks, etc. They literally pulled out a snake, frogs and turtles. And everyone that spent more than 30 minutes by the pool area looked like they had chicken pox from all the mosquito bites.
What a difference just emptying the pool made...
You can see a little water left in the bottom...yuck! And it smelled like a sewer.
Then came the tile...and we started to get excited.
After the tile and all the storms passed they plastered. Instead of just a white plaster they added blue quartz to make the pool shimmer a beautiful tropical blue. The pool is now finished and although this picture doesn't show it, it is full of water and being used regularly. It took almost 2 full days to fill the pool...I can't wait for our water bill. :( We learned a lot about taking care of a pool after replastering. Bryan and I were up every morning and evening brushing the pool and pushing the additional plaster down to the drain and then working out the chemical balance. We weren't allowed to use a polaris for 2 weeks so we had to do it all manually. We are still working on all the chemicals, but it is in use. We are alsostill working on the surrounding of the pool, the white rock wall, the trees, the bushes, cleaning, the fence, etc. so I will post more pictures when the entire oasis is finished. Until then...we'll be sitting in the oasis, escaping the heat, sippin on margaritas! Come join us if you like!
