Our New Pool......The whole Saga!!!

Glenn finally said yes that we could save money in our envelope system for a pool. The kind that you fill the ring with air and then fill up the pool with water and the ring rises. Anyway...I priced them out for the size we wanted at about $379.00. So...we begin saving. I had $75.00 in my envelope and thought that maybe the pool would have to wait until next year as we continued to save.
Well...one Sunday morning after church, our friend Sonja mentioned that she saw a pool like we were looking for at a yard sale the day before. They were moving to California and had only used it a few weeks last year. They were asking $110.00 for it, but Sonja thought her husband would say yes to them getting it, so she talked them down to $75.00. That was Saturday. Sonja took us by the yard sale after church the next day. The yard sale was all done and they just had some free stuff beside the road. Sure enough...they still had the pool. They had paid $379.00 for it last year, and just really wanted to sell it. So....as any yankee trained by the master negotiator David Meserve ...I offered her $40.00....she thought for a bit and said..."sure!!"...and so....we purchased our dream pool...18 ft. in diameter and 42 inches deep...it really is true..God cares about the little things...big time!!
So...Glenn built a box to put it in, and we had a delivery of stone dust to pack it down and make it level. What a smart man I'm married to!! I thank God for him every day.

So...we get the pool set up and filling with water, but...Glenn's not happy with the progress from the hose...so he hooks up the hose to the pump in the basement to make it go faster, not thinking that he is completely by passing our water treatment tank....anyway... Glenn goes to prayer meeting with Brittany. Forgetting to put the plugs in the side. Grace noticed water flowing from the side of the pool around 8:00 that night....yikes!!! So I ran out and plugged it up as best I could. Then we added the proper chemicals to shock the pool and get it to the right levels. The next day we got up...and instead of crystal clear water...we had the equivelant of a rootbeer float....YUCK!! Then I discovered after much research that due to the iron content of our water, when you add chlorine to that...it turns brown like iced tea!! UGH....so we set off in search a metal sequestrant treatment for the pool, and to buy Maddie's birthday presents, too. When we returned home...I heard running water outside...and went out to find that the pool side had collapsed and water was running everywhere...we quickly took care of that...and added our new chemicals...as we were returning inside...Glenn said..."I'm not sure we are pool people!!"...still brown water...so we went to a pool store in Rochester and got a miracle thing called a "slime bag"....we ran the water from the pool through this...and over the course of a few days it took out the iron...enough so that we had good enough water for Maddie to swim in for her birthday a few days later. The water does look a bit green in the above slide show, but it was so much better. Now it's very clear. Glenn even rigged up his own water heating system.....oh that hubby of mine!! So...are we pool people....well..it sure has been fun!!!