Monday, June 10, 2013

I am mist*ified

Pardon my spelling.

About a week ago, we got a gift.

No, that's not my yard (are you kidding? I'm struggling to keep my teeny patch of grass green!). It's the amazon picture. But that's the gift we were given!

And this darned (much appreciated!) gift has caused a slew of to-dos! Ya see... when you have a soft-sided, above ground pool... you kinda need somewhere soft for it to go, right?

Well, we didn't have that. We had my mucho beloved patch of grass (that I've put way too much effort in for it to just be murdered covered by this big blue pool!) and... rocks.

Luckily I'm lazy and hadn't gotten around to building the raised beds that I've been planning since this post.

It's more like... ignore everything in the top right portion of that sketch and insert a 10' in diameter blue pool.


To get the pool there, however, wasn't as simple as photoshopping a big blue blob into the image (ohhh, how I wish it were!). First, we had to clear an 11' area of all the rocks we could (it was nowhere near perfect) and cover it with a 2-3" layer of sand*. We also decided to "line" the area with some pavers that the previous owners left (or that we found under 10" of dirt/gravel when we were roto tilling) so the girls would have something to step onto other than the rocky dirt around the pool.


Oh, and don't let that sweat fool you... It was hot!

I tried to screed the sand as evenly/level as I could since we would feel it directly below the thin vinyl of the pool and we laid two tarps over it (rounding it out so it didn't look like a big, ugly tarp *spoiler alert* it totally ended up looking like a big, ugly tarp.).

But did I get a picture of that?

No.

Know why?


I was too busy DYING!

Betcha didn't know I turn into Mama Drama Queen when it's hot, didja?

Anyhow. The pool led us to clear out the part of the yard we hadn't really touched since before we roto tilled (it was so rocky that we decided we'd just deal with it later). It also started a whole other to-do list!

You're groaning, aren't you? C'mon, you know I love me some to-do lists!


  • Sand/Paint fascia to accomodate a misting system (you didn't think I was going to get into the pool every time the girls were, did you?!)
  • Buy/install the misting system
  • Build/Buy comfy seating for the patio *under* the misting system
  • Build/Buy pool "stuff" storage
  • Build/hang hooks for towels/wet [swim]suits
  • Buy a large umbrella to go over the pool. 
  • Holy cow, this list is turning way longer than I expected it to!
  • Decorate back patio so I don't mind being out there, baking in the heat (steaming? With a mister system?)

And maybe, at some point, I'll actually think to take a picture of the actual pool...

Because, otherwise, who's to say I'm not trying to trick you into thinking we have a pool when we don't?

Ninja moves, people... Ninjaaaaaa...

*some pools state not to use sand underneath, and I would recommend using pea gravel in that situation, but ours said that tamped sand could be used.

4 comments:

  1. Ladygoats screeding sand, very sexy picture! Seriously, any hour with daylight is too hot this time of year - I'm impressed to see you getting that done. Good luck with the mister, it will make a huge difference.

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