Ok, where did we leave off? Oh yeah – Memorial Day weekend….
Well, Sweet Pea was here that weekend, but it did not stop the manual labor efforts in the backyard. While Second Son and I continued work on building gates for the deck, Sweet Pea and PDD went swimming in the kiddie pool:

Sweet Pea and PDD Makin' Do 'Til the Big Pool is Ready
Tuesday after work, Oldest Son had one of his co-workers climb the neighbor’s tree and cut down the branches that were severely overhanging the pool:

Overhanging Limbs Removed
Which created a different kind of mess in the pool:

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
The next day, Oldest Son cut up the branches and he and I took another load of branches and debris to the dump (we borrowed Patsy’s truck that afternoon.)
The new pool liner I had ordered arrived, and we were just about done with repair and cleanup in the yard, so we headed into the last weekend of May hitting the homestretch. Second Son and I worked all day Friday. He shoveled out 5 wheelbarrow-loads of some of the best mulch I’ve ever seen (3 years worth of leaves, sticks, rain water and sunshine’ll do it!) and cut up the old liner into pieces we could get out of the pool and into another borrowed truck’s bed to take to the dump. I cleaned out the walkway (which had been previously plugged up with all kinds of stuff in an effort to block the dogs from getting out) on the driveway side of the house, so we had a nice load for the dump, yet again.

The Best Mulch In Town
After the dump, we went to the pool place to buy the new pump, hoses, vacuum and other equipment we needed. We determined upon inspection that the filter was intact and didn’t need to be replaced; we just needed to replace the sand in it, so while we still had a truck, we made this run.
I knew what I was in for, but I’m tellin’ ya – you should have seen Second Son’s face when they told me the total: $465.75. He said, “Dang! Mom! And we haven’t even bought chemicals yet!”
“Ummm…exactly, son,” I thought to myself.
While we were out, we went by Lowe’s and got a replacement blade for Second Son’s lawn mower, and by the time we got back home, we were whipped. We installed the new pump and replaced the sand in the filter and agreed we’d tackle the installation of the new liner in the morning. We still had to level the sand floor before we could put the new liner in, and neither of us had the oomph left to do that, so we called it a day.
Saturday we spent a couple hours fine-tooth-combing the sand floor for sticks, pecan shells and any other sharp objects that could put holes in the new liner and then started on the leveling. We had to borrow tools from the neighbor to remove the return valve and had to cut away some branches where the shrubs alongside the pool were trying to grow into the coping on the east side of the pool wall, but by mid-afternoon, we were ready to put the new liner in.

The New Liner
It only took us about half an hour to install the liner, even in the face of having to start over once because we were skewed by about two feet. When Oldest Son came home from work, he found us laying – fully clothed – on the floor of the pool with two water hoses (one from the back of the house, and one from the spigot on the front of the house) snaking back and forth spraying us with water. We didn’t care. We had a pool again!
It took most of the night to fill the pool, so we had to wait until Sunday for our first real swim.

PDD, Second Son and Oldest Son Taking the First Swim of the Season, 2009
I went back to the pool place for the chemicals Sunday afternoon. We don’t use chlorine in our pool because it’s so hard on our skin and it’s such a pain in the butt to maintain. In previous years, we’ve used Baquacil, but it’s fairly expensive, particularly in the beginning of the season. So this year we’re trying a different line of non-chlorine chemicals called Blue Elegance. I spent $75 yesterday (Sunday) afternoon (instead of about $200) and we’re supposedly good for the next two weeks.
We’ll see…
Awesome Suzanne…job well done…good to hear you have your pool again! Have fun hanging out in it this summer!
Well first let me just say I admire all the hard work that went into this long process of getting your yard and pool back to life. Second I admire your kids for all the hard work in helping you make it all a reality and living to actually tell about. I know the work was hard but watching you all work as a family on this project tickles my heart 🙂 I am so proud of you all, it was a beautiful thing to watch it transforming from week to week..thanks for sharing
Good for you getting some yard work done just in time for summer. A backyard should be a place for enjoyment and gathering, and you seem to be doing just that!
Damn, that’s a lot of work! But from what I can tell from the photos, it sure was worth it!
Oh, and don’t you dare throw that mulch out! 😉
Woo-hoo — job well done! Ah, I feel the sizzle of summer notched down a few degrees already. I’m sure you’ll have a great sense of satisfaction every time you look at it, but I’m hoping you, and not just the kids, get to spend lots of time in it too.
Looks like wonderful work you did there. I bet the family is enjoying the summer a bit more with the pool being in action. DIY is always a great experience.
Goodness me that was an awful lot of work! I know you guys that worked so hard REALLY appreciate the cool dips during the summer. 🙂
Good job guys. Manual work like that is just so refreshing. It’s a lot less tiring than intellectual work in front of the computer.