Getting the Pool Fixed - Again.

After we got our pool acid washed last winter it was made very clear to us that it was in bad shape.  After years of neglect by the previous owner (who only bought the place for rental income and therefore lacked giving the place any TLC) and improper care it was left in a state of distress.  The existing plaster was thin and blotchy and the black algae that was in it would continue to be a real pain to keep clear.  Since that fateful day, Thomas and I decided that we needed to start saving to get the darn thing re-done.  We were hoping that we would have a good two years to save up- a little at a time- but you know that things don't always go according to plan.

Reasons for speeding up the savings process include: a) our chlorine levels needed to be kept higher than usual (around 5% when the norm is around 2%) to keep the algae at bay and chemicals aren't cheap, b) the extreme Phoenix heat made it darn near impossible to keep on top of the chemicals since it burned off so quickly, c) the great dust storm over the 4th of July weekend quickly turned our pool back to green, and d) we could not get it back to clear again.  You think that a little dust storm couldn't cause that much damage?  Well, think again.

Here's a picture of what that storm looked like.

It's a 50 mile wide thick cloud of dirt that came sweeping in.  Nothing was safe!  It was so thick that the airports shut down because visibility was practically 0!

Which meant that our pool went back from looking like it did in December when it was acid washed:

Back to this:

Of course now that Baby Bravo is on the way, we needed to make sure that we did what was effective and affordable.  Naturally I would love to have all of the bells and whistles added to the pool when we redo it... but now with Sprout set to make their appearance in May- we needed to be more practical.  And really, why get the bells and whistles when we are only planning on being here for another couple of years anyhow?  We'll save the big guns for our forever home.

We had several companies come out and give estimates that ranged from $2,100 all the way up to $7,000+!  We ended up settling on a family owned pool company called Mercury Pools that could give us a beautiful (and premium!) pebbletec surface for $3,400.  Sure, it still ain't cheap- but it's going to make us happy (and it was much less expensive than the competitors).  And if that's what we need to do in order for me to go in the backyard without screaming expletives at the black lagoon that is our pool... then so be it!  Plus, a pebbletec finish is less maintenance which makes this prego happy.

We chose the finish in Glacial White which looks like this:

 

It's grainy- I know... but you get an idea of what it looks like.  It's not solid white: it's got some grays, yellows, and greens in there.  I know that white seems like a boring choice but it's really what worked for us.  There are more exciting and even prettier colors to choose from but from what we learned... color is more expensive (and we're already shelling out a hefty chunk of dough) and it also absorbs heat. And let me tell you, the pool does not need any help in that department since in the summertime it heats up pretty well on it's own in the sun... therefore, the cooler the better which translated to the lighter finish the better.

We still haven't decided whether we want to replace the tiles in the pool or not.  They are dated and definitely wouldn't have been my first choice had I been able to choose... but again it comes back down to Baby Bravo and what is or isn't necessary to dish out.

The guys are here now draining the pool and demo begins tomorrow!  I am SO excited!!

The Money Pit

Since becoming official homeowners on June 9th of last year, Thomas and I have taken on the role of student when it comes to our house. The whole thing is one giant learning experience. One of the biggest lessons that we've learned? That having a home is tough, having a pool is tougher. That pool has been a headache from day one.

Here's a little reminder of what it looked like when we got possession of the house:
Here we were thinking, "Awesome, our first house has a POOL!" How great! Plus, we live in the desert, it's totally necessary! Well, that was then..... we feel differently now. We have fought tooth and nail to keep this pool from continually turning green to no avail. We tried taking care of it ourselves. We tried having a professional pool guy come and get us started with a monster shock treatment. Nope. It still turned green.

All those chemicals aren't cheap either. Added bonus: with the heat here in Phoenix, the chemicals burn off super quick so we were constantly dumping more and more chemicals in there to the point where our whole yard stunk of chlorine. We were continually burning (literally) through our chemical supply. I've also learned through all of this that I can't stand pool supply stores. Seriously, I revert to being a whiney little kid when we have to go. I avoid it at all costs.

After many, many, many trips to test the water at the pool supply shop we finally figured out that we needed to drain the pool and get an acid wash. Our algae problem was just too severe. Here's what it looked like after the pool was drained:

YUCK! It looked 10x worse without the nasty water in it. Next thing we found out when we had the pool drained? We don't just have algae- we have black algae. What is black algae? Well, it's like death for a pool! Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it's bad. It doesn't go away with a simple acid wash (which is diluted). The pool peeps we hired had to make an acid paste and slap it on anywhere in the pool that had those black patches so that it could really sink in and kill it. Not only that- but the guy said that our algae problem was so bad that he had to do two acid washes because one just didn't cut it. Thankfully I was visibly upset when he told me this so he didn't add any extra charges. Yay for being an emotional girl!

When the washes were done though, our pool still looked like this:See the splotchy imperfection? So our pool dude informed me that our pool used to look beautiful and perfect and a deep aqua blue like our neighbors pool. But because of years of neglect our pool now looks like this. How do we fix this? With a $4,000 pool resurfacing :( The water works started again, but the pool dude couldn't help me this time with a cost break because he doesn't resurface pools. Obviously we don't have the cash to go ahead and deal with the problem now.

The good news is that we should be able to maintain the pool as is (no green muck) with chlorine until we can get it resurfaced. Another downside: since we do have the black algae issue and he couldn't guarantee that it was totally gone (it burrows under the plaster- the little jerks!) we have to keep our pool with at least a 5% chlorine level and even higher in the summer which is similar to what public pools do instead of the regular 2% otherwise recommended.

So after two days of the acid wash and refilling the pool we have started saving for our pool to be resurfaced. Luckily we were told that we should be able to hold out for 2 years before it becomes totally necessary. And with the pool refilled you can't really tell how uneven the plaster is. This is what it looks like as of right now:A million times better and many lessons learned.