Setting up the pool

June 4, 2020

Ugh... the pool was quite a project this year.  You may remember that our old pool got destroyed when we were taking it down last fall...  Well, that meant we had to order a new pool for this year.  I watched for sales all winter long and was able to find a replacement pool in March - the very same pool that we had before.  It sat in our garage (in a huge box) throughout the spring.  It has been so hectic around here that there didn't seem to be a good time to get it set up until early June.  Finally, the day came and Marvin & Jonathan got to work prepping the site and setting up the pool.  All looked good!  

ready to fill with water

Except that it wasn't quite in the right position in relation to the deck, so they called on a third hand to help get it in the right spot.  :)

We began filling it with water and I was excited to know I could get in the pool soon!  It filled all night and then the next day, when it was almost completely full of water, one of the corners popped loose and the whole structure became unstable.  That corner leg had somehow dropped off the platform in the ground and sunk, causing that corner of the pool to shift.  :(  

There was nothing to do but empty the pool and fix the corner.  We began to really investigate why there were so many differences between this pool and the last pool.  They are identical in size (so they say) and type.  But this new pool wasn't fitting with the existing deck and platforms in the ground for some reason.  That is when we determined to measure it to confirm our growing suspicion.  Yup.  The new 12x24 pool is actually 11x23.  Fabulous.  You wouldn't have any problem if this were your first pool.  But if you, like us, were replacing an old 12x24 pool (that was actually 12x24!!!) you would find, as we did, that the foundations no longer matched up.  ugh.  I really dislike this kind of thing... 

So, after they drained all the water they could, Marvin and Jonathan were left to bail out the last foot of water by bucket.  That was fun. 

I felt badly, but I took these photos of them bailing out the pool as I was leaving to go to Jackson and Brianna's for another wonderful family dinner.  These two had to stay home and work.  Awful!  (note - they had to stay home and finish this up and get the water filling it again because, by this time, there was a big storm coming that night.  We didn't want winds to hit an empty pool and destroy it like last fall!  So they were really racing against the clock here...)

you can see how that left side is completely bowed -
it was that back left corner that popped.

After they bailed the water out, they had to HAND dig areas to slide in new boards to extend the platform/base under one whole side of the pool.  They felt if they didn't do that, the pool would again collapse when it filled with water.  Finally it was ready to re-fill... another overnight process.   

Ahhh... this photo was taken when it had filled. 

So, I still love my pool.  Am so happy that it is now up and running.  But I sure do dislike when companies fudge on things like this.  Pure greed.  It does matter if it is truly a 12x24 or is, in fact, an 11x23.  I'll keep this in mind in the future when we are ready to purchase again...