First reason: This blog is the closest thing I have to a journal, and at some point I am sure my daughter will not believe me when I tell her we used to have a pool. I will show her this post. She will then say something like, "Daaad! blah-blah-complaining-blah." But I won't feel bad because if I'd have kept the pool she would have surely had some sort of teenage bash and some kid would have cracked open his or her head (probably his). I'm against lawsuits, especially the ones where I'm the defendant.
Second reason: I took pictures. What else am I going to do with them?
First, a brief look back. This is the pool before I had it filled in: (Click images to enlarge.) Do not let the crystal clear waters fool you; the pool was the devil incarnate. Well, okay, not incarnate, but like, inhydronate. Or something. The point is most of the time the pool did not look like this and on those rare moments that I was able to pull it off, it took me about three hours of work and lots of chemicals. Chemicals cost money. I'm somewhat averse to work. You can see the problem.
This is the pool as it looked this May. It's a little closer to how the pool normally looked. Sure, the liner wasnt' all saggy like this, but the color of the water is spot-on.
Here are some pictures of the pool being destroyed. The demolition was great fun to watch. The whole neighborhood came by. I felt a little guilty sitting on the patio drinking beer while The Guy (that's what Little One called him) did all the work, but really, what else was I going to do? I can't fix a leaky faucet; I sure ain't gonna try to lift heavy stuff. Twelve ounces was plenty.
And here we have no more pool. I skipped the pictures where we filled the hole with all sorts of toxic chemicals, old batteries, and tires. There's probably some lame ordinance against that sort of thing. I don't want to get in trouble.
And here is our lovely new "yard." Someday, it'll have grass. I hope. I'm doing that part myself, so chances are...not so much. Still, maintaining dirt is cheap and easy. Even I can manage it.
20 comments:
nice pics, PMM. I'm sure the little one will looooooove to read your blog when she's older. My brother has a pool, too. One time, there were moles floating in it.
You didn't plant any grass in that dirt, did you? Cuz that's like making a sizeable investment in a mutual fund that pays out a healthy dividend of future work. ("mowing", in case the metaphor wasn't clear)
Monica - we had moles DAILY. Or maybe they were voles... I don't know. Anyway, Big Plain V is right - we just tripled our mowing time. Worth it.
I commend you on your victory against pooldom! Now get ready to wage the never ending war with the lawn.
Have fun! :-)
LOL Funny post, as always. I don't blame you for ditching the pool. We put up an above ground pool for our two months of summer and it's a pain. It always needs cleaning. Plus, my summer is spent as an on-call life guard!
Less Money. More green. I like your style.
Thanks for your input, Mrs. Murphy. The mole really grossed me out. I dont think any amount of chlorine could make me feel comfortable about swimming in water where animals sacrificed their lives. Well, at least not if i actually viewed the dead bodies. Which begs the question about why i can swim in lakes and stuff, cuz millions of things die in them every day..... oh man... i should really stop thinking.
yours truly,
Mrs. Murphy
(i used to work with a woman with the last name Murphy, and we always greeted each other like that. "hello Mrs. Murphy. Hello Mrs. Murphy"... good times, good times...
)
i forgot to close my bracket.... oh dear.
My husband and I put our own sod in at two homes (and lots of it). It was actually fun.
Congrats on being poolless. My parents had one for a while; it was nothing but a death zone for the local frog population. But nice to visit.
Don't forget to bury an old bathtub or two before laying down any green!
A neighbour of ours has so far unearthed no less than 5, yes FIVE, old bathtubs in his ongoing backyard efforts... apparently it stopped being funny (for him, anyway) at number 3.
i don't think that unearthing tubs in my back yard would EVER get old. That's freaking hilarious.
Bathtubs in the backyard????!
Maybe burying a toilet would be funny...
Congrats on your bigger backyard, Murph! I bet your little girl is already racing around it!
You should plant wheat in your backyard instead of regular grass. Wouldn't that just be amazing to have a wheat field backyard? You would instantly have more friends than you ever wanted.
Then I'd have to buy a wheat thresher and spend my Saturdays threshing.
(Checking off the phrase "spend my Saturdays threshing" from my Things I'll Never Say list.)
Wait just a second, PMM, who ever said anyhting about harvesting said wheat-field-backyard?
I assure you this plan is much simpler and cheaper than it seems. In small amounts such as this, wheat is very easy to grow. You just put the seeds on the ground, toss some miracle grow or regular soil on top and then let the sun and rain do the rest. That's it! I'll even mail you the seeds personally if you promise to send me pictures.
Ah, the "yard".
Our goal is to have no grass at all.
Our backyard is basically an oak forest, and our front yard is tiny.
We're going for lots of bushes and flowers, a big veggie patch, and a few nice patios.
No "lawn" whatsoever.
you could get a cashmere goat and let him/her graze in the backyard. Then you could make sweaters from the hair of the goat, and make your wife awfully happy.
These are fine ideas. If I were a crazy person I would consider them all.
Salt the existing dirt, Paul, you know you want to.
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