Summer DIY Projects for Mom and Dad

      The pool has a new liner...and what a job! First, we had to remove the covers and drain the pool which took two days.

     After we drained it, we cut the liner out, added sand, leveled the sand, brought in the new liner and vacuum sealed that baby in.

This broom got so heavy that every few sweeps it needed to be cleaned out. I almost gave up. 

Shoes fashioned out of pizza boxes to avoid footprints in the sand

My son stayed up all night with me to get the work done!

You can barely see the clothespins at the bottom portion of my shirt, but they were used for  holding the liner in place before the permanent clips were placed on.

The pool liner before it was vacuum sealed to the walls. 

     The topseats were a real pain in the rear to remove since the previous installers improvised their last pool project involving the topseats. The screws had completely rusted on, causing two expensive screwdrivers to break. It took some elbow grease and creativity, but we eventually got everything taken apart, cleaned and repainted. The shop vac we started with was less than adequate, so we got a newer, stronger one and with that came another set of concerns. It was five hp stronger than the Craftsman vac and we began to worry it was strong enough to suck a hole through the new liner. We fashioned a cardboard contraption around the hose head as a sort of filter between the hard plastic and the soft, stretchy pool liner. Sand was everywhere, so having two vaccums proved to be rather efficient. Overall the job took several days, as we were very inexperienced and had nothing more than a YouTube video to guide us through the job, but I must say, that after all the blood, sweat and tears, the pool looked great.

     All we had left to do was design and construct a solar cover reel, a net to keep the basketball in the pool, place the stairs back inside the pool and refresh the deck with a coat of stain.

     It took a lot of hard work but seeing the kids and all of our guests relax and enjoy themselves is a fine reward!!

     Dad and Ethan painted the topseats with a fresh coat of bright white to match the steps better. If you look at the next set of pictures you will see my father's design for the solar roller, goal and net toward the rear of the pool. We were very proud of a job well done.  Of course, as always, the summer trip came to an end for all of us way too soon.

Here is a close-up of the goal with the net behind it so the ball wouldn't go bouncing out.

The angle of the net helped to feed the ball right back into the water.

A nice longview of the pool with the new liner, goal, net and solar cover reel.

     Right before the end of the trip, South Jersey got slammed by a type of storm known as a Derecho. I'll have to dig some pictures up and add them later. The storm caused major power outages, downed power lines, trees and structural damage everywhere we looked. Luckily my parents' property didn't sustain any major damage and we were blessed with a place to stay during the outage in OC. It was like a vacation during a vacation. At the time of the storm, we had two additional families staying with us from Kentucky and I'm sure it provided them with an unforgettable experience.

     Next year we will probably have a whole new set of projects to tackle and I'm sure it will be as educational as this summer's were. I planted quite a garden for my parents this year and wasn't able to get any pictures (sad face). But, from what I'm told, and the pictures I've been sent, it is flourishing and providing a large harvest.