Our Pool Dream Part 1

We had been talking about putting an above ground pool in for a couple of years. My aunt and uncle sold us their 20+ year old Doughboy pool almost two years ago. They kept it in pristine condition and sold it to us for a very reasonable price. But every time we thought about putting it up we looked up DIY videos on Youtube and were immediately fearful that we could do it on our own. After becoming pregnant, I nagged Chris that I wanted the pool for the summer. I wanted to be able to cool off in my own pool without the fear of people looking at my growing pregnant body. 

After buying a few much needed items off Amazon (our go-to for anything we need), we were ready to start. The sand came in Friday. You can see Mr. Bates sniffing it out.

Day 1: Saturday
Early Saturday morning, My dad came over to help us level the ground and mark off the areas. This job proved to be more time consuming than we thought.

I helped by trolley-ing the supplies from the garage to the backyard and making lunch for the guys. Through much frustration, this is about as far as we got Saturday. (You can see where Doris wanted to be.)

Day 2: Sunday
We laid out the Gorilla padding that we bought on Amazon that is supposed to keep the grass from coming through the pool. Chris tried poking it with a pocket knife and only the tip came through. We have some harsh grass in Texas and have heard multiple people say that their sharp grass has made it through their liner time and time again. The Gorilla padding was an addition to the liner, but it was much needed.

Next came the sand. While the guys moved the sand to the site, I used a rake to spread and smooth it out. The neighbors came over to help us out, too.

The hardest part was keeping the siding up so Chris could put it in the tracks underneath. With the wind blowing, it was pretty hard to keep it up without the help of several people and we had to call a few extra neighbors to hold it with us.

It was finally standing on its own and we took a lunch break. Mom made lasagna and chicken alfredo for lunch and we went in to cool off for a bit.

I left the house for a few hours in the afternoon and came back to this. My house had been invaded by Zmoliks! They had come over to help Chris put in the liner and start to filling the pool.

I told him that it looked like he was ready to squish grapes like Lucy on I Love Lucy.

We left the two hoses running almost all night to fill the pool halfway. The bohemian in me could hear money leaving the house as I thought about our first water bill!!

We still have quite a bit to do for it to be ready by next Thursday at our 4th of July party.
But that is for Part 2!