MorWynd Farm: Our Swimming Hole

Oh, thou pool! How you have distressed and delighted us! That is, distressed some of us and delighted some of us. There are those of us who are concerned about the copious amounts of money and effort that pools tend to require, and there are those of us who blissfully, gleefully, care-free-fully jump into this glorious blue ocean of a money pit. I am among the blissful.

When we bought MorWynd Farm, it came with a large L-shaped pool that had been out of use for several years while the property sat on the market, and hadn't been cared for in nearly as long. The safety cover that covered it was torn along numerous seams and had bull rushes growing out of the middle. Jon was sure we would find a dead deer on the bottom. No deer. Plenty of frogs.

For anyone in a similar situation, here is what happened...

Closing the pool for the first winter: An unsuccessful story
We decided the ~~swamp~~ pool cover needed to come off right away. Lesson: Especially for large pools, secure it better! A friend kindly donated some huge tarps from a construction site, so we covered the pool with those tarps and secured them with cinder blocks along the edges. I deem this unsuccessful because nearly half of those cinder blocks fell into the pool.

Opening the pool: First, an unsuccessful story
Oh how I wanted to get this pool running. I would have sold the rest of the property and taken the money to fix the pool up and live in the pool house if it had been necessary! Practical Husband would certainly not allow any such arrangement, but but you get my desperation. Perhaps to prevent desperate wife from selling house and home, practical husband got to work! Jon mucked out the shallow end but soon found the water level was falling. We heard that in-ground pools should never be emptied because the walls could cave in, and the water was soon to the bottom of the shallow end. At this point, we figured if the walls were going to cave in they would have done it. So we decided to empty the whole pool, clean it out, and find and patch any tears in the liner. We planned to fill it back up with water and try to make it work for a season or two. Jon pumped all of the water out of the pool, cleaned the dirt and leaves out (discovered no dead animals or otherwise, thankfully), and was nearing the patching stage. At this point, he called Crystal Pools (the company that had installed it) for advice moving forward. They told us that an in-ground pool must never be emptied because of the LINER. Not the walls. If it was indeed any good, it would get brittle in the sunlight. However, they informed us that our liner was so old it was likely no longer any good. This was bad news. I was grasping at my images of summer days floating on crystal waters!

Opening the pool, part 2: A successful story! (subtitle: Hard work and ingenuity fail; money wins out)
Repairing the liner and filling the 36,000 gallon pool with water would take too much time and effort to be worth the risk. We also could not let it go over the winter, for fear of causing further damage. With visions of dollar signs swirling down the drain, we made the decision to replace the liner. Compared to the amount of time we had thought about, talked over, and worked on the pool, we were amazed at the quick installation of the new liner. The liner was installed one morning and by that evening was half full of water. We filled the rest of the pool with hoses over the next couple of days. I believe this was Tuesday or Wednesday. We had a pool! A wonderful beautiful functioning pool full of crystal clear spring water! That Friday when all of our friends came over for bible study, we followed our bible discussions with bathing suits and a night swim. It was not warm. But it was a great celebration and foreshadowing of many fun pool times to come! The pool has become my one more reason to love summer! For years, when I went on runs in 80-90 degree weather, I longed to come home and jump in a pool. This summer, my dreams were fulfilled and it was so much better than I ever imagined. Don't you love it when life works out that way?!

Pool liner removed by Crystal Pools

Jon with his mini-hose trying to compete with the monster hose.

Liner installed, filling with water

Baby boy and I can't wait to get in!

First pool party...on a cool summer evening.

Finished product!

Closing the pool: TBD!
Our goal this year was to avoid any cinder blocks falling into our newly lined money pit...err...pool. Also, if we could keep leaves, dirt, deer, etc. out, that would be ideal. We explored a few options for pool liners, and in the end decided between two cover philosophies - spend a lot and get the best to last, or spend little and get something to make do this year. In the end, we bought a huge black tarp, put buckets on top of the water, floating under the tarp, staked down the edges, and put boards inside the edging between the stakes.