Coming right along!

Wednesday at noon, I rented a pool pump - to empty the pool - I apologize, no before pictures, trust me, it was devistating! The pool guy that came by to bring me the pump and give me an estimate on cleaning & repair really loved the pool - and was sad that it was mistreated! He estimated - with the draining, the cleaning and the start-up for it to cost $875. But because we've done a lot of business with them, he'd bring it down to $750. Generous, right?

I decided to earn that $750 myself!! I started to drain the pool right when I got the pump. I brushed the walls of the pool down while it was wet (yah - right, that helped?!! NOT!)

Meanwhile I had my wonderful cleaning lady come & assess the damage on the inside - She showed up at 8 that morning - and didn't leave until 6 that night.

She wiped down the floorboards the walls (just for grease & stuff - since the house smells like a burrito - we're actually going to have to repaint everything - too much pencil, marker & fingernail polish on the walls - oh - yah - nails and stickers, too!) she cleaned the ceiling fans & lights, bathrooms, ignored the carpet (really - can't do anything w/ that!!) she cleaned the kitchen - cabinets inside & out - countertops - sink, all the "normal" stuff - and when she came to her last thing before she exits the house - THE TILE - she mopped it - emptied her bucket, cleaned off the mop, mopped it again, emptied the bucket, cleaned off the mop - she did this 4 times - then - since it was still quite apparently NOT getting cleaner - she opted to empty buckets of water - (or hosed down the tile) and started scrubbing it and soaking it with the push broom...after she did that, she swept the water outside & got to her hands & knees & scrubbed tile by tile - with a scrubby sponge until she was done. It looks TONS better, however, it's been a lot cleaner, too!

Somehow the house still smells like - uh - tortillas?

So yesterday - morning I showed up at the house at 8 - the pool water was almost completely drained so I started in the shallow end w/ the "gentle" attachment for the power sprayer (not to knock out any pebbles from the pebble-tec) and hosed it all down - top to bottom & walls/floors...I finally got to the last - oh - 100 or so gallons of water that the pump couldn't drain & grabbed a bucket - of course that water was FULL of - lets call it "mexican toilet water" - there was a LOT of smelly mud, algae and maggots - WHY maggots? I'm guessing they bathed in the pool? But there were TONS of them!

At one point my friend, Holly showed up & dragged Brynn kicking and screaming to the park (Okay I made up the kicking and screaming part - she was actually kicking and screaming cause she didn't want to be at that house another day with NOTHING to do, watch or play with!) And - for the record, it's a LOT harder to get out of the pool when there's no water in it!!

Anyway - I looked at the time, it was noon - I had to get the pump back - packed it up - and instead of having to "heft" that huge lug UP the break from the deep end & around the pool, I thought it would be easier to lift it to the bottom step in the deep end (about 6 feet up from where I was standing) so I put it up there, and somehow I didn't balance it correctly and it came crashing down - toilet water and all - spraying it ALL OVER ME! What a fun adventure!

I picked up Brynn & returned the pump, but I still had some toilet water on the bottom of the pool. There were still some parts in the pool that needed to be scrubbed down w/ pumice stone & I had to get the shop vac & suck up the left over muddy/bloated maggot ridden water, empty the water & suck up more - at this point, I slowed down considerably at this point in the game - motion was just not an option! So - I did the next best thing & checked Rossi out of school - HE LOVES PLAYING WITH THE SHOP VAC - not so much mexican toilet water, but the shop vac is so much FUN!!

10 trips w/ the 10 gallon shop vac later, we finally had it all cleaned out! And ready to re-fill!



We started the refill process at about 2:30? and it's been going since then - I should go look to see how close to the top it is - but I'm not anxious to get back to the house immediately this morning since motion is still a comodity I am not yet able to afford. Sucks that sciatic pain is something you can't avoid when pregnant! It requires a miniscule amount of stomach muscles to support that back - and well, quite frankly - the muslces are there, but they're not available currently!

So - here I sit with a hot pad on my back ordering Brynn to load the dishwasher. She's enjoying licking my elbow instead. She thinks she's a cat.

Anyway - here are a few pictures - I only had my cell phone with me, so they're not "top notch" quality - but if you could have seen the before, to watch how it "sparkles" now - is really a treat! I do enjoy looking at the clean pool remembering my efforts that I put in - sort of taking pride in my work...