How to Set-Up a Pool: 101

Here’s the blog I promised a couple of my friends about a very… funny(?)…stupid…stressful day of my life. Here’s the basic story:

My parents randomly decided it would be cool to buy a nice, big pool for our back yard. When I say nice, by the way, I mean a metal framed pool NOT one of those crappy inflatable things that get torn up in a week. Of course everyone (my little sister) is THRILLED about this! So she begs Mom and Dad to set the pool up right away. Now I don’t know if any of my readers (if I have readers at all) live around the Midwest or have seen the news lately, but we’re experiencing some extreme weather. So this last Saturday my parents decide they’re going to set-up the pool. They’re being my dad and I…

Now the basic parts of a pool for anyone who doesn’t know:
1) A ground tarp-covers the grass of the area the pool is going to lay on
2) The liner-the part that is actually what you’re swimming in. A bowl made of very thick plastic.
3) Metal frame-metal poles that serve as a frame of sorts (some assembly required (sarcasm on the some))
4) A pump/Filter-self explanatory
5) A cover-self explanatory

We follow the directions step-by-step. We lay out the ground tarp and use about 50 bricks to hold it in place (first red flag). We un-fold the liner and lay it in the middle of the tarp. Then we assemble the metal frame. Here is where we meet our problem face-to-face. Hello! The wind is blowing practically 90 MPH (only a slight exaggeration). The liner is blowing all over the place and the metal frame is barely heavy enough to keep it all on the ground. We decide we need to put something in the pool to keep the liner down. Cue my little sister. My dad calls her out and tells her to climb into the pool. Then we decide we’re going to also start filling it. The problem is my little sister isn’t old enough to be smart enough to understand why she’s in the pool. So she’s basically no help. Finally we decide to call in reinforcements (my older brother who lives down the street) and we also decide to put me in the pool.

Let me re-phrase that: I VOLUNTEERED to get into the pool and then actually be of some help. By this point we have the framing all done but the inside of the pool is so messed up by the wind that I need to smooth it all out. I judge the height of the side of the pool to be about 5 feet. I think to myself: “If I had something to stand on I could easily jump into the pool.” Easier said than done. I stand on top of a picnic table bench and suddenly my idea is utterly STUPID. Almost dumber than setting up a pool in gale force winds. Almost. So my dad is laughing at me and tells me that I volunteered and there’s no backing out. So I jump.

Did I mention that we had started filling up the pool earlier? Yeah. Well, there were a good couple of centimeters where I jumped and I slipped and fell right on my face. Fun right? Well in the end I spent about 6 hours helping set up a pool that should take about an hour and a half. It was fun.

The Beauty. I have yet to swim in it in the four days since we set it up...

So innocent when all is said and done...

Here's an aerial shot of the pool and the picnic table bench I jumped from. Oh! Did I forget to mention that we found the ladder in the box after we had it completely done???