Building a Swimming Pool or My Birthday Project #12, 13 and 14

Consider it official. I may be in the midst of a midlife crisis. Partly as a result and partly due to both of our boyhood wishes and partly due to global warming (Thanks George Bush!), we've decided to put in a swimming pool in our small backyard, which is Birthday Project #12.

This did not happen without a lot of forethought. An awful lot of middle of the night forethought. Lots of forethought. Still, we continued. We met with one company -- let's call them California Pool cause that's what they are named -- and they came in and made us a ridiculous offer.

We almost bit. But, first, we decided to get a competitive bid and went to another company -- I dunno, let's call them Anthony Sylvan -- and they came in with...a more expensive bid.

And we bit.

Yep, we're fools, but we liked the sales guy better. How it turns out, we're not sure...and when the other sales guy from (I dunno) California Pools was told we were going with these guys, he took some time to bad mouth him. We'll see if he's right, but we're going forward.

Since our contract was signed on May 31st (8th anniversary of moving in), not too much happened for the first few weeks. Then, they finally got the permit and dug and formed the hole in two days.

While we waited for rebar to be put in -- several days -- one of our dogs easily paraded thru the "safety fence" and became the first mammal to dive into the pool. Thank God it was the shallow end. Knowing us, both ends will be shallow...

Speaking of dogs, reminds me of Birthday Project #13: a front wall for our front garden so that the dogs who's space we've just robbed will have more room to roam and, more importantly, shit and piss.

Well, we got the guy who built a neighbor's wall down the street and he dutifully charged us more, but basically in three days we had a lovely stucco wall...except...except... The original height was 4 feet tall but we felt that it felt too fortressy and so brought it down to 3 and a half feet, which they then brought down to 3 feet four inches...which the little energetic dog could jump over if he really really really liked...and he will.

Which then leads us to Birthday Project #14: planting drought tolerant plants in front and behind the wall with the hope and desire that someday they will grow larger than the wall and discourage the little miscreant from jumping.

We shall see. It's sort of like that childhood song -- "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" -- and one thing is just leading to another bigger thing. I won't even begin yet to touch on pool fencing. Oy freakin' vey, I say.

Someday, though, we will have a pool...and it's guaranteed before 8/31...and Anthony Sylvan will either get well deserved praise or not so much. Stay tuned.