Interludes and Fear Factors. May 28, 2010

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Interludes first.

Mikka found the catnip! We'd never seen this before, so it was kind of funny.










What is the world coming to? First the Japanese Beetles and now the cat.





We got some much needed rain.





And found that the French drains we put in work great!





This one above the greenhouse has gravel over the end of it.



Now on to the scary part of putting the pool together. The part you can NOT take back if you mess up. Cutting the holes for the new filtering system. The pool is half full at this point.

We have had two cordless drills over the years, but the batteries are all shot now. We are loving this old drill. Yup, it has a cord, but it's faithful!





This is the return jet hole. We began by cutting a small opening into the liner where the return would go. This was to stuff wet paper towels inside to absorb any metal filings that might want to fall between the wall and the liner while we work, damaging the liner at a later time.





Then we pulled the liner away and drilled a starter hole in the center of the hole we needed to cut out. I used the gasket as the template for the hole.





The tin snips were used to cut out the circle, while we held the paper towels against the area from the other side.





Pulling the towels out, now that the cut is finished.





We put the return through the hole.





So we could trim away the excess liner.





A razor blade works perfectly.





Put the jet together. Simple, just follow instructions with box.





And fasten it permanently to the wall, using the gaskets and some marine grease if you have it. You should get some.





Ours did not come with instructions, the box had been broken into. The gaskets were a little confusing. We had two rubber gaskets and one cork. I looked up many places online, and they all said something different. Just make sure you've got your two rubber gaskets on there, inside and outside, and do what you want with the cork. We put it outside next to the nut that tightens the whole assembly on. I don't think it's doing anything there anyhow.

The next one was harder. The skimmer hole. We used the gasket for a template again, and had to cut out the square hole and 10 screw holes. We used the paper towel trick, which worked great.





It took a long time, being careful not to drill my hand (Michael got me once), cut or poke a hole in the liner, lose any metal shavings inside the liner, or get the drill bit wound up in the paper towels. But at long last, it was done.





Then came screwing it all together and trimming away excess liner.





I would like to tell you we completed it by ourselves, but we did not. We really needed some muscle to get those screws tight on the skimmer. My dad came over and loaned that to us, along with the marine grease.

After this, it was just a matter of filling it and seeing what leaks! There will ALWAYS be leaks. We just have to be ready to fix them.

~Faith

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