When we fell in love with this house in December, we were wearing our rose colored glasses. We didn't see a few things that we should have, I suppose we are not alone. In reality, ALL of our oversights would not have made dollar-one difference but it would have been "nice to know upfront", right? (Please ignore the fact that I didn't skim before I took the picture!)We have really hard water. No, our's is worse, OH YEAH, IT IS! The prior owner did not put an effort into keeping the lime at bay and boy, are we paying his dues. We found a gentleman to use Magnesium Sulfate (epsom salt) to blast away the lime. We were ecstatic, we felt very "green" and epsom would not scratch our tiles. He quoted a logical price and began the morning we were returning from our camping trip. As we pulled up at noontime he was putting his gear away and said laughingly that, "He quit!". Hmmm, ok, we'll see you tomorrow? No, I quit. No amount of money could encourage his completion so we said, "OK, BYE..." and he left agreeing to accept no money for the 1/3 of our pool he had completed. He said the lime was too thick and he would take too long, and use too much product. Geez Louise, he did the initial quote in person. We did save $525 tho, lol...well, sorta.
We refilled the pool and went on to try to find someone who could complete our job. You can't leave a pool unfilled in our climate. Could.not.find.one.soul.who.would.complete.the.job. Oh crap, 1/3 of the pool looks STUNNING, the other 2/3 looks like above. And further, there is some type of sealant on the tiles (see the blackish stain), it's not mold, it does come off!
We were left to our own devices. We found a synthetic pumice stone (you can't use real pumice stones either, they scratch!) on my sister's recommendation and ordered 2 cases of them. You can see the blue remnants poolside. You have to scrub...and...scrub...and scrub. But goodness, they look better than the epsom salt application!!! One block cleans about 4-5 tiles and sands your hands while you're at it. Now if I could just scrub with my feet, hahaha.ew. And yes, we are gluttons for punishment. And OH, those bicepts!
OK, so I am now in the middle of yet another project. I tried (and previously posted) a paperpieced log in neutrals, and after 4 blocks, I think it IS A GO! If I had my druthers, the logs would have been smaller, but this is for a California King and the view from the great room is at least 20 feet away. This will be a s-l-o-w project since I'm nursing a bad rotator cuff, and begin PT on Thursday. Rian, your strips are beginning to creep in, the lower right has some! Thanks da-link!
12 comments:
Hey its me...........your Mesa neighbor!
We were so thrilled to have a pool when we bought our house 13 years ago. Since then, we have learned that the pool industry is one of the poorest run things around. I can not tell you how many pool companies we have hired for various jobs, just to have them not show, show late, not do what they said, make things much worse and then disappear. DD and SIL are fighing a battle now on a redo that will end up in court. The state of AZ ought to really look into their pool contractor regulations! Hang in there!
Oh my! That's pretty rough. I don't mind some elbow grease, but I think that pushes me way beyond my personal limit!
Now is it just on the tiles, or the ENTIRE pool, top to bottom to every little side?
Can you get a water softener too? I know my grandfather has one in his house. Makes it almost feel "greasy" when you shower. Or is that against certain regulations too? (Speak of which, yes, you can drain dyes down sinks/bathtubs with no ecological problems, but it might leave a "ring" in your tub. It scrubs away... with a whole lot less elbow grease than your pool has been requiring!)
What a royal pain in the ... you know what..... I know from experience how much works involved in the upkeep of a pool. Hope you can solve the problem and still keep the skin on your hands. Your blocks are lovely.
Hard water! We have hard water. We don't have a pool. The upkeep on our toilet is practically a full time job.
What a major drag. Our water is so hard we use pumice in the toilets. And we have a water softener.
The log cabin is coming along nicely!
Hi Fitzy, we have hard water too and the bathrooms are an on-going project-that looks really daunting thoug. Sending you some warm thoughts for your rotator cuff-that's what Roger is getting surgery for Mon. Hope you fell better soon. I loves me some log cabins
Oh, wowzers... that's a lot of work! I sure hope you are slathering yourselves in sunscreen out there... it will be gorgeous when you are done though!
It doesnt look that bad to me. I would have left it. like the old owners hahaha.
Gosh, I can't tell you how much work we've done to our house. Yes, rose colored glasses definitely. Actually we only had one month to find a place, since we are a family of 6. ugh! HUGS! Love the quilt block ;)
It's certainly a new twist on watercize, isn't it? Ugh. What a pain. I guess we don't have particularly hard water, from what everyone else has said. I hate the feel of water softeners and since it's softened with salt, it's bad for folks like me with Meniere's disease. (The skin is a major conductor of sodium into the body.)
Oh, yeah ... and I loves me some log cabins too.
Thanks for sharing this useful information with all of us.Keep sharing more in the future.
Have a nice time ahead.
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