The Pool

I gotta tell ya, folks - it may be little more than a glorified kiddie pool, but this family is straight-up hooked on our Intex.

Fo' real.

Now, it is only April, but we're already getting a lot of use out of the damn thing, and the weather hasn't even broken into that soggy 90s crap yet (give it a month). While the rest of the country is facing floods, snowstorms, and gusting winds, down here in the hot, urban sprawls of Central Florida, the Houghs are getting a crap-ton (technical term) of use out of their kiddie pool in the sunny high-80s.


For those of you who haven't read about this previously, we picked up a 12' x 36" Intex Easy Set pool shortly after our mega-garage sale. At Toys 'R Us, this set us back about $90 (thereabouts). Now, since then, we've had to drop $40 for a ladder, $12 for a solar cover, $15 for a floating chlorine tablet dispenser, $10 for a ground cover, and about $30 in pool chemicals. The add-ons is where they get you, for sure... but, despite some of the eyebrow-raising reviews, the pool seems to be well worth the pay-out.


After a twenty-minute swimming session in the pool, both are kids are so worn out that they practically put themselves to bed.


That right there, for me, is well worth $200.


Anyway, like I said before, its a smaller pool - twelve feet in diameter, and about three feet deep. As such, an adult - or tall hobbit - wouldn't really be able to 'swim' in it, per se; sitting flat on my ass, the water reaches up to my nose, so its definitely a lounging pool. That's cool with me, as I'm not a big fan of exerting energy when I don't have to. In this upcoming Hell that is a Florida summer, its going to be brutally humid out, so floating is about all any of us will be wanting to do anyway.

Speaking of floating, that's definitely at the top of the Pool Crap to Buy Soon list - a floating cooler. If its one thing I can't stand, its having to burn calories while consuming them. Does purchasing an inflatable cooler make me white trash? Maybe. But is it practical for this father figure's needs?

Yeah. Yeah it is.

- Brian

Backyard Renovations, Vol. I

Having survived last week's garage sale, it was time for the Houghs to move into Phase II of our diabolical plan: the acquisition of additional crap that we probably didn't need but were going to purchase anyway.

The whole purpose of having a garage sale - besides getting rid of a bunch of junk that was cluttering up my garage - was so that we'd have some funding to purchase some stuff for the backyard. It was decided on some months ago that, with this garage sale money, we'd purchase a swimming pool for the backyard. We opted to buy one of those Intex Easy Set pools, and went with a 12' x 36" size, as it'd be ideal for the kids and enough so that Kris and I can sit in it and take a break from the horrible, horrible summer heat we get down here.

So we picked up the pool from Toys 'R Us, and I began buying some of the accessories for it - the solar cover, an inflation pump, etc. - off Amazon ('cause its way cheaper than buying it in a store around here). I still need to get a maintenance kit, a tarp or the ground cover, some additional filter pump filters, and a ladder, but that stuff's all relatively cheap so we're going to grab it later.

We can't set the pool up until Adam has a chance to come over and help me install a circuit splitter (or whatever the hell its called) in our patio light so that I can have a power outlet in the backyard. I want to run an electrical cord down one of the patio rafters in order to plug the pool filter in, as our house has an added-on room that was never part of the original floor plan when all the electrical work was done.

Good times.

Anyway, besides the pool program being implemented with great fervor, we also picked up a new Little Tikes picnic table/umbrella set-up for the girls. That was a long time coming as well. They needed an outdoor chill area in the backyard, so that thing will definitely come in handy come summer time.


We then purchased one of those large, outdoor, storage bin/treasure chest-looking things from Target. Ideally, this is where pool toys, extra pool filters, and other such pool-related hooplah will end up... though I honestly wouldn't be surprised if fruit snacks or half-eaten sandwiches end up in there, either.


So, in order to make room for all this new crap, Yours Truly had to do some yard work. I ran to Home Depot and bought a dozen of those border paver stones (whatever the hell those are called). I dug up some of the existing pavers and relined a trench around the outside of the patio, placing those border stones in so that weeds and the yard wouldn't creep back onto the pavers (which had been the case all last summer - our backyard has a mind of its own).

So with an additional ten or so square feet along the back porch, I moved all the cacti and plants off the main back patio and into a separated area away from curious fingers and mouths.


In closing, here's some more footage from around the house. Enjoy.

- Brian