Our pool liner was finally delivered on Nov. 17.

Someone upstairs in the weather department was pulling some strings for us because record high temperatures at the end of November wedged between the normal lows could not have been more appreciated.

 

This was critical for the installation of the liner. The warmer and more pliable, the better. So on the 16th, Steve built a frame and installed a tarp “roof” in order to heat the pool walls and floor. He cleaned and prepped the area, and a diesel heater was delivered, set up, and left to run overnight.

Meanwhile, all this was going down while Dave and I were in Naples so once again, a HUUUUUUGE THANK YOU goes out to Bill The Thrill McMichael / slash / Super Site Supervisor for overseeing and photo-documenting the entire process. The BEST brother-in-law EVER!

The next day, the high hit 67° and Steve – along with the boys from J&J Pool Services – got to work. Crazyville!

Once the liner was in place, they taped it all off and vacuumed the air out to pull it tight to the walls. THEN IT WAS TIME TO FILL!!! The water was delivered by truck, then topped-up via the house hose. Bill was completely on top of maintaining the proper level. Again, the BEST. EV. ER.

Then overnight…

…a blustery windstorm blew half the leaves off our neighbour’s killer columnar oaks, and it snowed ta boot.  We arrived home on the 24th to this.

So how over the moon were we to see Steve arrive early on the 25th to clear out the mess? Beyond. Dave and I – along with the Snack crew – had the annual holiday decor install at a long-standing client’s site so we couldn’t deal with cleaning and covering the pool until today (the 27th). But before we got to that, we drove to Toronto and  A) picked up the required tarp, B) wrapped up loose ends on the decor install, and C) picked up 2,500 LBs of marble at Olympia Tile for the master bath. Big thanks to Mark McMackin for saving us a whack of cash on the tile purchase, and to T-Wo (aka Tom Woinoski) for coming to the rescue by helping with the load out.

T-Wo’s help didn’t end there. He tag-teamed the pick up and unloading of the sandbags with DB, and assisted with getting the tarp on the pool. I contributed for a change by clearing the pool of leaves and debris while they did The Depot run. Teamwork. Ya gotta love it. Plus, once again, we could not have asked for better weather. (Note how those oaks still have many more leaves to drop.)

Bonus points go to Creative Landscape Depot for picking up the remaining stone, and the Pat/Brock duo for installing the final sills on the bay window.

Like I said > Un-Bill-Leaf-able!