New Pool

Last year we had bought a huge above ground pool for our backyard--something like 20 ft by 5 ft or something like that. We tried 3 times to set it up, but our ground is just too unlevel. I thought I had written a post about this that I could link you to to see the pics, but I couldn't find one in my archives, so I guess I never wrote it. Anyways, this summer came around and it hit us hard with hot, hot temps. We've mostly been in the 90s and many days of triple digits so far. We knew we would not be able to get the ground leveled to put the pool up this summer, and considering we are now in July already, we decided to get an easy set pool for the kids. They have enjoyed it for 3 days now. I am waiting for the solar cover Roger ordered to put on the pool so the water will be bath temperature before I get in and enjoy it. This pool is 16 ft by 42 inches, so it's a pretty nice size--especially for the kiddos. It is a tiny bit lopsided due to the unleveled ground, and it is a little oblong shaped instead of the round it should be (I think because our first pool is oval, so we were trying to set it on the oval-shaped sandy ground area for the first pool). We are hoping it will last us the entire summer without any problems and if we find we are still in this house come next summer, than we will have the ground leveled and should be able to put up our larger pool which is currently being stored in our sun room.

Swimming Pool

We were so excited to start putting up our pool this holiday weekend. Then last night, a call from someone on our home owners association board called to talk to Roger about the pool.

First, we don't know how exactly he found out about it because only one neighbor knew. We can only speculate that this neighbor called the board to tell them about the pool, but we don't know why she did that exactly. Was it for our benefit and to keep us safe from any kind of trouble we might get in, or some other reason? Why didn't she talk to us directly about going to the board for permission.

Second, we didn't know we needed permission to put in an above ground pool. The board member told Roger where in the covenant this was talked about and let me just say that it is very vague, but we will not ruffle feathers about it. There is an improvement clause and a pool is not mentioned specifically. We are guessing that they are considering the pool an "appurtenance" which is a word I have never heard of before and had to look up the definition. You can look it up yourself if you want.

The board meets the second Tuesday of each month so Roger is submitting our desire to them to put up a pool, and we're going to go ahead and try to receive permission to put up a certain type of fence.

Yes, if you know me at all, you know that I was feeling pretty irritated by the whole thing--just because of the vague language of what the clause states. Oh well. Roger and I discussed it, and even though we don't know the specifics of how this board member found out, we are deciding to thank God for the call last night because if we had just begun to go ahead and put the pool up, we may have gotten ourselves into big trouble by the board. So, God saved us that headache and heartache by in His timing having that board member call us to discuss the pool before we began work on it. Thank you God!

In the meantime, we have a nice pile of 10 tons of sand sitting in our front yard that was delivered this morning. Plus, one of Roger's friends will be bringing over his tractor tonight for us to use this weekend for not just the pool, but other yard work we want to do. Even though we can't put the pool up yet, we can still level the ground and distribute the sand. Hopefully and prayerfully the board will approve our appurtenant improvement and in a couple of weeks we will have our pool up to enjoy this hot summer.