Splish Splash!

It was REALLY hard to title this post Splish Splash. Mainly because it's stormy and gray outside. But today just happens to be "The Hockenberry's Open Their Pool and Try to Figure Out How to Clean/Repair/Maintain/Use It" day! And based on the "fun" we've had with this house so far, I'm slightly (okay, a lot) nervous. For one thing, we haven't seen the pool yet. All we've seen is the giant green pool cover. We're about 90% sure there is actually a pool under there. When we had the home inspection, the previous owners told the inspector and realtor that there were a few tiles missing that would need to be repaired, but that's all the work it needed. So based on our past 4 months experience with this house, we're assuming that means  there are actually no tiles in the pool whatsoever. As I've said before, these people were fabulous at putting in every single thing a home owner could possibly want in a house, from a pool and 10 person hot tub, to a $14,000 Rainbow play set, to Kevin's manly shop, to a 23 zone sprinkler system for our yard and flower beds. However they were NOT so good at maintaining any of it. At all. This is the view from our deck right now:

I'm praying that by the end of the day, that green splotch on the concrete is a nice, blue hole filled with clear water. And that the final product (hopefully) looks something like this, since this is the picture that helped sell us the house:

You may have noticed that the only thing missing from the above picture is the beached whale perched beside the pool. Okay, I can't actually perch these days. But you get the idea. I'm ready to float and relax all summer. (And, if you have a strong enough stomach to handle Whale in a Bikini, they you're more than welcome to join us.) However, I'm not holding my breath. The reason? Because a more a more appropriate title would be "The Pool Company Comes and Opens the Hockenberry's Pool and Teaches Them How to Clean/Repair/Maintain/Use It." Because we definitely have no idea what we're doing. Do they have a Pools for Dummies handbook? I really hope these pool guys cleared their afternoon, because I have a list of questions well over a mile and a half long. But because it's Friday and I'm in a good and generous mood (and it's stormy), I will withhold the donning of the bikini until after they leave. Unless it gets us a discount on the costs. But I'm thinking those days are well over at this point....