Beech Tree News Network

In the movie “Home Alone,” eight-year-old Kevin McCallister declares, “When I grow up and get married, I’m living alone!”  He proceeds to jump up and down on his parents’ bed, chanting, “I’m living alone!  I’m living alone!”  Remember this scene, I will reference it later.

                Three weeks ago, my daughter, Natalie, approached me about putting up a pool in her back yard.  Because of the Corona virus, she was concerned the local water parks might not open till late in the season.  She wanted to use the Walmart pool Garey and I kept in storage, the one we used to set up for Sabria when she and Nat lived with us.  I mentioned the idea to Garey.  He said he wanted no part in the project.  Natalie mentioned the idea to Scott.  He said he wasn’t getting involved.

                “Can we do it ourselves?” Natalie asked.

                “I think we can,” I said, “I helped Garey set it up the three summers it lived in our back yard.”

                The difference in our back yard and Nat’s back yard is a slope.  I knew it would be a challenge to get the area level—probably why Garey and Scott refused to help.

                We stated the project on the Saturday when it was so hot, the one before the following Saturday when it had cooled down.  I gathered a hoe, shovel, rake and level and put them into the hatch of my Equinox.  I told Natalie to pick up some bags of sand from the Home Depot.  I arrived that morning ready to start.  We found the most level part of the slope to begin our task.  The family who lived there before planted a garden on the spot. 

                “It’s high in the center, “I said, “Do you want to cut that part down or build up around the outer edges?” I asked.

                “Let’s just build it up around the edges,” Nat said.

                Eleven fifty-pound bags of sand later, the ground was still high in the middle.  I went on a sand run and brought back fifteen more bags.  It was like pouring water through a sieve.  It was also 90 degrees with 87 percent humidity. 

                “This isn’t working,” I said, “We’re going to have to cut it down in the middle in order to build up the sides.” 

                I raked the sand to the high side and started shaving soil off the center.  I placed the dirt on the low side of the circle.  “Before I rake the sand back onto that spot, you’re going to have to pack that dirt in place by stomping on it,” I told Natalie.

                After thirty minutes of this procedure, Natalie said, “Mom.”

                I looked over her way and said, “Yes?”

                “When I grow up and get married, I’m living alone!” she said then she started jumping up and down on the dirt chanting “I’m living alone!  I’m living alone!”

                I joined her until we both got so tickled and exhausted that we could no longer complain.

                The neighbor next door who, unbeknownst to us, had been watching all this

walked over to the edge of his fence and asked, “Where are the men folk?”

                “You know if you want something done right, you get a woman to do it,” Natalie said.

                The neighbor laughed then went back to sunning himself beside his perfectly level pool.

                We worked until nearly dark, but still didn’t finish.  We put black plastic over the spot and secured it with rocks in case of rain.  I told Natalie I would be back to finish.

                I came back the following Monday, and we started again.  We decided we were going to need some fill dirt, so we got bags of topsoil from Lowes—the $1.58 bags, no use throwing good money after bad.  We filled and raked and filled and raked until we had a level spot for the pool.

                We carefully placed the liner on the spot, snapped the legs together, and raised the pool.  Next came the pump and filter then it was time to fill.  Natalie hooked up the hose and started to fill the pool.  “Keep an eye on it in case the ground settles more than we expect it to,” I told her before I left for home.

                The next morning, I had a text and a picture on my phone.  The dirt settled overnight, and the pool was leaning slightly to the right.  Natalie was ready to drain the pool and scrap the whole project.

                “Do not drain that pool!” I said, “I will find a way to fix it!”  I didn’t want our hard work to be for naught.

                I borrowed a floor jack, got some boards and one-inch pavers and drove into Natalie’s back yard.

                Scott and his friend Woody were there looking over the situation.  “I’m going to need some help,” I told them.  They quickly jumped into action.  We placed one end of a board on the floor jack and the other end up under the metal joint that held the legs in place.  As Scott raised the jack, Woody held the board.  As the pool leg lifted, Natalie and I placed a paver under it.  We did this in two more places. The pool was level once again.  More importantly, the pool is still level and Sabria and her friends have enjoyed several hot afternoons swimming.