Brooke here:

June was the most expensive month of my entire life.  At no fewer than three points did I write a check, pause, and think “This is the largest check I’ve ever written.”  All planned-for expenses, mind, but the first two times this happened I sort of curled up in a chair with a tub of ice cream and a spoon.  The third time, I forgot the spoon.

Then yesterday we discovered the roof was leaking.  We were told when we purchased the property that the roof was only two years old, so the leak came as a shock.  We have learned the previous homeowners might have put the roof on themselves! and if you follow this blog, you know if they did put the roof on themselves then it is inevitable we will have to get a new roof.  I called a mulligan on June and retreated to the back of the Weeping Closet with the ice cream.

On the happy end of things, renovations go surprisingly well when you pay other people to do them.  The pool looks phenomenal and as was well-intentioned as we are, Brown and I couldn’t have done half the job these guys are doing, not even if we had all the weekends in the world.  With a project as large as a pool, Skill plus Knowledge plus Equipment trumps Weekend Handyman.  For one thing, they quickly talked me out of reusing the old tiles at the waterline.  Apparently, some of the damage to the pool was caused by using small tiles, as North Carolina freezes and thaws multiple times in the same day and the tiles cracked at the seams to let water into the concrete, which would then freeze and thaw… yeah.

They persuaded us to go with 6″ tiles, which cover more space and create a tighter bond with the pool shell to minimize exposure to water.  The grout is also a weather sealant, so cracking is less likely to occur.  We packaged up the old tile for later; we can use it under the waterline as a decoration when we do the second round of pool renovations in a few years.

The neatest part of getting the tile redone is the guy doing it.  He started working for a company called Meredeth Pools back in 1967, and while the company changed hands and names several times since, he stuck with them as one of their head craftsmen.  One of his first jobs with the company was installing the first set of tiles in our pool.  He’s a fascinating guy, although he leans heavily towards Boomhauerisms and I end up smiling and nodding, then sending Brown out to translate.

After they went across the wall and repaired the damage to the pool shell, they installed the new 6″ tiles.  They noted that with the exception of damage to the rim of the shell, the rest of the pool was in great shape.

I’m several days behind on posts due to traveling and guests, so more on the pool repairs on Saturday.  We have a new concrete deck.  It is yay.