First Project - Pool Opening

The outside of this house has been a challenge.  A year of neglect aside from lawn mowing left us with half dead shrubs, a laurel that was swallowing the pool pump and air conditioning condenser whole and three foot high thistles everywhere.  Thanks to a lot of elbow grease and a lot of weed killer donated by my in laws, we came home from St. Lucia to a yard that was cleaned up and ready for pool opening. 

Then the pool looked like this. 

Not pretty.  Approximately 3 days and a gazillion dollars in chemicals later, it looked like this.

 

Only slightly better.  Finally we called in a second pro to help us out, and we ended up draining at least 1/3 of it.  Finally now, it looks like this.

 

As much of a PITA as it was, we really do enjoy it... now if we could just get one more good heat wave before it's time to close up...