Our Pool And Patio Improvement Projects On Our Home Of Twenty Years
This story is about our old new house in Wekiva Hills, near Wekiva Springs State Park and the Wekiva River. The pool and the patio have always been at the center of our lives here. The patio, and its screen room enclosure over the pool, are the gateway to the side yard for the dogs and the backyard down to the pond. It seems adventure is always waiting for us there. We've always had dogs. Some of them love the water and we can't keep them out of the pool. Others afraid of it and we can't even get them onto the steps. But that didn't stop us from trying!
Over the years, we've had many fun gatherings and get togethers with family and friends, and it's undergone many different transformations. So many that it's hard to keep track of them all. So many that I can't find pictures of them all. The further back in time we go, the harder it is to find quality digital photos, let alone any photos. It seems I've lost quite a few, somewhere between 2002 and 2007, but those that I do have from 2002 that were taken using leading edge digital technology of the time, are now of "poor" quality by today's standards. So bear with me as I try and recall the past adventures with limited visuals.
As with most of the stories about this house, it is from memory alone that I recount them. Thankfully what pictures I do have are dated and provide a crude timeline of what happened when. I sometimes think I jot them down for my own benefit in order to help me recall the past. I hope that in the process it provides a benefit to others who may be reading this to understand what it takes to do some of the repairs and rennovations of which I speak. If you're still here and reading this, I hope you enjoy it. If not, oh well. I tried. By no means am I an expert at any of this. I learned how to do the work at an early age, helping my parents as they would buy "fixer uppers", and turn them around as rental properties.
I feel I've come full circle, as I try to hand down the knowledge and experience to my son. He's helped me with a lot of what needed done. In fact, he helped the contractor we had helping us redo the kitchen here. He has a house of his own now, and I try to help him with his projects, but I'm not getting any younger. It seems to get more and more difficult to do any of this, especially by myself. That's usually how it gets done though. I can't really expect Nick to help me with all the maintenance that needs done on this house , especially when he has a house that has needs of its own. He and Ann will surprise me every now and again though by doing something for me that I've been putting off.
But we're supposed to be talking about the pool and the patio here, not waxing philosophical. There are really so many things to talk about. First was tranforming it from a run down, rotted out excuse for a patio into something that would pass inspection for sale. Next would be adding a pool slide and a bar. Putting down indoor/outdoor carpetting. Painting. Putting wire fence over the inside of the screen to keep the dogs from going through the screen. Rescreening the screen room, with "florida glass" around the bottom perimeter to keep the dogs from going through the screen. Iguanas roaming the screen room. Cats climbing up and over the screen room. Motorized floating chairs for the pool.
Later would come taking out the bar and the tile and having "stamped" concrete put in place. Removing the plants from the in ground planter on the far side of the pool. As I recall, Ann was not real happy with me for not helping, but baking in the mid day sun in the middle of summer in Florida is not my idea of fun. Maybe in the middle of January. Even so, I had already cut out as much of the roots as I could. Replacing the "florida glass", well, all but the one side where the "elephant ears" were in the way. Replacing the damned screen door closers and brackets for the umpteenth time. Taking out the slide and the diving board because insurance companies SUCK! Replacing the pump or fixing a leak in the plumbing or unfucking the latest "wizbang" idea the latest pool guy came up with, for the umpteenth time.
It's one thing to make all these changes when we lived there. It's quite a bit different now that we don't. We're renting the house to the kids now, our daughter Courtney and her husband Esnel. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. It's unfortunate that they don't like the pool and don't really keep up with the patio. We always had such fun there. It seems a shame that they look at it as a detriment rather than an asset. To each their own I guess. Still, it makes me wonder why they haven't found a place they like better, let alone looked for one.
For the most part, it's turned into a maintenance headache for me, nightmare for Ann. The kids aren't real handy, so every little thing that goes wrong prompts a call. It's not their fault things break, don't get me wrong, that's not what I'm saying. When we lived there, we could see the signs of something that needed corrected, and make that correction to hopefully avoid a more major problem later. For example, if we saw drips or a puddle behind the toilet, we would check to see if it was just condensation from all the humidity here in Florida, or perhaps a leak in one of the rubber seals around the heads of the screws that hold the tank to the base of the toilet. Instead, we get a call that the toilet is leaking... And no idea where or why or how much.
We were supposed to paint and repair some of the cedar siding tomorrow, 30 June 2018, but we'll see. It raining now, and supposed to rain more tomorrow, so I doubt they got kilz primer put on today. If I can get to it early enough, I may be able to at least get the wood fixed. One less thing to worry about. The revised plan? We're buying a new dish washer and installing it. Then I get to see why the toilet is leaking, again. I may even be able to fix it, although I doubt it. If it's the wax seal ring again, they need to stop treating it like a rocking horse and more like a toilet! I joke... But why is it leaking again?
Soon After Moving In, Mid 1995
When we moved in, we used a six month lease (with) option (to buy) to allow a portion of our rent to go toward buying the house. But more importantly, allow us the time we needed to make the necessary repairs to pass the wood rot inspection for purchase. The previous owners had moved to California, so DIY for them was out of the question. Hiring out the work was too expensive, considering they were now paying two mortgages. Along we came, looking for a "fixer upper", as we told our real estate agent. After some discussion, we came to an agreement. But now we had to "fix up" all the rotting wood, at least enough to pass inspection, and in just six short months!
The house is wood sided, and for the most part, the rotten wood was limited to just along the bottoms of the panels. Is was easy enough to just attach a piece of 1 x 4 cedar as a sort of border over the bad spots, enough so that when the inspector would tap his screwdriver handle, the wood sounded solid. That was good enough for the siding panels, but the real work was on the patio. The were five 4 x 6 cedar posts holding up the overhang of the roof over the patio proper, and a "stub wall" that separated it from the pool deck and the rest of the screened in enclosure around the pool. It was constructed of wood, with the posts being an integral part of the wall, and most of this was rotted away along the bottom.
We speculated whether it was an earlier screened in room prior to installation of the pool or whether it was just to keep kids and pets from falling in the pool, but didn't bother to ask. It didn't matter, everything but the posts was going away anyway. Once the panels were removed to reveal the rotted 2 x 4 framing, it was obvious the posts themselves were also rotted, some more than six inches up. Not wanting to spend the big bucks on brand new cedar 4 x 6 posts, we needed another, more cost effective solution. So the idea to place a half concrete block under every post was "hatched".
Ann didn't like the idea, but it solved the problem, both short and long term. Short term by allowing me to cut off the lower 8" of each post. Long term by keeping the posts up off the slab and constantly soaked in moisture from both the pool and the weather. The other thing I wanted to change was to reduce the number of posts from five to four. The five that were there were irregularly spaced and always seemed to restrict both movement and view. It seemed as if their positions were chosen based having the support the ends of the beams above, whose lengths were chosen haphazardly at best. To compensate, we added another set of beams beneath the existing set, but spaced to allow even distribution of the four posts.
We had a helluva time finding the tall jack posts to support the structure while making the modifications, and I constantly worried that the whole thing would collapse from one stupid mistake, but we managed to get the half blocks set in place. Each of them needed to have a hole bored in the slab for a piece of threaded rod, to be cast in place when filling the blocks with concrete, which would secure a metal mount for holding the bottom of the posts in place. Eventually we got it all done, and it really seemed to open up the patio and pool deck, like it was meant to be that way. Before it just felt closed in. It forced everyone to have to walk to the end of the wall, and the patio, just to walk out onto the pool deck.
I needed to add some finishing touches, like a threshold of sorts to cover the areas between the posts where there used to be a wall, but now there was no tile. I used my radial arm saw and the hold down clamp set to rip some "one by" cypress into a set of nicely relieved thresholds. I even made it so the edge toward the pool, where the patio slab didn't match the pool deck slope, was notched to provide a lip to avoid tripping over it. It worked fine where the two were nearly even, but toward the end by the kitchen, the height difference was too much to avoid tripping over it. And trip over it we did. Between that and the slippery tile, it was a bit dangerous.
After Buying The House, Late 1995
We really had our work cut out for us now. Even though it passed inspection, there was plenty more to do. Ann still hated the concrete blocks and wanted some way to hide them or decorate them or something. I kept thinking I could somehow cover them and the posts to make them look more like a single cylindrical column, but that never happened. I didn't have a lathe, or any of the woodworking equipment i would need to do so for that matter, so I couldn't make it happen. Even though there are "kits" made to specifically "wrap" a 4 x 4, I couldn't find any for a 4 x 6, so it just never happened.
The slippery tile was more of a hazard, and a more immediate concern than anything else. We scored a sliding board and a bar someone was getting rid of locally. Now we're in business! Party central. The bar included a small sink, and we wanted to connect it up, but it would mean cutting through the slab and boring a drain to the other side of the laundry room. Another one of those things that just never happened. Even to connect running water to it and just use a bucket under the drain would mean running new plumbing, either under the slab or through the attic. It also came with a GenAire electric grill, but we would need to run a new electric service though, which we eventually did.
Eventually we chipped up the slippery tile and had the "stamped" decking done on the patio and the cool deck all around the pool.
On our way out the door to the airport to fly to the Grand Canyon, we realized the pool had somehow managed to grow a giant crack and the water level was down three to four feet. Great. SO much for party central...
Eventually got rid of the bar. Replaced it with a door two base cabinet and a chunk of formica countertop, cut out for the new GenAire grill that replaced the worn out one from the original bar. Of course, I ruined the grates for it right off the bat by putting them in the oven set to self clean. I didn't realize they were made of an alloy that would melt at that low of a temperature. I say low temperature, but it was at least 500°F. Talk about feeling stupid...
Eventually got rid of the cabinet, shelves, and second GenAire grill. The power feed just stuck out of the wall for years. Knowing what it took to get it there, I was reluctant to go to all that trouble just to take it all back out.
Umpteen sets of furniture and such. A swing on an A frame. Coke machines. Even a garden scale train layout. The swing is now on our front porch in Mount Dora, but the A frame remains intact along side the garage still.
The 2 x 12 the we never replaced is still there, waiting to be replaced, along with the now rotted cedar panels around the sliding doors from the master bedroom. May be replacng those tomorrow. Supposed to be painting the house too. We'll see.