I’ve been working on lining up contractors for a couple of projects and thus have no big news to share. Instead I have a few random pool and water bits from the last few weeks.
We recently had a small adventure with the pool chemistry. Because the POs deferred just about all maintenance, our pool circulation pooped out a few weeks back–the one-way valve flapper broke loose and got stuck. We got things fixed and put in new filters, but it meant we lost circulation for a week. After a tech from Genie Pools* came out and got things running again, we made several trips down to Leslie’s Pool and had several talks with the staff there (who by the way are awesome). Now we have a much better understanding of our water and how to manage it. Because we’re on a well, our cyanuric acid and hardness are high, our free chlorine is low, we have no solids and a near-perfect pH. (Yay for having a lovely new cover.) This week when I did my swim workouts, the water was perfectly clear if a tiny bit chilly. I have a nice full-coverage wetsuit on order now from Kiefer.
In other pool news, we set about figuring out what is going on with the lights in the pool. It is slightly strange that the pool lights are powered off a breaker in our pantry’s breaker box (we have one main electrical panel and two sub-panels in the house, one in the Studio and two in the garage). However, the pool pump and other such run off breakers in the Studio. This is because the lights and that breaker box are original to the house, while the current pool equipment and the Studio were put in just a few years back. We called Genie Pools* for help, as AS took the lights out of their cavities last weekend and discovered that, because the POs were so cheap, they reused the the o-ring/seal when they replaced the bulb instead of buying a new one, water leaked into the housing, and now the unit and wiring are complete toast. Genie’s electrician visited us yesterday and they’re going to work up a quote that will move the Pentair control box a few feet to the side, wire it up properly (as this was something the POs put in themselves, natch), rewire the pool lights to the same breaker box, and replace the lights with LED units. We figure it’s something that is better to get sorted now rather than later.
We also had real rain here almost two weeks ago, enough that I had a heck of time getting the water off the pool cover. We ended up buying a little Blue Wave Dredger sump pump. Now I just need to rain again so I can test it out.
As for the hot tub that came with the house…it is well and truly dead. Not too surprising, considering it’s over 30 years old–the plastic is so old it’s disintegrating. We’ve started shopping around for a new one, but putting in a new tub will mean ripping out the horrible deck currently built around the existing one. What was it about awful decks that the POs loved so much? One over the septic tank, one around a hot tub, and let’s not forget the awful one on the side of the pool, or the unsound observation platform at the corner of the great wall.
More water news: we have Flushmates in every one of our four toilets. Because we’re on a well, and even though that well is 200 feet above the house in elevation, we still have less water pressure than your typical home (we peak around 47psi). The Flushmates are great for making sure we have a strong sturdy flush every time and using less water. We’ve been having issues with one of the units–of course it’s the one in the master bath. This morning though, AS took it apart and the “Flush Valve Cartridge” came apart and left bits of itself in the tank. Access to the tank is through an opening less than 3″ in diameter, so enter the stega with tiny hands and all the bits were soon retrieved and reassembled. The unit works normally again, for now. Huzzah.
Sadly, another part of the master bathroom not so easy to fix are the stinky sinks. Since taking possession of the house, there has often been a nasty sewer smell emanating from the sinks in our bathroom. Various drain de-clogging solutions seemed to fix the issue, but it would return a few weeks later. I had a plumber out last week and finally we know what is going on–we have a broken drain vent pipe. The POs would have known about this issue, but did they tell us? Of course not! The most amazing thing is that they renovated that bathroom one year ago (the permit is dated 10/14 and inspections were done 1 month later), so either a) it was broken during the renovation; or b) it broke while they were then living here for another six months. They of course did nothing about the issue. Since the copy of the permit I have lists the firm that did the work, I will call them Monday to sort out this issue and a separate issue with the shower in that room.
Lastly, we have a reverse-osmosis setup in our kitchen and (sigh) it appears the POs failed to install it properly. Things that should be installed vertically are in horizontally, and we haven’t decided if we’re going to replace it with a better system or just replace the filter cartridges. Because it wasn’t installed correctly and the filters need replacing, it’s making some very interesting noises right now.
*Edit 2/9/2020: Genie Pools is no longer in business.
