A super cool thing Agent Smith created for the pool is documented in the image below.
That black dot in the middle of the cover is a simple pump. It takes rainwater that collects on top of the cover and pushes it through a filter setup and back into the pool to top it up. Now that the annoying leak is fixed, we only had to run a hose to the skimmer to add water a few times during the dry months of the last two years.
Since the above photo was taken, another change was made in winter 2019–we replaced the pool cover. The cover was removed several times for the balcony renovation and the full resurfacing project, and all that wear and tear created annoying holes that simple patching couldn’t address. Thankfully, the company we contract with for the cover has a good rebate program if a cover doesn’t last its expected life, so a new one wasn’t a big deal. This time we decided to go with brown, as it shows dirt far less.
A third, even cooler update, and an interesting sneak peek of an upcoming story: just two weeks ago, we made another quality of life improvement, and now we no longer have to run a hose to the pool to add water. This relatively small item was tacked on to a much larger project we’re still working on, but in June we ended up sorting out the functions of the various valves in the Christy box outside the French doors to the studio building.
Below is what was in the box. The top right fed the studio building, the bottom right fed the line we’re replacing as part of the larger project, and the bottom left was non-functional. While investigating, we had to a) remove a confused toad that was not pleased we were invading its home, and b) figure out if the pipe hole an inch below the coping inside the pool was indeed a fill pipe once connected to the lower left valve.
Both endeavors were successful–the toad was moved to safety, and we could send water into the valve assembly and make it come out in the pool, so we thought it worth our while to investigate reutilizing/recommissioning the pipe running from this box through the concrete to the pool. At the same time, we called to decommission the Christy box and avoid more potential flooding the studio building, as we discovered that line from the upper right valve is still active, and the contractor I asked to cap it when we had to renovate the studio due to the flood apparently did not do as I asked. /sigh.
I called my favorite plumbers (Able Plumbing–who did our septic install and north wing drain pipe work), and they came out and ran a new water line out to where the wee potting shed was, as that’s what actually kicked off this mini-project in the first place. The pipe buried in the concrete out to the far end of the pool had rusted out, and since that is the one spot away from the house where we want a water source, it needed to be redone. So while the guys from Able were laying the replacement line, they patched in a second run to the fill pipe. Both “new” lines have vacuum breaker valves and are flush with the side of the house, so no worries about backflow and no more annoying Christy box.
Below, in the lower left corner, is the original valve that fed all three lines out of the Christy box. Next is the super spiffy new valves in that same location, and lastly, the area where once there was a mess.
