I’ve always been a creative person. I was a pretty good artist and wrote some great stories, poem, and blogs. In this latest iteration of myself, I have become creative with designing, interior decorating, and building things. I have no idea how it happened, it just did.

Last year, I got a wild hair to get one of those inflatable swimming pools for the backyard kind of late. My wife and girls have always wanted some kind of pool so I thought it was a good idea. Our neighborhood has one and my wife being the pool girl she is, was the pool Nazi. She complained if there wasn’t chairs, if people from other neighborhoods were there, if it was dirty. It was a win win for everyone, I thought.

My father in law told me not to do it, and honestly I should have listened. I should pretty much listen to what he tells me. He told me that it was a lot to take care of and that I would be the only one taking care of it no matter what they say…he was correct.

I made it look as nice as I could for a $100 pool, but as with most things that I create. I began to tinker with it. The girls like to lay out and there wasn’t a place for that. It was inflatable, no skimmer. I just made a list of all the deficiencies and that stole my joy. I began to see it for what it lacked rather than what it was. I had to do better.

Early April 2023, I did something about it. I purchased a “real” pool that was deep enough and big enough for what I thought we needed. It even came with a skimmer. I slapped that bad boy together and put the water in it. I was no longer pool boy novice so I knew what I was getting in to. Still, I kept hearing my father in law in my mind telling me, “you’re messing up, kid”. Again, he was right. I just love making more work for myself.

After a few weeks of planning, countless Youtube videos, and several conversations with my Dad that ended up with him laughing at me, I decided to get started. My play was to do a 8x10 small deck. I figured that I would be working alone so I planned on doing it little by little, after work and on weekends. After measuring everything where I was going to be working, I decided that was too small. The plan was to get 3 lounge chairs for the girls and a seating area for myself because I stay out of the sun. 8x10 was not going to cut it. So it ended up 12x16 and I immediately regretted that decision.

I want to thank my dad and my neighbor for letting me borrow the tools that I didn’t have AND better tools than what I have. Without them I would still be working on that thing. Dad showed up a couple of times to inspect my work and then helped me finish a few days early. I needed that because he was extremely helpful. Now, I just have to get some plants and wait at least a month to stain it. Otherwise, I get up there as much as I can. Lord knows the girls do.