My hat is from Carolina Dandy.
I get a lot of questions about having a pool, and honestly, we still can’t really believe we have one. And I also can’t believe we’re wrapping up our first summer of swimming! When we bought our house, we had the pool inspected, of course. The pool and the filter were in pretty good shape (our liner is kind of wrinkled, but boy is it comfy on your feet!), which was a relief, since we knew next to nothing about pools. But what was obvious to us was that the “backyard,” meaning the landscaping around the pool, was pretty horrendous. Today I’m sharing a little of our progress making this a pretty and inviting space so far and what is still on our to-do list!
I really wish I had more “before” photos, but basically, our “before” was a jungle of overgrown trees, a failing retaining wall, and a out of control mass of bamboo behind our storage shed. There was no landscaping to speak of, and we knew the retaining wall needed to be replaced before we could open the pool and have kids running around back there. So we bit the bullet and decided to just get the whole thing cleaned up so we could start enjoying our backyard this summer without having to bring a machete to hang out back there.
Most importantly, we had a new retaining wall installed. This one is great, because it doubles as a bench, and our contractors also installed drains to handle the water issues in our neighborhood. 🙂
They also removed ALL the bamboo, which just felt like a huge victory. It gave us a much larger space behind the shed than we even realized was there. Right now it has some plants and river rocks, but I do think we could put some outdoor kid equipment back there and make it a play space eventually.
And finally, alleluia, all the overgrown trees are cut back, the small patch of grass is gone, and we have some flowers! They needed a lot of watering at first, because we had such a dry July, but it rained every afternoon in August, and I haven’t watered them at all! Look at how happy they are!
After that investment, we bought the bare minimum in furniture, so we have plans to add lots of details to make this space more cozy eventually. I’m thinking two umbrellas (one for over the table and one for over the loungers), some string lights, and sprinkling about some lanterns with battery-operated flameless candles in them. We may take advantage of Labor Day sales for this, or we may wait until next year. But since we have a deck in addition to the concrete of the pool deck, the pool is kind of our “backyard,” and we plan to still use the deck to eat and hang out outside through the fall.
As far as maintenance goes, it really hasn’t been as bad as I thought! (Of course, I’m hoping my friend Amber isn’t reading this, because when she brought her kids over one impromptu weekday, it was looking pretty green.) But it’s really like anything else, if you do a little bit everyday or every other day and don’t let it get out of hand, it’s not much work to keep clean. We just empty the filter, add chlorine, vacuum and brush the liner, and skim debris off the top. That sounds like a lot, but we don’t do all those things every time we go out to work on it.
The funny thing is that if you give me a pair of goggles, I’m like a little kid in that pool. I love to swim! Of course, we can’t really just swim around when Miss V is out there with us, but she loves to swim too, and that’s really fun to see. We do take turns on baby duty or swim after bedtime, though. Someone else who loves to swim? PIPPA. Oh my, that dog.
We’ve been loving entertaining by the pool, especially when neighbors just pop by, and you know what my favorite summer drink is! Southern Breeze iced tea! It’s so much more fun than regular water, calorie-free, and just delicious. Victoria agrees! She drank like half my cup! I like to bring it with me into the pool in a plastic tumbler.
The cold brew is so easy, all you really do is add a tea bag to cold water, let it steep for a couple minutes, and pour it over ice! Honestly, go get you some of this iced tea.
There’s free shipping on your first order with the code SOUTHERNBREEZE, and they’re doing a giveaway until 8/31!
Even though I’m all about all the fall things, summer came back with a legitimate heat advisory on multiple days this week, and I’m not complaining. We don’t know when we will close the pool, but we plan to be out there enjoying it while it lasts!
This post was sponsored by Southern Breeze Sweet Tea, but the opinions are all my own!Â
