Low Rent Renaissance

So I have to remove the sealer I used to waterproof the pool and make repairs to a few blocks. The little sandblaster works somewhat, but so slowly. Paint remover also works. But nothing cleans these blocks like an angle grinder. It's a nasty job, though. The idea is to remove the sealer, make repairs, and probably plaster the pool, though the beautiful blue sealer I originally used held up for many years. I painted that sealer over the raw blocks with no plaster or primer and had no leaks for at least ten years. Even now the bottom of the pool, where the sealer is intact, holds water. There is a lot of grinding yet to do. Tedious and incredibly dusty work.

 So...the little swimming pool was cool when I built it for my bride almost twenty years ago. About five feet wide by nine feet by long by four and half feet deep – a rectangular hole at the bottom of which I poured a slab. Then I lined the hole with cement blocks and painted it all with a waterproof sealer. It held water, which felt like a great victory for me. My dear ol’ dad had built a small pool for my sister and me many years prior. He used ferrocement – a better idea – but I knew nothing of ferrocement when I built my pool. The pool had a pump that circulated the water into a spillway that, when you stood beneath it, gave a nice massage but, alas, she wanted a bigger pool. And when we installed a big above ground pool, we turned my homemade one into a fish pond. The goldfish came from Walmart. They were tiny, but they thrived and, over the years, grew into giants. Then came raccoons, who gobbled them up. And that was that. The pool became a puddle of muck a