Mom Swimming

Back in April when we initially filled the pool and it was a chilly 63 degrees, Randy agreed to heat it a bit so we could swim! My mom braved the water and I got some great photos of her. I posted one of them on WC WDE as one of my sixteen photos. I had lots of people paint her and I ended up with some great interpertations of her. This is my painting, had to be done in less than 2 hours, it took me hour and half. I am somewhat satisfied although I wish I had done her hair a bit softer. I might try again.

Pool and painting, doesn't get much better than that!!

Today we were being baked alive as the sun heated us into the triple digits. Marta came over and we had lunch, swam and watched my grandkids. It was a much deserved lazy day as we drank sangria and thumbed through magazines. It was so nice to just visit and hang out with a friend. So much is going on in her life, I hope she will start to heal. The pool is staying at about 82 degrees now so its easier to get in and it still feels refreshing. Its funny how much work it is to just lay out by the pool. We have to make sure everything is shaved, pulled up, pulled in and we have to have a cute bathing suit and cover up. Waterproof makeup if you decide to wear it and a cute hat, sunscreen and a recent pedicure. Sunglasses, music, reading material and a towel all just to relax. LOL That calls for a nap! I think Marta headed home to do just that.

I did make myself pull out my much neglected paint brushes and paint and do the Wet Canvas WDE challenge. Here is the girls husband, Duane. He has a great smirk and I loved the picture. Maybe he was checking us out by the pool!! We did look pretty cute.

The Pool

We are landscaping our backyard and we have put in a pool. This has been a long project since we began it back in March/April. We basically designed it and then we subcontracted most everything out and did a lot of the work ourselves. In an effort to save another 5-7,000$ we decided to tile the pool ourselves. We have done a lot of tile in our previous houses and felt we could handle this. Well this has really been a challenge, I appreciate the price quoted by the tile layers now much more. I don't think I would have laid it for that! The fact that the surface we are laying the tile on is vertical and you start at the bottom row of the water line, so basically the tile is floating and you have to create the bottom edge with bender board or something similar to support your tile. Then to make it harder we are using a patterned tile at the waterline so if it isn't laid just perfect all the way around it will show when the water, which is self leveling, is at different areas on the patterned tile. This introduced us to a new tool for us called a water level. This is basically a piece of clear tubing that you fill with water. You put the water line in the tube at the level you want and where the water line is in the other side of the tube is means its level. Its hard to explain but it works great, I love it. Then we have all these curves, and square flat tiles don't round corners well! Add to that the fact that half of the pool is above our heads so its out of our reach and so we have had to have ladders and boards, home made scaffolding, for working in the deep end. We also raised our pool out of the ground to prevent Jennifer from accidentally falling in with her wheelchair. This created another outside surface for us to tile. My mom just doesn't understand why when she calls we are still tiling! I mean you only had to lay tile at the water line after all! Thank you God for my husbands endless patience and the fact that he loves doing tile!