I feel like a pool idiot...

[Philipson]

We just bought our new house and are new to opening and closing our pool. I have been reading all the posts and have found them very helpful, but I need one question answered. What do I do first? It is spring here in London, Ontario. I have pumped the majority of the water of the cover (which is not a proper cover but a sheet of plastic held down with patio stones). I need a shovel to get the leafs and debris (including a beer bottle) off my cover. I peeked at the water today under the cover, scooped up my eight month old off the deck, stepped over the mounds of tore down drywall, past the bare floors and the smiley drywaller, right into my husbands arms and said '' I think we better call somebody.''

Truly, my husband and I both wanted a pool, grew up with pools, but neither of us have a clue what we are doing. The most we know about pool chemicals is with our hot tub. My question is this, should I just pay someone to come and open my pool for me? I am so over whelmed, I don't even know what to do after I get the cover off. Do I scoop out the debris first, or fill the pool to it's proper level, or maybe buy 20 bottles of bleach and pour that in first?

Please help I afraid of wrecking the pool, it is pretty much the only reason we bought this dump (we are totally redoing it though).

[Crabcake]

We just bought our new house and are new to opening and closing our pool.

We installed a new pool a few years ago and we had to attend 'pool school'. The builders sent someone out and walked us through everything we'd need to do as far as maintenance, etc. It was a lot!

My recommendation is for you to call a local pool place and schedule an appointment. Tell them you're new pool owners and need someone to walk you through the maintenance requirements, and be sure to take copious notes!!!

Best of luck.

p.s., I still feel like a pool idiot most of the time!

[chem geek]

You can also read some of these stickies on various pool topics. Similarly, there are stickies at the top of most of the forum topics at The Pool Forum. Finally, there are additional tips you can get from PoolSolutions.

Richard