July 4th 2010

We are light years ahead of where we were this time last year. This year's Fourth of July weekend was HOT! HOT! HOT!

We put up a new flag pole where the old locust tree used to be. It still needs plantings and finishing touches, but its way too hot to worry about.

The heat was intolerable all weekend. Fortunatley, Lee got tickets to go ballooning so we got up early Sunday morning and boarded a hot air balloon.

At six o'clock in the morning, the air was cool and still as we floated over the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, NY. This is looking Northwest at the Catskill Mountains.

South of us is The Mid Hudson Bridge with some of the other balloons taking off after us.

More Balloons followed. Weather conditions were perfect for a sunrise launch.

This one dipped into the river as we had done a few minutes earlier .

That evening we ended up at Jack and Anne's for a great barbeque by Jack complete with sparklers

Paul and Anne usually end up dancing regardless of the props or circumstance!

Mike came by after the fireworks with his girlfriend and her son, who was already wiped out.

The heat never relented over the three day weekend. Monday, Vinny came by and we spent all afternoon in the pool with him, taking breaks for lunch and cold drinks.

Not much home improvement this holiday, too hot to work, we played this year instead.

Poolside Color

We did not have much time to clean up around the pool during our first summer in the house. Since most of the projects inside the house are complete, we can focus this year on the outside, especially around the pool.
Before uncovering the pool, we power wahsed the parts of the house that had not been resided, like the bump out near the pool.

Even cleaned up, it still seemed drab, so replaced some mouldings and painted badly chipped the eves and trim. Better, but we need some color, after all this is supposed to be a fun place to spend time. Even the furniture we put outside was old and dull, so we might have bought new furniture, but then we thought, "Why?"
At $4 a can, spray paint seemed like a good idea, so we stocked up on some Caribbean colors like yellow, pink, bright green and blue. Hmmm this might just work!
We were happy. The cement patio will need to be addressed, some of it is crumbling around the fence, then we will stain it but that can wait for now.

A bright blue base around the bottom of the house and re-painted entry floor brightened up the patio and helped bring out the color of the pool while the light blue ceiling in the entry added a "sunny" effect.

Okay, we are not ready for House and Garden magazine yet, but its an improvement.

July 4th Weekend

Most of our friends spent 4th of July viewing fireworks, but we hung a flag and kept working away on the house. Things are really starting to take shape but we see that we have many projects started, none are finished. We continued with the kitchen cabinets, we still need to install the island and fix the plumbing before we can put down the floor. Then we can put in the counter tops and finish the lighting.

Also before we put down the floor, we needed to re-surface the sub floor in the living room. This brought the sub floor level to the kitchen floor so we can run a contiguous floor and it covered the badly damaged sub floor. (see "It's Just Cosmetic" section of this blog).The new sub floor looks and smells great, plus it gave us a chance to clear away the boxes and tools and other non essentials from the living room. The living room has not been this free of clutter since we moved in.

On Sunday (July 5th) we invited some close friends and neighbors from Lake Carmel over for a very informal get together. It was informal because we are in no condition to do anything else.

Alexandra and Vasili arrived first and we loved having them.

Bill and Carol showed up all smiles followed by Darlene and Will.

We all took a "nature walk" to the back of the property before settling down to eat beside the pool just as Jack and Anne arrived.

Food and conversation were plentiful. Everyone loved Carol's potato salad and flipped over Darlene's cheese cake squares. Everybody brought something and we had plenty of food left over!You could not stop Jack from talking about his lake restoration business and he even threw on his snorkel gear to inspect the pool. No problems reported by Mr Clean-Flo. Since it was only in the mid 70s and the water was even cooler, you have to give Jack points for enthusiasm!

Repairing the Pool

The new pool liner arrived and Jimmy and his crew got started 7am Saturday morning. The first thing they did was make needed repairs to the vermiculite bottom which was cracked from exposure but Jimmy said he had seen worse. Then the side walls needed to be re-surfaced with special insulation to protect the new liner.
Once they began putting the new liner in place, we started feeling a lot better. It certainly was attractive, Jimmy said we were wise to pick the heaviest gage liner they offered.

When they began rolling the liner out, putting it in place, vacuuming out the air from the walls and making the proper cuts in the liner, the pool started looking and smelling brand new. This was a very exciting day for us. The time and precision required to install a pool liner was impressive. I remembered that when we discovered the pool's condition, the owner said he would fill the pool with garden the hose and it would pop back into place. Not quite.
Jimmy and his crew ran back and forth on the pool's floor pounding corners, adhering the sides and perfecting the fit as the vacuum worked vigorously to get the air out from underneath.

The fun part was watching the three tractor trailer loads of water it took to fill the pool. 20,000 gallons in total. Once it was full we tested the lines and equipment. Except for one small crack in an above ground hose, we are ready to go. We're hoping for a long hot summer.

Real Deal about the Pool Revealed

A week before the close, Lee visited the house to speak with the seller about some of the property he might have trouble disposing . What he found was startling. The owner was not there, but the pool had been opened and drained. The liner was very wrinkled and appeared ruined.
The sides had begun to pull away from the walls of the pool and cracks were developing in the liner below. We all met with the realtor that Saturday to assess the damage. We hired a pool professional to advise us, he stated that the liner was ruined and had been for some time. It would cost about $5,000 to replace the liner. The vermiculite bottom would have to be inspected and could potentially cost another $6,000. When we approached the owner, we were told to take it or leave it. They obviously had never intended on disclosing the fact that the pool was ruined and planned on taking us for all we had.

"Besides," we were told, " there are two more offers lined up behind yours who will take it as is." Amazing how all the real estate buyers in Dutchess County are fighting over this house in such a bad economy where no real estate is moving. We suspect this was another lie to pressure us and we fell for it.
Not just out of stupidity, but we had already invested plenty in legal fees, title search, inspections, pool guys and purchased new appliances for the house... not to mention a $5,000 membership to Direct Buy for future renovations. We were in deep already, lets swim in it. We were livid. They (the seller's daughter was behind all of this) purposely hid this information. NEVER act in good faith, because those who want money will stop at nothing to pocket YOURS.

Pool Inpsection

Lee was really excited about having a built in pool, Paul was a little skeptical of all the maintenance. Also, how do you inspect a pool in February? That's what the sellers were counting on! Its covered with snow and ice on top of that. But the water was at a good level, just below the skimmer. Good faith... We knew what it was, but did they?

We later learned that you should hold money back in escrow as a part of the contract process when dealing with a pool purchase. There is lots to consider, the pump, filter, waterlines, the liner, the vermiculite bottom, all things we learned when we bought this particular house.

The main thing we learned is to ask questions... lots of them. We did ask the realtor about the condition of the pool. She said it was only installed in 2001, seven summers of enjoyment. That's good. Then we asked the owner directly. He said it was six years old (oh well, whats one year) and he maintained it himself.

On top of that it had a pool room and an out door bathroom/shower right on the patio attached to the house! Whats better than that? It was looking more and more like a party house with its pool, big patio and huge stone barbeque pit. It was easy to anticipate a joyous summer. Whats that? No CO on the outdoor bath? Or the den addition? That would delay things.