Count The Cost
It all started Memorial day weekend. I blame it all on the children!
We were walking through Sports Authority taking advantage of some good prices on sneakers when we saw a rather large inflatable pool. The people on the box were having so much fun, it was instant family happiness in a box! We wanted to be that family and have that much fun.
On top of it all, the pool was part of a super spectacular sale! It’s an inflatable pool with a built in filter and the box claims you can set it up in three easy steps. I’m still on step 1 Рfind level ground.
The pool footprint is a nice 14 feet. I’ve made a box of 16 feet and am waiting (even at this moment) for the county to deliver my free fill dirt. I will not go in to how much money and time has been spent making this 16 foot square box.
All I will say is this: If Jesus had been walking through my neighborhood today, if he had stopped to see what was happening in my backyard he would have smiled and said:
“If you want to buy and setup a pool, you first sit down and decide how much it will cost, to see if you have enough money, time and energy to finish the job.”
Anybody else out there start a “small project” that turns out to be the Eiffel Tower?
I find myself smiling, quite a lot, when I read your blogs.
I can just picture you in these situations.
And then, I see Beth.
Smart, practical, calculating, “go-home-and-think-about-it-before-you-buy”, Beth.
You are so good for each other…
RW:
When we put in our above ground pool, easily assembled in 15 minutes … same fun family on the box … we ended up having to rent one of those midget front-end loaders to get the ground level! Our fifteen minutes turned into several days.
But we’ve enjoyed the pool tremendously. Used it for the first time this season yesterday afternoon.
What they don’t tell you is that eventually you’ll want a nice deck around the pool and that translates into $$$ for TOOLS and materials. But that, too, is a FUN family project. And chemicals … it’s like having a dog to feed.
I meant to tell you that I went up to Burbank last Friday to help Doyle install a new door to his backyard. Figured it would take 990 minutes tops. I was up there 8 hours!
I just got back into playing ping pong at the recreation center and I am about to buy my third paddle. The one I have now has 1.8 inches sponge. The previous one, 1.5 inches.
I am looking to upgrade to 2.1 inches to increase the speed of my shots. Of course I did not anticipate all this.
Oh, getting a case for my paddle would be nice too.
No projects here for now. I do know that anything we buy for fun, the family must stay far away during assembly. I often talk to myself during that time, though it’s usually repeating the same thing over and over‚Ķ You know, one of those existential questions like: If God is good, why are there so many pieces in this swing set box?
I don’t know about a “fun” project, but at my house we’ve been into those worthwhile projects all spring………cleaning up the yard, straightening up the outside shed/garage, cleaning out/purging the attic, and generally “uncluttering” the house. Right now, it looks great, but you know what happens!