I don't really know what to write about, which is not very surprising, considering I'm indecisive. At least, I think I am. I'm not really sure. I originally thought I would write about my building adventures I have with my dad and my brother, so let's start with that, hm?
I think this madness of home improvement and my dad's E(xtreme)DIY mindset has always been in remission, but it was really brought into light a couple years ago when we got a pool. I love the pool. The pool is my best friend and my little baby. It's great at parties (it's more sociable than I am) and it's almost always agreeable. Almost always. It's not very agreeable when I (when I say "I" I mean "my dad and sometimes my brother and I") have to take apart the pump and rip out the filters to clean them. It's traumatic for the poor thing, I'm sure. It also doesn't like when we pour gallons of chemicals into it to clear it up and try to make it look all nice and pretty for the guests. Now, our pool isn't a Chlorine pool, so we have to get special chemicals from a super-special dealer. Naturally, most of the workers at the dealer and idiots and don't know much about pool care, so when we have questions, we just have to put in a bunch of stuff and hope something good happens. One thing my dad has found he likes to do (or, he likes to make me do) is vacuum the pool. I know. It sounds weird. But we hook up a hose-thing to a pump in a bucket underwater that's connected to another-hose thing that leads into the woods and the first hose-thing is attached to a nozzle-thing with wheels that is attached to a pole that we push around the pool to vacuum up stuff that doesn't get sucked into the filter. Please think that as if it was said in one breath. Anyway, that's how we vacuum the pool. Of course, all this work and effort is to save the little money it would take to buy an actual pool vacuum (one that wouldn't waste water like this one and in the respect save money, but I digress).
Shortly after getting this wonderful pool, my dad decided this wasn't enough. We needed more, more decorations, more colour, and especially more work. So what did he decide to do?
Build a Tiki Bar.
From scratch.
With his twelve-year old daughter and thirteen-year-old son as helpers.
And I thought I was crazy.
Well, long story short, we built it (even though I don't really remember doing much work) and in less than a month, we had a full blown bitchin' Tiki Bar. Needless to say, it's a huge hit at parties. It gets along great with the pool, they're totally in sync. I'm starting to think I should name these characters.
But then it got bad.
My dad suddenly got the urge to plant fifty-something plants around the pool and Tiki Bar. It was horrible. He would pick the hottest day of the week, wake my brother and I up early, and put us to work all day long. I hated it. And for everything we did, I could think up an effective and simple way to make it easier. For example, we had to mix up the dirt and the fertilizer. He told my brother and I to scoop a ton of dirt onto a tarp, pour a punch of fertilizer on it, mix it up, and drag it around the yard to put in with the plants. This is opposed to emptying a bag of fertilizer (maybe on the tarp), putting dirt from where we were planting in the bag, put some fertilizer in it, and boom. It's easy to carry, you can fill it up whenever you need to, and it's easy to mix up. Of course, I'm just a child, so my ideas wouldn't work. But that's a rant for another day.
So, you would think that after we got through the hell of planting, it's be over, and the pool would look nice, right? Wrong. Not only do the plants look (mostly) bad, my dad has an obsession with buying more plants. More more more more. We don't have any room left to plant, but he keeps buying more. Now the area around the pool looks great for about a week in early summer (when we're so busy prepping to yard for summer that we don't have time for parties), but then when the plants start to die, it looks awful. Not to mention we've slowly started pulling apart the house and redecorating.
I blame HGTV.
Much love from the girl in tight jeans, GinnaaayMarie.
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