Summer's Over

We closed the pool this weekend. 

Last week, we spent almost $3000 getting 3 leaks fixed in the underground lines near the skimmer and both return jets.  A few weeks before that, we spent $6000 to replace the retaining wall around the deck after carpenter ants ate through the old one.  Over the course of the summer, both of our pool cleaning devices stopped working - one because of the leaks degrading the water pressure, the other because of a defective piece of equipment.  For the first time since we moved into the house in 1998, we were actually vacuuming the pool manually for several weeks of 2013.  Ugh.

In other words, it's been an expensive summer and one that's been hard to enjoy.  Here's hoping next summer is the exact opposite!