I do not have a bucket list, or many ‘must haves’ for my life. All I really want, like really, really desire is for the people I love to know Jesus, and to walk with Jesus in such a way that I am one as Jesus was one. I feel like my place is here, at home, raising my four children in a gospel-centered home. We do a lot of life here together, and most of the time we are less than a room away from each other (and sometimes you might get lucky enough to claim a room no one else is in). This has always lead to a desire for more space, without actually wanting more space. I love our little house. I love that the girls share a room. I love that less space means less stuff. There is so much to be thankful for and I wouldn’t trade any of it for a bigger house with more rooms (because more rooms means more stuff and more to clean — no thank you).
We have spent the past ten years creating an outdoor space for the kids to go play. And it has been wonderful; a playhouse, a zip line, a trampoline, a giant swing… but there has always been this one thing that I (and my husband) have wanted; a pool. So last spring, a year into Covid, with all this extra money that we never in a million years could have imagined would come at such a time where were thought we could lose so much, we decided that it was the right time to move forward with a plan that had been brewing for years.
I went down so many avenues for having a pool at a price we could afford; a natural pool, an above ground pool (which we tried during the summer of 2020), an above ground pool sunken into the ground, a hybrid pool… seriously, all these ideas were pinned, viewed on YouTube, and thoroughly thought through. The one idea that never came up over the years was the idea that finally gave us the green light to having our own pool. This idea was ordering an in-ground pool kit from a pool company, and being our own contractor. After getting some numbers from pool contractors in our area, it became crystal clear that there was only one way we were going to have a pool- do it yourself. And so, in faith, we did just that.
Here is a time lapse of the build. What is missing is the tears, the prayers, the hard work, pictures of the most amazing friends and neighbors (who all have a lifetime pool membership) who came to help. Those things are coming. But for now, since I know you want me to get to it already, here it is!
xo Erica
