A Pool Base and Fire Pit Area

If there's one thing COVID taught us, it's that we love having a backyard pool. Our first pool was a "what if there's no town pool this summer?!" 2020 quarantine purchase by one amazing Grandpa who thought ahead before all the backyard pools were gone. And it was an awesome pool for two years - well made except for one tiny valve that was the same quality as any regular inflatable toy. Unfortunately this valve also kept the pool upright with a ring of air (the rest of the pool was a bag filled with water) and when it ripped... the pool was toast. 

This year (thanks to the same awesome Grandpa), the boys have a new backyard pool - same size as the old one (18ft diameter and 48" deep) but a different model with a metal frame. It's still an easy-set pool so we can avoid all the permit drama of a permanent pool, but hopefully will hold up a bit longer. The only downside to this pool is that it's not a giant bag filled with water and we can't buffer the one side with bags of dirt to keep it from tipping - this pool requires a true level surface. But after 2 years of knowing how great it was to have a backyard pool (in addition to our awesome town pool a short walk away), we are happy to create a real base for it. Especially since it can double as a circular gravel fire pit patio in the fall and winter. 

The pool is 18 feet across and we wanted a 1ft ring of gravel around that for lawn mowing and pool maintenance. We measured out a 20 foot circle over the old driveway apron, found the center and then sprayed a ring 10 feet out with a string and spray paint to mark where pavers and retaining blocks would go. Mike built up the wall on one side where the ground dips and the rest we used basic paver blocks to hold the gravel in. 

When we knew the wall was level with the paver bricks on the higher side, we were ready for the gravel delivery. The delivery guys (we've ordered dirt, gravel and mulch from the same place for years) had a new truck this year and it was bigger than the previous truck, so our plan to have the gravel dropped into the circle didn't work out... and resulted in a broken gate. Poor Mike had to haul it from the side of the house to the circle... luckily it wasn't that far. Just a lot of wheel barrow trips. 

Here's the base all leveled out:

Right before we set up the pool we're going to tamp it down again and spread a thin layer of sand. The weight of the pool will basically turn that into a very compressed gravel patio by the fall. This in turn will be a perfect area for a fire pit in the off season. I am assuming the sand will be added annually, as it will wash away in the fall/winter anyways. 

Really excited to get the pool set up in May!