Oh pool-ease

and would be worth the gamble. We gave them the green light, and they began to drain the pool.

As it turned out, swamp thing did not live in the pool. Instead, a family of bull frogs had taken up residence at the deep end. I’ve never seen frogs that big. They were huge, and so were their tadpoles. One tadpole was as big as my 4-year-old’s hand. It was amazing. We had a fun family night relocating the frogs to a nearby pond.

Once the frog eviction was complete, the pool man got back to me with some unsavory news. What we thought was our worst-case scenario had come true: the liner was bad.

We told them to replace it, and the guys went to work.

When they pulled the bad liner, we found something else. This pool had a sand bottom, which apparently is a bad thing. The pool man said we needed to vermiculite the bottom before we installed the new liner.

Now, I didn’t know vermiculite was a real word, much less what it meant. But I found out it’s a mineral substitute for concrete used to smooth and harden the ground surface under the pool liner.

So, with the vermiculite, new liner, a $500 light and all the chemicals and accessories, we are now in this pool for $9,000. Which only improved the property value by $10,000, i.e., it just barley paid for itself.

We got the house under contract quickly. To my dismay, the buyers revealed their reluctance at having the pool and wondered how much it would cost to get rid of it.

In hindsight, we should have filled that sucker in.

Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www. cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.