all your questions about our pool (and some new sod!)

If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you’re probably tired of seeing photos of our pool in my feed and my stories, but since I’m in complete denial that summer is officially/technically coming to a close here very soon (and since it’s going to be a while before it starts to feel like Fall here in the south), I figured it was better late than never to answer all of the questions I’ve gotten this summer about our pool in a blog post!

I also thought this was a great opportunity to talk a little about the new sod we had put down in June.  We have a ton of trees on our property, which I have always loved, but all that shade killed 80% of our Bermuda grass and left our yard looking like a hot mess.  Earlier this spring, we decided to take the leap and have all of it sprayed and dug up and replaced with zoyzia sod.  It has been the best decision we have ever made!  It’s seriously like instant carpet; it looks amazing, the kids love how soft it is and it’s so far, knock on wood, been pretty low maintenance (with the exception of keeping on top of watering).  When the Bermuda died off, moss and weeds took its place and, I’ll be honest, it was depressing being out back and looking at that.  The new sod has been such a game changer.  Considering how much time we spend in the pool in the summer, it was definitely worth the investment.

I’ve gotten a bunch of questions about the pool every time I post a shot, so here we go!  I made sure to go back through my DM’s so that I answered each and every one!  If there’s anything I missed, make sure to leave me a note in the comment section!

How big is your pool?  It’s 18×36 feet.

Is it saltwater?  Yes!

How do you keep the grass around the pool from dying?  Honestly, this has never been a problem, even when we had Bermuda and so far, since we had the zoyzia put down in June, we haven’t had an issue, either.

How is your pool so blue?  Our pool is plaster, which is tinted azure blue all the way through.  This means that, even if there is ever a scrape or a gash in the plaster, you’ll always only ever see the blue.

How wide is the coping around your pool?  We have 24 inches of concrete around the pool, the absolute minimum width to be able to support a pool of our size.

Is that slate tile around the top?  We were told that slate did not fare well with salt water so, instead, we opted to go with a matte ceramic tile that looks just like it!  I absolutely love it – you really can’t even tell that it’s not slate!

How deep is your pool?  It goes from three feet in the shallow end to seven feet in the deep end.

How much time do you spend on maintaining the pool?  Honestly, it really isn’t too much work – once a week we brush the pool and backwash (or more often if we’ve gotten a lot of rain), both of which I can do with the kiddos in the pool.  We also have an automatic vacuum, which is worth its weight in gold.  I literally plug it in and let it go for 45 minutes to an hour and it’s squeaky clean!  The biggest issue with saltwater pools, at least that we have experienced, is that the pH is always super high.  If you let it go, it can lead to other bigger issues, so we test the water once a week and add some muriatic acid to bring it back down again.

I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!  We will be celebrating Luca’s second birthday right here by the pool.  Be sure to check out Instagram for party snaps!