Remember that time we got a tree trimmed and the whole tree ended up being dead so the tree trimmers put it in our dilapidated pool for us as a “favor”? And then we decided to burn the branches, resulting in a bunch of scorched charred trunk sitting in the bottom of our pool?
Here are some photos of the pool post-fire. 
As you can tell, it’s not exactly the safest thing to have in your backyard. And with a baby who will be taking her first steps any day now, we had to do something about it… but fixing it back up into a working pool was a bit out of our price range.
SO, we decided to apply a band-aid to the problem and postpone fixing it up until we save enough money…. we decided to get a deck built over it!
The following are a series of pictures as it was being built.
The issue with the whole thing was what happens to the rain water– we didn’t want a huge pit of gross water forming in the pool every time it rained. Here’s where the genius came in (not our idea but our contractor’s): sloped [easyazon_link identifier=”B078851LCD” locale=”US” tag=”farmhouse020-20″]roofing material[/easyazon_link] underneath the deck boards that would catch the rainwater and cause it to fall down to the sides– to the concrete.
Above where the rainwater will drain off, we built a step.
(The doggies approved of the whole construction process.)
After the roofing part was all done, and the step finished, the guys started decking over it all!
All done!!! Voila, a babyproofed “pool” in our backyard!
We still need to stain it… TBD.. but I’m really glad that scary pit is no longer scary for our little family!!
I’ve just discovered your blog and I’m LOVING IT!! We’re (finger’s crossed) hopefully going to be inheriting my boyfriend’s grandmother’s house in Rockville, VA and I can’t wait to get my little DIY-ing hands on it. Your posts are making me even more hungry for the possibility!! But I think it’s brilliant of y’all to deck over the pool and wait until you can restore it to it’s former glory down the line. It’s a huge space and I bet y’all will throw some great parties out on that deck before the time comes to tear it up and throw some rockin’ pool parties!! Looking forward to continuing on your Farmhouse journey.
Hi Sarah! Oh my gosh, that sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What fun you (hopefully) will have! We’re loving almost every minute of it although I can’t pretend there aren’t rough patches here and there. Such is life though, right? Funny you bring up parties on the deck over the pool… we were just saying we should take advantage of that and host Oktoberfests or something fun like that! I’ll keep you posted if we do. 🙂
My husband and I would like to do this with our pool. How did you do the joists for support underneath? How did you anchor it all?
This is exactly what I am looking for!