Stop Making Things So Complicated

Aka time I almost spend several thousand dollars when I didn't have to

My husband and I made the decision when we wanted to buy a house that it would have a pool in the yard. For no other reason than my son loves swimming.

Rather, we wanted to give him the opportunity to swim as much as he could to help build his confidence. For many reasons not of our doing, our family’s world has been rocked, leaving my son’s confidence and general happy-go-lucky attitude shattered. My trust in people was shaky, and I wanted to do all I could to find some way for my son to have an outlet.

We love this pool and I have far more videos on my phone than I care to admit of my son’s progression in his swimming skills, his laughter, and all three of us laughing like crazed idiots. During the pandemic when we count ourselves lucky enough to have our own outdoor space away from others, we spent nearly twice a day there. It’s not a big pool by any means, but it was enough for my little family.

Last week, I nearly pooped my pants because I was stressing out over a potential thousand dollar expense to repair said pool. Worse, we would have to replace a major part of it, leading to several more thousands of dollars.

There was a leak somewhere, I’m convinced. I noticed the much lower water level one day while looking out the window in my home office. Strangely, it hasn’t been that hot, so it can’t simply be water loss from evaporation.

So I walked around the pool in a frenzy and marked down where there were wet spots. I fiddled with the pool pump, filter, and all the hoses. Like any sane homeowner would, I head to Youtube and type in pool leak.

Naturally, I spent nearly two hours looking at everything from a pool liner leak, to taking apart the pool pump to replace an O ring because a cracked one could mean crazy pool leaks, to looking at what products help find said pool leaks. 

Then I called the people that installed the pool, the pool manufacturer and the pool store where I purchased the pool from. I dug through the warranty and looked at my bank accounts to see how we could afford a potential several thousand dollar expense. I texted my husband throughout the day to update him on the pool saga. I need you to tell me what could be happening to the pool. Can you call your friend who owns a pool cleaning and repair company to come look the next day?

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I try to get back to my client work (I end up sitting in the living room so I wouldn’t look out the window at the pool). 

My husband comes home.

We went around to the backyard.

He pulls out a garden hose from the pool. 

“There’s the reason for the ‘leak,’” he tells me.

Turns out, I had forgotten I filled the pool back up several days ago and left the hose in there. The hose then siphoned pool water little by little out of the pool, to the point where I ended up being way too dramatic about it. In my frenzy, I had failed to see this green thing in front of me, saving me thousands of dollars and at least two hours of my time. 

Lesson learned? Don’t make things more complicated than they have to. The solution is in front you the whole time. I thought solving the problem of a pool leak would mean doing way more than I had to. Turns out, pulling out a garden hose was enough.

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Let me know in the comments: When was the last time you made something more complicated than it had to be, and what happened next?