it's true... I love these updates. Thanks for the shoutout so I didn't miss it. I spent several years cleaning swimming pools and dealing with the pumps/valves/heaters... I know enough to be dangerous, and also to know exactly what kind of trouble you just went through. I had one client that had the see-thru piping on waste/backwash - it's a really nice touch. I'm glad you postponed speaker wire purchasing long enough to post.
dooooooooooooooooooooooooood HOW I BECAME A POOL EXPERT So I bought this house? And it had a 50' sewer belly. That cost $70k to fix. Then once that was fixed, we discovered another 10' sewer belly. that cost $10k to fix, and involved destroying the concrete between the cleanout and the driveway, bulldozing clear through a bathroom. So okay we're going to fix that bathroom because we have to. And it also involved getting the pump and filter out of the way. And destroying the concrete they go through. Which provided an opportunity to move them out of the place I'm putting a mud room. So I tricked the plumbers into moving the connections; can I trick them into hooking shit back up? HELL NO. They don't do pool shit. Okay, who does pool shit? Well, you see, there have been enough greedy pool companies that they call cannibalized each other. Apparently a month before my pool pump needed moving, three of five local pool companies ate shit. One of them demonstrably sucks. I buy my shit from them? But their techs are jackasses and the guys at the store will cop to that. The other one also demonstrably sucks. The first one told me they couldn't get to it this year. The next one came out and told me it would be about six weeks, and probably take an afternoon. To connect an existing pool pump to an existing pool. But okay. We'll call. There's a quote. it's $5800. When I ask how one technician for one day is $5800 I'm told who run Bartertown. So okay. You know what? Fukkit. This is something I won't have to deal with ever again. When can it happen. I have to pay in advance before they can schedule. Okay, fukkit. You know what? here's a goddamn credit card number. At least it will get done. Hopefully right. If I pay by credit card they charge a ten percent service fee. ...Uhm holy shit. Can I say I'm going to pay you by check and then I can get on the schedule? They'll be happy to call me to schedule once the check clears. At which point I determined that it's one thing to charge me the fuck-you price, it's quite another to tell me to fuck off while charging me the fuck-you price, and still quite another to charge a fuck-you surcharge on the fuck-you price while telling me to fuck off. So I spent two days with $150 worth of Oatey and elbows and moved my fucking pool pump. Reduced the number of bends by about 30% while I was at it. And no matter the magnitude and direction of my grievance at the various and sundry building trades, "pool fuckers" are absolutely in the ninth fucking circle of hell.