And so, after weeks of estimates (some of which we are still awaiting...), we settled on a contractor who could start right away. And so, on a very cold, rainy and occasionally snowy Thursday morning, this was the view from our living room doors.

This was the first "blow".

And this was approximately 30 minutes later.

(Sorry for the lousy picture quality. I was too chicken to stand there and obviously take pictures!)

Within about 3 hours, all that remained of the pool was some twisted steel and the sad broken pump and filter.



This is the current view, looking to the left outside our sliding doors. There used to be a built-in bench here. It's long gone!

I could not believe how quickly the deck and pool were gone. Just completely gone. It only took two men, sometimes just one, about three hours from start to finish, including loading up and hauling away the debris (except for the steel...they had to get a blow torch to cut it down some). The rest of the afternoon was used to cut the steel and bring several loads of dirt to fill in the hole.

And this is what remains. The contractor came back this morning to level and grade the dirt and fill in the ruts the heavy equipment made. He'll be back to work on remodeling the attached deck on Tuesday. It doesn't look like much right now, but our yard looks SO much bigger. And the deck will remain basically the same size, but we'll be adding a new, sturdier railing all the way around and a set of steps heading out into the yard. More pictures will be sure to come!