This is my most triumphant creation yet!  I’m so excited that we actually managed to do this and it works and works well.  We’ve been using it for a couple weeks now and I can get John in and out of the pool by myself.  (It’s still nice to have help, but I can do it on my own if I have to.)

I have to admit, that while planning this I asked some different people for advice, and I mostly got some version of… “Don’t try to make this.  Try to find something that already exists.”  So it’s an even sweeter victory.  For what it’s worth, I googled for several months trying to find a lift.  Mostly I found lifts for in-ground pools, not above-ground.  I did find one for above ground, but it only lifts up to 31″ off the ground and I needed 52″ — and besides, that was about $4000.  Way, way, way more than I would ever spend.

To get a rough idea of how it was made go to:http://www.instructables.com/id/Above-Ground-Pool-Lift/

And here to see it in action…