The pool guys are moving quickly. The very next day, I came home from work to find the pool acid-washed and primed. There were cases and cases of muriatic acid sitting on my porch.
All the algae was gone and the color was uniform. In addition, they had set the marker tiles for the steps.
I had a pile of new “eyeball” jets that would replace the old beat-up ones originally installed in the pool. These are the directional jets that sit on the wall to keep the pool in a consistent flowing current, hopefully preventing standing water areas where algae can form.
The pool light was still pulled out from the wall, although it was at least brought up to the patio where I could look at it. Now that I understand how the light is installed and how it operates, replacing it isn’t as intimidating as I thought. The light housing is entirely waterproof and just pushes in to the pool wall. There is enough electrical line to pull the light out and replace the bulb outside the water if need be.
The installer said they would try as best as possible to clean up my tile borders and that’s about what I got. It’s much better, but they aren’t exactly able to work miracles. So it’s plenty good enough relative to how it was.