My parents have a new favorite child. You think I might be joking. You would be wrong.
Three summers ago, they made the big decision to invest in a backyard pool and now it has taken the crown from me and my siblings as the new beloved one. I can understand though. The heat and humidity are brutal here in Atlanta. And pools are everywhere.
I guess I should give you a little glimpse into our lives first. You should know, we are pool people. Big time pool lovers, pool workers, pool everything. My grandparents had a pool that we loved growing up. My parents had a pool installed in New Jersey when we were in our second house. And when we moved to Georgia, we moved into this neighborhood that had a pool two doors down. Growing up, my siblings and I swam year round competitively. We ended up all getting life guard certified and working all over Atlanta, managing pools, teaching swim lessons and coaching summer league teams. So you can imagine the shock when we heard that the neighborhood pool was closing and getting filled in because the Homeowners Association couldn’t afford to keep the insurance policy. I think there were real tears that day.
So my parents decided to get a pool in the backyard and I tagged along for the ride (just to learn the process and see what it entails!). Hopefully one day, Jeremy and I can get a pool of our own but they are really expensive so I know it won’t be anytime soon.
Okay…so this is my parents backyard circa 2011….
And now this is what it looked like at the end of last summer….
Mom and Dad first had to research pool companies and landed on one that had lots of referrals. The company encouraged the homeowners to visit past pools built so that the new pool-owners-to-be could see different shapes, different stones, different concrete patterns, different extras (like a diving board vs. diving rock), different pool colors and different tiles. I think my parents went to about ten different pools (I tagged along to about 6 of them) and everyone who had a pool had a various combination of colors and textures. It was very interesting!
In my parent’s backyard, they had to choose what best suited them but they also needed to have a couple trees taken down, a shed moved and a fence installed.
In the end, they LOVE their new pool though.
My mom is gonna be so embarrassed of these before photos but seriously….landscaping in Georgia can be ridiculous. We have some years where we are on water bans so all your plants die or you get charged a bazillion dollars for summer time watering. And the dirt here is a mixture of granite rock and red clay. You have to spend a small fortune to get real dirt.
After they had the trees taken down, the shed was moved and then the excavator started with the hole. There also needed to be power lines dug and additional plumbing run from the house…so you can imagine how fast the expense builds up. My mom dug up a lot of plants and gave some away and transplanted some too.
Once the hole was dug, the crew also had to grade the yard properly so that the concrete decking would be correct.
It rained really frequently the months that this project happened, so when it came concrete, there was a lot of ‘extra’ pours. The pool itself was dug in one day! Then the crew had to run all the plumbing parts, install rebar for stability and make sure everything was right for the concrete to be poured.
Here it is as the concrete was formed and you could really start to see the pool…
On the front right hand side, my parents decided to get a shelf….basically a shallow area that is only about a foot deep so that little ones could sit and play. I voted for a huge shelf because I knew I wanted to have lots of babies….but I got vetoed because it’s not my pool. My parents keep me in line like that.
The pool itself goes from four feet to eight feet and then it also has a ‘spa’ or a hot tub built in. The coolest part is that my dad can adjust his hot tub from the house with his remote control. I know. He’s such a dude.
Once the walls are built and the basic structure are done, that is where all those pool-visits come into play. My parents opted for a lighter blue pebble bottom and then natural red-toned stone for the edge. The two were married with the tile that goes around the edge with a dark blue, gray and red tile. It helps tie everything together.
Hello shirtless Jeremy 🙂
So far, the favorite part has been the spa. The kids love it. And it’s nice that the parents can sit in it and still be comfortable too while the little ones play.
Overall, it has been a nice thing for family get-togethers and it really helped open Jeremy and I’s eyes to the advantages of having a pool….especially a salt-water one. We even went on Pinterest to see what we could DIY….much to our dismay, there aren’t a whole lot of really attractive DIYed in-ground pools out there so we understand why this one cost so much (I think my parents from start to finish, including sod and fencing and everything, this bad boy cost about $60K!). We hear that pools are not a huge return-on-investment, so we are gonna milk this thing dry in the fun factors!
So are you a pool person? Do you have one? A neighborhood pool? Anybody out there with a different experience on pool building? I find this subject fascinating….probably because we are already getting a taste of hot weather down here….so I need DETAILS!
Love their pool! We put one in two summers ago. We spent about half of what your parents spent, so it’s not as fancy but we LOVE it. Salt water is so the way to go! Very low maintenance and safe with less chemicals. We’re opening ours next week…can’t wait!
Jocelyn in the STL
We live in Arizona so pools are a must! Your parent’s pool looks awesome but the building of it would scare the cr*p out of me ever since I watched Poltergeist and they were building a pool! Yikes!
My family had a pool installed when I was growing up and we LOVED it! The first home I bought as an adult also had one which we LOVED as well. You could DIY one, a co-worker of mine did it (well, her husband did). She did say it took him an entire summer and added at least 10 years to his life, but theirs looks really nice and they love it as well!.
How fun that your parents get a pool! Their grandkids are going to have such great memories at their place. It looks so good!
Your parents pool is lovely! We live in Florida and couldn’t imagine life without a pool, or access to one. Our home had a pool when we purchased it about 4 years ago. Also salt water. My criticism is that the salt water generators have pretty short life spans so we haven’t replaced it when it stopped functioning after our first season. We just use chlorine now since they are quite expensive for the short life span but I have to admit, I do notice a difference the the water between salt vs chlorine. A salt water pool is much more mild and less smelly. While we love our pool, they are a huge amount of work and maintenance. And now that I have an 18 month old and a newborn…I’m super paranoid about safety. We’re in the process of getting safety fencing installed and have alarmed and baby proofed several doors that lead out to our patio since the pool is essentially attached to our home if that makes sense. As my husband says, typically, you want to know the guy with the pool…not be the guy with the pool 😛 … I don’t know that I would spend the money to install a pool if I had to do it over again. I’d purchase a home with a pool but I agree on the poor return on investment.
We are also pool people, but we’ve yet to own our own. I grew up with a huge inground pool in MA, the largest in the New England area actually! When we moved down here (GA!), all my parents could find were communities with neighborhood pools, bummer. When we bought our place in 2011, a pool was at the top of our list. Couldn’t find any existing properties, so we tried to tie one into the loan. That was a no go, because they are so expensive! Our quotes started at $25,000 for a vinyl inground, not including any concrete work. I’d prefer a concrete pool, but vinyl seems a lot more popular out here.
This is actually super interesting to me since there aren’t a lot of people with pools in my area. I’m a water baby and spent all my time at the YMCA, so I would totally be into getting a pool if I lived somewhere that had a longer swim-worthy season.
Wait, salt water pool? Is that a common thing down there? I’ve barely heard of them! Tell us more!
We really want to DIY a natural pool like this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/192247477818050059/. Someday!
We have a pool (in Pittsburgh) and I love it.
We opened it yesterday and I jump for joy. When we close it in late Sept I cry.
It is expensive — chemicals, repairs, water, power … It adds up and we would save money belonging to the swim club 3 minute a from our house, but the expense is so worth it. The kids can swim she they get up, we don’t have to deal with other peoples poorly behaved kids, we can have adult night swimming (hubba hubba).
It’s a mini vacation in our yard every weekend.
We bought a house with a pool (in-ground, concrete) about 18 months ago. We only had about a month or so with the pool open the first summer (we moved in August 1st in MN), so last summer was our first full summer with a pool. Bottom line – it’s work, but we love it!
Surprisingly, in our town in MN (just outside Minneapolis), there are quite a few pools even though it’s a fairly short season! We do have a pool heater. Energy costs are about the same summer vs winter between A/C & the pool heater in the summer vs heat in winter (and a house that needs some tightening up in terms of heat loss from doors & windows). We hire someone (a local independent guy) to open & close the pool, but we do all the summer maintenance ourselves. We have 2 boys who love the water & are great swimmers, but I never let them in the pool without adult supervision. It has a diving board, which they love. It’s a traditional rectangle pool with a fairly big concrete pool deck & a black metal fence around the pool. Oddly, our homeowners insurance asked no questions whatsoever about the fence around the pool & as far as I know, we pay no more for our liability insurance.
We got a pool vacuum for Father’s Day last year, which helps make the brushing/cleaning of the walls much easier. My husband has an undergrad degree in chemistry, so he takes care of most of the chemicals, but I do a lot of the daily maintenance, especially when he’s traveling. It’s work, but it’s not too bad & when I priced maintenance companies I almost lost my shit they were so expensive! We buy some of our chemicals at the pool store & some at Costco. Not a saltwater pool. Our friends have a saltwater pool, so I plan to pick their brains this summer & see what it would take to convert ours. I think we might change out the sand in the sand filter this summer or next summer (it’s not really sand, it’s some kind of special aggregate stuff, but they call it “sand”). It has to be done every few years & we have no record of when it was done last from the previous owners. Although, our pool guy said that if it’s still filtering well, there’s no need to change it. So far, the rest of the mechanicals work really well too. My brother has a pool in FL & he had to replace his pump motor & filter a year or two ago, for about $1500 I think. It’s not cheap to be pool owners, but it’s not that bad if you do most of the work yourselves & the boys just love it. I figure we save tons in community pool membership because we have all our snacks & drinks right here at home!
Costco is a great source for pool noodles, life jackets, goggles, chlorine tabs, giant patio umbrellas, etc. We never even thought of a house with a pool, but we really love it!
Basically they are really low maintenance and cost less. You should definitely google them! Most of the personal pools in our area are built like that now and a lot of chlorine pools are being converted.
xo – kb
My husband and I live in northern California, and when we bought our house in 2010 there was an existing in-ground pool that needed a good amount of work (the plaster needed to be redone and the equipment replaced). We had it refinished in 2011 (new light, new quartz finish, new expanded concrete decking, new coping, new tile, new equipment). It was a lot of work and very expensive (around 30k), but I think it was worth it! We didn’t have a backyard pool as a kid but I have great memories of hanging out at my friends’ pools and our neighborhood pool club. We just had our first child last September and I’m excited for him to grow up with the pool and swimming too.
How cool is that pool! Totally jealous!
We re-did our backyard last summer. We filled in the existing pool and built a new one in a different location. Ours cost about 30k, the reason for the price difference, mostly, is because my husband designed and planned and was basically the contractor on the pool. We saved a ton of money doing it ourselves vs paying a contractor. You could do it!!
The beautiful gunite pool your parents have is the most expensive option. To save money, consider a vinyl liner pool. They even come in kits that perhaps you could DIY some of the process. (Many videos are on the web.) Fencing is a must for safety but other bells and whistles, lights, slides, diving boards, heaters, etc, could be deleted to save on cost. Some of those features could be added at another time in the future. The size of your concrete patio is also a factor so keeping it to a smaller area would help save too. Or you could do a paver deck on your own. The fun is in the family memories you create regardless of the construction. Hope this helps.
I should also mention ours is saltwater and has a nice baja step!!
We’re just finishing up work on one in our backyard. We both grew up in FL with pools and missed it moving to NC. When we settled into our “forever home” (hopefully!) earlier this year, we decided we’d go ahead and spend the money on one. We got salt water and it’s fiberglass. With the pool, all the decking/patio work, retaining wall, fencing and landscaping, we’re in it for around $40k. Your parents’ pool is beautiful and so glad to hear they love the salt water!
We had an above ground pool growing up. I was about 7 when we put it in. Many great memories from that pool! I would love a pool now but our property is far from ideal for it. They are expensive and you don’t put it in expecting any return on it. A pool needs to be purely for your enjoyment and nothing else.
They’re also super eco-friendly! 🙂
you need a pool sponsor, STAT!!
Looks like so much fun and brings the family all together! I imagine in your east humidity, it’s a must.
Completely off topic, but could we get one of those “day in the life of Katie” posts soon? …or better yet, make it a monthly post! It’s been a while, and I love them!
yay for pools!!! I love mine. My husband and I purchased our home 10 years ago and were not swayed one way or another to have a pool but the house we purchased had one. We are now officially pool lovers. PA is not as hot as hot-lanta but its still gets toasty in the summer. Nothing beats jumping in crystal clear blue water to cool off.
If we ever move I would definitely look to purchase a home that already has a pool. I am hooked.
I grew up in the Caribbean AND we had a pool! Now living in a northern state with almost no summer to talk about, I realize how spoiled I was. tears. I was in competitive swim, sea kayak, life guard, anything water related all year long. I am a water baby. I still can’t believe that now I am shoveling snow half of the year. Your parents’ pool is gorgeous and dreamy…one day..one day…Enjoy!
We are big pool people too! I too was a swimmer and lifeguard/swim instructor. We went to the “pool” at least 4 days a week when we were kids because we didn’t have air conditioning. I say “pool” because it was actually a rock quarry filled in with water. Our summer days at the pool led to all 4 of the kids in our family swimming competitively. My parents put in a pool about 8 years ago and my in-laws put one in 3 years ago…..needless to say…..I am raising fish! Nothing better than a summerday at the pool!
I’m TOTALLY a pool person, but my hubby has had one in every house he lived in growing up so trying to convince him to get one now is hard. He’s convinced the novelty will wear off! We got an above ground last summer just for the mean time until I can afford the real thing. If you ever find a good DIY for an inground you must share, I’ve been trying to find one for years. Love your parents pool! And how fun the kids will have such great memories there, my grandparents had a pool too, and we all loved summer holidays!
We bought a home 2 years ago with a pool. The home appraisal listed the pool as $0 value add. It’s a nice salt water pool in perfect working order.. It had a diving board that we have removed (because we wanted to , not because of our insurance Co.). We already belonged to the Country Club in the neighborhood so we had that pool membership and just don’t use it ( husband is all about the Golf). We avoided homes with pools thinking it was too much bother…we bought because we loved the house. I now really like having our own pool. We are in the process of extending the pool deck area and putting in a stone fireplace and huge table so we will spend even more time out by the pool.. When we have parties and there are people and towels and pool toys all over ..that makes me very happy. Also, my husband swears that every leaf that falls in our neighborhood ends up in our pool, he may be right.
I am a pool person! I grew up near Atlanta, and when I was a kid my parents had a pool put in. It was awesome! We spent our summers in that thing. And before we had one we spent a lot of time at the neighbors’ pools.
I love the ‘shelf’ – that’s so great for the kiddos!
My pool is eerily like your parents– size, colors, attached spa. No one ever uses it. I grew up living in pools but as an adult, I’m not into it, and my teen daughter isn’t, either. My last three houses have had them despite me looking for houses without one. Here, more houses do.
I did real estate appraisal here in Phoenix for a while. A pool adds about $10k to the market value of a home here. So they’re terrible investments, for the person who builds it. But many things poeple spend on are. Cars, trips, etc.
Most ‘salt water pools’ have a salt water generator that generates chlorine from salt. So they do still have chlorinated water, but it is a nicer experience. They can have lower chlorine levels or something. But ‘regular’ chlorine pools shouldn’t be too smelly or chlorine-y, if they’re maintained right, too.
You probably know this with your deck-fall paranoia but drownings happen quickly and all too commonly. Be careful, especially if that pool is unfenced, or if you decide to take the plunge (lol) at your own house!
That looks very cool! BUT…is there no safety fence? In Australia it is law that require you to have a pool fence if you have a backyard pool. Aren’t you scared?!!!
well just think…until you get to the point where you can have your own pool…your kiddos will have great memories of the pool at grammy’s house. 🙂 and also – im not going to sit here and say 60k isn’t a lot of money…it’s a ton BUT if you can afford it…people spend that on pickup trucks with all the bells and whistles these days so i say it’s a great investment in the family.
awesome pool!! I’ve always wanted one. Pool season is short in Chicago but i’ve always dreamed since I was a kid about a house with a pool and entertaining people. We lost a house (it was a short sale) that had a pool. The house we ended up buying didn’t have a pool but a HUGE backyard (for city living) so my husband promised me one!! Hopefully next year’s tax return!! Above ground pools are more common around here and I think that’s what we’ll end up getting, as it can be taken down if we go to sell and the new buyers don’t want the pool.
I live in Scotland. No, no I don’t have a pool… but in my daydreams I have a poolhouse attached to the house where I can swim all year and on our 6 sunny days open up the roof!
I do love to swim though and use our local pool 3 or 4 times a week before work. My own pool? I’d swim daily! In fact tomorrow morning I will be doing the final leg of a metaphorical ‘Swim the English Channel’ challenge to raise money for Diabetes UK. So all the other comments from people with pools make me super jealous!
That is a gorgeous pool. My husband swam year round until college, life guarded etc. He’d love to have a pool out his back door!
What a nice pool! Here in Michigan inground pools aren’t very common, but when I grew up in Australia we had one. I think the law there is the pool has to be fenced, I don’t see that a lot here. But ours was salt water too. So much better than chlorine.
We own a house with a pool in Minnesota. The cost to run the pool – chemicals, water, heater and A/C in the house – is about the same as our winter heating bill. We have a company open and close the pool each summer because it requires blowing out the lines so they don’t burst in the sub-zero winter temps. A burst pipe would mean a lot of landscaping work! We’ve heard that you lose about 40% of the potential buyers all else being equal when you have a pool on the property b/c a large portion of people are intimidated by pools or don’t want to maintain them. Once you have the basics of maintenance down, it’s pretty easy. By law our property has to be fenced, but we also have a very large umbrella insurance policy to cover us and our property in case of an accident or if somebody were to get into the pool while we were gone. That is a must for protections of your house and assets. Our pool is a sand filter and it works really well. The best part about having a pool is that our kids’ friends want to come here to play, so we know all of their friends and what they are doing!
That pool is awesome! I can see how they have THE house to be at in summer. Sneaky Grandparents, no guilt trip for anyone to come visit. Build a pool and they will come!
Our home in Snellville came with a pool when we bought it 14 yrs ago. It was a 23,000 gal gunite. It was great while the kids were young and we got many years of enjoyment out of it. We knew it was going to need some work eventually and decided three yrs ago to price it out. Unfortunately, it was going to cost as much to update it as it would have to build a new one. After two summers of it being used only twice (kids are grown now), we decided to have it removed. Best decision we ever made. Pools are a tremendous amount of work and money. We had much rather spend our money traveling now and not be constantly worried about the pool. While it served us well for the years the kids were young, it is so much nicer at this stage of our lives not having one.
Lovely pool, but so weird seeing it without a fence around it! In Australia it’s mandatory to have a childproof fence around your pool.
How beautiful! I bet your parents love having the grandkids over to swim. I am not really a pool person, for 2 reasons. #1 I live in the frozen tundra and it is just such an expense to only get a few months use out of it. #2 I am SUPER paranoid about kids and water. My anxiety would be through the roof. But, I always wished for a pool growing up and think it’s a great way to spend family time! Salt water pools intrigue me- there is only one around here that I know of and I don’t know anyone with one in their backyard.
They do have a fence around it….around the entire backyard. It was an additional cost but in the long run, they loved that more than a smaller fence.
xo – kb
My grandparents did the same thing…had it filled in when the maintenance didn’t match the enjoyment. It was sad but now my Mummum has more ‘flower’ space 🙂
xo – kb
We have a pool ( I live in the sub tropics in Australia) and love it. It makes me so nervous to see pools without a safety fence though. They are required by law here so I guess we are used to it. Our kids love having one. They will swim for hours in the summer and I love having their friends over as well. I wish ours was bigger!
There is a fence (required) but it can be around the entire yard (which is what they chose). It is an additional expense to have it around the entire thing and it has to be approved for their insurance but it was worth it!
xo – kb
True. We have friends that spent more on their Jeep!
xo – kb
What a cool challenge! I’ve never heard of that! I’ll have to google it!
xo – kb
We have a inground pool here in Seattle. When we moved into this house the basement door went right out to the pool so we had to do some switching around of windows and sliding glass doors. It was great when the kids were little they both had pool birthday parties because they were born in June. It’s even been more fun now that they’re older because we’ll have a party and there will be 25 teenagers in the water! It continues to be a draw for their friends and a great family activity.
We live in the Central Florida area so we are extremely familiar with heat and humidity. Its already upwards of 90 here every day with horrendous humidity and I’m 35 weeks pregnant to boot. 🙁 My kids play in their small kiddie pool every single day and I even stick my feet in every once in a while to cool down. We have friends who live in a community with a pool and for $2/person we can go there to cool down and have fun. Or there’s always the beach two hours away…
The price thing is really interesting to me. It’s good to hear all about how it differs with different materials and different areas!
xo – kb
We bought our house 11 months ago and it has an in-ground pool. We almost didn’t even consider the house BC of the pool, but loved the house so much we “took it”
My hubby’s brother and wife next door put in a pool 20 or so years ago. They only use it about once or twice a week, but told us we can use it anytime. My grandson loves to come over and go swimming in the summer. So I’ve got the best of both worlds, a pool anytime I want to use it and no upkeep:)
this has been so fascinating to read different experiences and to see various price points. we bought a house abt 3 yrs ago with a pool. it’s quite large, 22×44 and quite deep, going from abt 3 ft to 13 ft. our area (idaho) has very few pools, maybe a dozen locally. we had a quote on replacement cost and it was over 100K for something pretty basic. no water falls or rock formations, only splash tile. we do have a heater and a retractable motorized cover which are necessary for our rough winters, landscape/trees and short season. we recently had some updating done and it was expensive, 20K, but we opened it early march this year and have been swimming on sunny days. vinyl inserts are much cheaper from what i understand. our kids sure love it, as do the neighbor kiddos. we’re on an acre and our pool area if secluded off the kitchen and it is fully fenced, almost like we have two yards.
have you looked into natural poolS? They’re a lot cheaper to build, better for the environment, look epically awesome, and are fun for a household of little boys, as you end up swimming with frogs and tadpoles and stuff.
I grew up in NoVA going to the pool club (or whatever it was called) along with swim team practice at the community center and loved it. Was a total fish. Now in Arizona pools are everywhere! Our latest house has one in our backyard – it was on my “MUST HAVE” list when looking even though my hubs could care less. Actually, he probably didn’t want one but I won with the “What else can the kids do outside when it’s 115 degrees?” regardless that we only had one at the time and she was just about to turn 1. They are a lot cheaper out here – you can get a basic one for $15-20k – especially if you build in the off-season when the companies don’t get as much business. Splash pads too!
Exactly what I was thinking!! Nothing stopping a kid strolling from the house to the pool! :-O
That is a phenomenal pool Katie – really beautiful! 🙂 I live in the sub-tropics of Australia, and there are a lot of backyard pools here…. I had one growing up in Sydney, and we now have one in our backyard also. Ours is fairly basic, a salt water, in-ground concrete pool with a pebblecrete coating and steps at both ends, with a paved surround – paving around pools is quite common here. A friend had a quote a year or so ago for an inground concrete salt water pool with a ‘beach’ (where you walk into the pool and it just gets gradually deeper, rather than stepping in onto a step – also great for little kids!) and it was about $35K I think including fencing. (It may be one of the few things that is actually cheaper here in Australia than it is there!)
As a couple of the Aussies above have mentioned, it’s most common here to have a fenced pool area (fencing standards are extremely strict here because backyard pools are so common and there have subsequently been a lot of drownings over the years) but quite a few houses around where I live have fenced yards like your parents…. It’s so much more aesthetically pleasing, a house we lived in previously had this and all the doors leading onto the area just had to comply with the Standards (handles are up high, out of reach, all doors are self closing, etc) – not sure if this is still legal here though.
If not financially, I think that the enjoyment (and peace of mind as your kids are growing up and you know where they are) is a great return on investment 🙂 x
It’s called the Swim 22 Pool Challenge for Diabetes UK. Definitely kept my swimming motivated for the last couple of months – and final leg completed!
I am in Australia too – seems so strange to see a pool with out a fence all the way around it (not just around the yard). Summers are long here and most australians live near the coast and swim alot. Our rules are very strict, the pool has be completely fenced around its perimeter.
I grew up in rainy WA state so never even knew someone with a home pool, much less dreamed of having one myself. But then I moved to a another country where pools are very common, and now I’m a pool owner! It was already built when we bought the house so I don’t have any experience with cost of installation. But I do know, it’s MUCH cheaper to get one put in here, closer to $5-7k for a small pool (ours is small).
It’s so nice to have. My favorite thing is jumping in after a day of work in the sumer, for about 3 months a year I use it a few times per week. I must say, it requires a fair amount of work for the fairly small amount of use we get out of it. But our first child is on the way and once we have kids I think it will be our favorite activity. Plus, it’s so pretty to look out the windows and see a sparkling blue pool, it’s a great focal point in the yard.
Yay for pools!
We love our pool!! Somehow up here in the land of 10,000 lakes, my kids refuse to swim in one! We have had an above ground pool for about 6yrs now. We are just now replacing the liner – we had a rough freeze/thaw winter here in Mn and it caused some damage. The whole deal including deck extensions cost about $17K – 6 years ago. We have too high of a water table to put anything inground…so we went with above. Being above ground also saved us on fencing. The pool edges are 52″ from ground – a 48″ fence is required around pools. We had to get a variance from our City because they don’t take into account a 52″ side wall. We did have to put on a self locking gate at the bottom of the deck steps – similar to what you did on your deck. We have a walkout home and the deck starts on the main level and the deck now has 2 levels – the lower is the deck for the pool. We have chorine/sand like filter, but are considering converting it to an sphagnum moss filter – it uses less chlorine and keeps your pool cleaner…or so we have been told by friends. Good Luck!
When we bought our vacation home in AZ (we have 5 homes total in 4 states). We gut & studs remodeled the 6,000 sq ft inside & then started on the outside which was about five acres of rock, tumble weeds & prairie w/ foothills to the mountains. We bought a piece of property this large because we wanted our own airstip (we own & pilot several of our own planes) w/ a large hanger. Once we got that all laid out we knew where we could put the “living” portion of our backyard. Our airstrip is private & not technically an FBO but we still had to go through, city, county, state & federal to get all the necessary permits. The government loves to throw unnecessary monkey wrenches into most things so that ended up changing our (well thought out) plans MANY times as the different levels of government can’t agree on much & tend to contradict themselves when it comes to the “laws”. We ended putting the pool (custom, pebble tech, all the bells & whistles), decking, outdoor kitchen, fire pit area, gazebo, putting green & all the landscaping including 13 citrus trees, 25 palms & an 18′ tall saguaro cactus a lot closer to the house than we wanted, but you have to love it when you build your own shangrila. The only place the pool could asthetically go was on what the local pool builders referred to as the largest red any colony they had ever seen. 30 gallons of gasoline (technically jet fuel which is just unrefined gasoline) & a propane torch took care of that problem (it looked like Hiroshima from at least a half mile away). In the end the build took two years thanks in large part to slow moving cogs of the government (on all levels & branches) & a half million dollars. Lots of lessons learned & those are rarely cheap.
DON’T get a vinyl liner pool. Our first home had one and we replaced it 2 times in 13 years. Now it’s not outrageous but $2500-3700 each time gets expensive over time, so spend the money to have it done right and choose gunite. Have the professionals build your pool. And DIY the rest. Decking and landscape and labor is marked up soooooo much! As a banker who did a lot of pool loans in Texas, that’s where the fancy expensive add-ons come from.. You guys could handle it.
With all your littles I’m sure you will do all that you can to protect them, just make sure you do install a fence around the pool to keep them out when you need to! Love everything y’all do and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you all!
That is awesome. I know quite a few people that would be jealous of those trees and your pool and your strip and…heck…even that FIRE! That is crazy!
xo – kb
We have a salt water pool too and love it! It’s also so much easier on your hair, skin, and eyes!
Except close supervision, and automatically closing doors that the littlest ones can’t open.
I live in Indiana so our climate is different – this will influence all i say here:) We put in an above-ground pool when our youngest was 3. Best thing we ever did. She knew that if she played out side at all she had to put her life jacket on, but it didn’t matter because those kids were in the pool ALL.DAY! Went from pjs to suits to pjs. Now that the kids are grown we have the option of removing the pool and reclaiming our yard or getting a new one (it’s worn out). Very low investment for the years we’ve had it. We use Baquacil (or soft swim) as a chlorine substitute and love it.
Yes – I really am Katie’s dad and after reading through all of the responses I thought I should pitch in a few comments. After owning two pools (one vinyl and one gunite) there is no doubt that the gunite pool is better for a number of reasons. Keep in mind however that the gunite pool will definitely be more expensive if you compare two pools of the exact same size – vinyl vs gunite (and don’t forget fiberglass). But some comments have been made that are IMHO somewhat misleading and I will address only those items. Not considering myself to be a total swimming pool expert, I do have quite a bit of experience so for those of you who are considering a pool you must remember that an inground pool is something you do once and you really want to do it right. BTW, right means what ever you believe will make you happy for a long time. Above ground pools can come and go rather easily so the investment made can possibly become a throw away – not always but possibly. Obviously your budget has a lot to do with what you decide but if you are looking at a long term investment in a pool I would not do a vinyl pool primarily because the liner will wear out or get damaged, If you use chlorine you will definitely need to replace it sooner because chlorine as a chemical to treat the pool is a lot more caustic than the natural chlorine that is generated as a result of using salt. The water is softer and gentler on the skin (hair, suits, water toys, even the concrete around the pool) than chlorinated pools. Our pool is also lined with little pebbles (it’s called Pebble-Tech) which helps it to last longer on the interior of the pool (it is also warranted for life). We do live in Atlanta so I have decided not to cover the pool ever. Yes, there is regular cleaning but I had a covered pool when I lived in NJ and it was truly a pain when it was time to open the pool in the spring. I also have a computer monitoring the pool’s salt levels (Hayward) so it tells me when I need to add anything to the pool. I have the water tested twice a year to see if it needs muratic acid (keeps ph balanced) or other chemicals . Other than that my pool takes care of itself (I do own a robot pool cleaner). On to the fence comments. Yes we have a fence around the entire perimeter of our backyard. As to safety, we also have alarms on every door that leads to the backyard (required by law in GA). BUT, the best safety is to water proof everyone. This is a serious matter and it’s not only for little ones. We also have one big rule – NO ONE SWIMS ALONE.
The bottom line on all of this is if you want to do it right plan on spending money. If you have the knowledge and can do it on your own then you can save quite a bit. We have invested about 65k into our yard but that includes pool, fence, sod and additional accessories (these can add up) but the pleasure it brings my wife and me when we see our grandkids (and kids) in that pool is priceless. Thanks for listening!!
That is a GREAT RULE, Katie’s Dad…. And if adults have to do it too, kids don’t tend to mind so much!! (genius!) Might have to steal that one, thanks 😉
I should never have read this post… now I REALLY, REALLY want a pool!!! LOL 🙂 I live in a really mild climate in Virginia, but WOW how great would a pool be for all my kids, personal exercise and to invite my kids friends too as they get older. Lots to think about now!! 🙂
Have you ever looked into natural pools?! I had never heard of them until I saw a show called The Pool Master on Animal Planet. ABSOLUTE. MUST. WATCH. Aside from the fact that the host is the most eccentric man in the whole world (rated) the pools themselves are self sustaining and gorgeous! No chemicals, no draining in the winter (Chicago resident speaking) and beautiful. After a ‘Natural Pool’ XL Pinterest bender, I made the mental and virtual decision that that was the way to go. Pools for the win!