Pool Owners Come In

[Deleted]

Do you think your pool is worth it considering the cost and time for maintenance? Bonus points if you PIP.

[5hole]

Not right now, because it was in horrible shape when we bought the place, but I think it will be great for the kids when they're a little older and we've gotten it well maintained. But, we're also homebodies and taking care of and playing in a pool on the weekend fits in well with our lifestyle.

[marie3246]

Yes 100%. We live in the south and have a salt system and a screen enclosure so it really doesnt take much at all. We can use it for most of the year and don't have to close it in the winter.

[oswin]

It won't be worth it until my kid is old enough to appreciate it. We used it maybe 10 times this summer. I don't think we realized when we bought our house just how much time and money the pool would cost us.

[littlemermaid]

Yes and we live in the Midwest where we can only use it a good 3 - 4 months out of the year. We have an inground, gunite pool, It's a chlorine pool. Maintenance is actually not bad at all. We bought a Dolphin pool cleaner and it really does a beautiful job of keeping the pool clean. The Chlorine tablets are not expensive. We let the heater and filter run 6 hours a day and that is enough to keep all levels steady. We love our pool.

[Deleted]

We had a gorgeous inground pool in our old house. We LOVED it, and although the maintenance was pretty bad, what really made us happy to sell the house was that we would no longer be on the hook for major repair. We had a scare when we thought a return pipe underground was busted after the winter, and the thought of the $$$$ to excavate, repair and re-pave the patio was terrifying.

[dirtyred]

Every year when we open and close we swear we're selling the house because the pool is just too much work, then the middle of summer hits and all our friends come over, and the plants have begun to fill out, and then we say we're not moving.  I think it's like the pain of childbirth--you forget how bad it was when you see the end result.

[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2014 6:41:26 GMT -5 marie3246 said:

Yes 100%. We live in the south and have a salt system and a screen enclosure so it really doesnt take much at all. We can use it for most of the year and don't have to close it in the winter.

I am in the south too, we are still deciding between chlorine and salt system. Do you have a preference for either? Do you think it is worth putting in a heater?

[ddi741]

Absolutely. We put it in last Sept / October and were really curious to see how much work it would be vs how much we would use it. It is so totally worth it. We used it alot this summer. It's just so easy to have the pool at your house. No lugging things, and food to the pool.  We just walk downstairs and we're in. 

 It is barely any maintenance at all. We have a salt system. Once a month we bring our water in and they check and tell us what if any chemicals we need to add. The most work is the fall - We don't close it so we have to spend about a half hour every other night getting the leaves out (this will probably become a daily thing in the next couple of weeks but only short term until the leaves are done..
 
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[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2014 6:44:00 GMT -5 oswin said:

It won't be worth it until my kid is old enough to appreciate it. We used it maybe 10 times this summer. I don't think we realized when we bought our house just how much time and money the pool would cost us.

How old is your kid? My daughter is 2 months old and my husband is convinced that she needs to grow up in a house with a pool. My 2.5 yo niece loves the pool so much.

[Deleted]

I do not have one - but I grew up with one.


Yes. It is worth it.

[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2014 7:24:14 GMT -5 ddi741 said:

 

Those tiles look gorgeous, do you have a close up PIP of them?

[pagas]

Our old house had a pool, it was worth it.  


Since you asked for pics, this is my parents' pool:

[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2014 7:30:16 GMT -5 pagas said:

Your parent's pool looks gorgeous. I was thinking of putting in a pool where I can also swim laps, but your parent's pool is making me rethink that.

[pagas]

Oct 20, 2014 7:33:44 GMT -5 @porcupine said:

Oct 20, 2014 7:30:16 GMT -5 pagas said:

Your parent's pool looks gorgeous. I was thinking of putting in a pool where I can also swim laps, but your parent's pool is making me rethink that.

It has a diving board, which is seriously the best thing ever.  My dad does swim short laps in it, but it isn't ideal.

[ddi741]

Oct 20, 2014 7:26:05 GMT -5 @porcupine said:

Oct 20, 2014 7:24:14 GMT -5 ddi741 said:

 

Those tiles look gorgeous, do you have a close up PIP of them?

Ours is actually a vinyl liner.  I'll see if I can find a close up of it though. (added a link below the pictures)
 I found better pictures of the pool


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ETA: We priced a heater but it would have been another $4k and we just didn't have it in our budget.  We live in SC, we started swimming in April and last used it mid-Sept.


Loop Loc Liners - Mirabello

[lostlenore]

We bought our house last year and it has an indoor pool (I swear I don't own a mansion! The previous owner built the house with her handicapped daughter in mind and put in the pool for her daughter's therapy). We are in the Midwest, so this is nice as it could be used year-round (though we plan on closing it for a few months during the winter every year to avoid crazy high heating bills. It's nice that you can easily re-open it for a week or two if you want...so last year, we used it around Christmas).

So far, it's been a lot of work (it hasn't been used all summer & currently is drained b/c it was leaking & needed some repairs as well as a good sanding/re-painting). Once that is all done, we think it will be worth it. The kids love it, though I am worried about safety as they get older and want to have friends over to swim.

[chickadee77]

Yes, totally worth it. My H enjoys doing the maintenance, but there's not much. The system we installed pretty much takes care of itself. Also, pool services are super cheap around here. I don't have pictures handy to PIP, but it's a beach entry with a huge sunpad, and two more small pads in the deep end, with an eight-person hot tub. We spend quite a lot of time in it, and the lanai is more or less an extension of the house.

[alzi]

Yes we love having a pool. Totally worth it. I wish we had a heater though.

[venice2007]

Love having a pool. We converted to salt and the maintenance is so much less. We have a guy come every two weeks to keep it up
No pic. I'll try to add one later

[aprilsails]

We have a little 15' diameter above ground pool that has been built in a hole in the ground and surrounded by a nice wood deck. There's a solar heater piping system on the roof of the shed that contains all of the equipment and it works really well.

We wouldn't have put it in but it came with the house. It is pretty freaking awesome although we never feel as though we use it enough. We are looking forward to using it with kids some day.

[marie3246]

Oct 20, 2014 7:21:46 GMT -5 @porcupine said:

Oct 20, 2014 6:41:26 GMT -5 marie3246 said:

Yes 100%. We live in the south and have a salt system and a screen enclosure so it really doesnt take much at all. We can use it for most of the year and don't have to close it in the winter.

I am in the south too, we are still deciding between chlorine and salt system. Do you have a preference for either? Do you think it is worth putting in a heater?

I think it depends on where you are and how much sun your pool gets. Ours is shaded with trees, has the screen enclosure and in north FL and I do wish we had a heater. We had a non working one when we bought the house but it was expensive to run and repair since it was so old so we never replaced it. Friends of ours have their pool in the direct sun with no trees or screen and can use it a little earlier and later than ours, but its like pee mid summer so its a trade off.

Salt system is the way to go I think. It wasn't working when we bought so we were having to add chlorine and it was a pain and was much harsher on my skin. Plus we had to go and pick up gallons of it so my car smelled. I'm not sure if that is the only way to do chlorine but we switched quickly to salt. We did try one of those floating things that used tabs but it didn't seem to work well.

[agnes]

Worth it. But we pay someone to maintain it and live in Southern California.

[nomad100]

We don't have a pool but our neighbor does. And based on his bitching about having a pool in MI in a tree filled area, not sure it is worth it.

Add in the part about having to fish out the poor critters that drown in there (this summer he had 3 squirrels, 1 bunny and 4 or 5 chipmunks that drowned in the pool) and nope, not worth it.

[justemily]

We're in the Midwest and bought a house with a 24' above ground w/a deck around part of it. When we moved in (August) we had plans to demolish it after the summer was over, but got a lot of use out of it, so we kept it. 3 years later, we're back on the fence. We don't have kids and we just don't get a ton of use out of it anymore - I think the novelty has worn off. Plus we had a really odd summer (cold and rainy) and my H works weekends, so... Anyway, not sure if it's worth it or not, honestly!

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[jane6672]

My only aspiration towards wealth is to one day be able to own a pool.

[vanillacourage]

Having our pool is often nice (especially on week nights when our kids can swim for an hour while we grill dinner). And with a salt system it's not time-consuming or expensive. But if I had my choice, I would probably prefer to live in a community with a neighborhood pool.

[zoomzoom]

We live in the midwest and also have a gunite pool.  We installed an automatic pool cover when we moved in and it really helps keep the pool clean and retain the heat.  We actually swam in it on Friday night as in impromptu pool party with a couple of friends.  Lol.  We're debating keeping open year round b/c the pool cover keeps the heat in so the cost of heating it is actually pretty minimal.  They can be a PITA if they get a leak though.  My parents used to have a pool and there was always something wrong with it.  But I love ours.

[cville]

I wouldn't put a pool in if it didn't already exist, but I love my pool. The kids are too little to use it as much as would be ideal, but already L is more and more into it and independent in the water.

It's a saltwater pool and so so low maintenance. I only wish it had a heater, which we're thinking of adding in the future when we're no longer paying for daycare. Ha.

The only thing I hate is my neighbor's giant tree with miniscule leaves and also the crepe myrtle in my yard with those stupidass berries and petals and leaves that RUIN my early spring/autumn.

[allaboutme]

We are thinking about getting a pool too, but I am surprised at how the opinions of pool contractors vary. We have talked to one person that said gunite is the best and only way to go, price wise it seems expensive ($70,000). Then another contractor stated: vinyl pools are just as nice, but may not hold up in our soil (40,000). The latest person said we should do a pond style pool, because they are the "best", 6ft deep would be 70,000. All 3 contractors claim the other 2 styles won't work for many reasons..