Hi all,
We're in the preliminary stages of getting a pool. No contract is signed, but we know the PB we're going with, and have an idea of what we'll be getting. I plan to post the specs in a future post to get feedback, but just wanted to get an opinion about size.
We've had the PB out twice to answer questions and site the pool. We have two locations to choose from (so we think). We live in a somewhat rocky area, so concerns about siting the pool might be moot if we hit rock during a dig. Initially, the PB gave us a quote on a 20X32 mountain lake pool. Even on paper, I knew that would be too small, so we did ask him to come back out and spray the outline of a 23X37, as well as a 23X42 mountain lake. We like the larger size, but realize it will be more expensive, and it may not fit in the desired location without a lot of tree removal, retaining wall, $$$. Our PB says the larger size is "just massive", but just going by the outline, it felt like a nice size. Growing up, I had a pool that was an 18X36 rectangle. For some reason the 23X37 mountain lake feels quite a bit smaller than the 18X36 rectangle (I do occasionally still swim in it, as it's at my parents' house, so it's not some distant memory).
My question is: Does the spray painted outline of a pool feel smaller than the actual pool, once it's in the ground? Our PB says it's like framing a house, where the initial slab or crawlspace area feels small, but once it's all framed and sheathed, the house feels much bigger. If this is the case, I think we could be happy with the medium size, and save some money + hopefully get the pool in the desired location. We wouldn't need the retaining wall, the actual pool would be cheaper (albeit slightly), and the trees we'd need to remove would be fewer. We definitely don't want to have regret at getting a pool that's too small, but at the same time, I don't want to stretch the budget so much on the actual pool that we don't feel like we can spend money on other aspects of the "outdoor living" experience. Obviously the PB could just be trying to sell me a smaller sized pool, for whatever reason, but I do have some trust that he *knows* what he's talking about. On the other hand, it's a fairly expensive mistake that we'd have to live with if we're disappointed by the size.
Initially, we thought we wanted a diving board, and so we were quoted an 8 foot depth. The slope created by wanting an 8 foot depth, coupled with having interior steel stairs covered with the liner in the shallow end (aesthetic decision), made the 23X37 pool's useable shallow area feel woefully inadequate. We do not want exterior stairs because we think they'll break up the organic shape of the mountain lake. We also do not want white plastic stairs in the interior of the pool, either, as we feel they'll be less visually appealing. If we do go with the 23X37 pool, we're thinking of doing a 7 foot depth in the deep end, thereby reducing the slope, and giving us *hopefully* more useable shallow area.
Our family has 2 adults and 2 young kids (5 and 1). We want to be the house where our children and their friends congregate as they grow up, so we'd like to err on the side of more pool. But if that could be had in the 23X37 size....
Thoughts?
Thanks!
Laura
We're in the preliminary stages of getting a pool. No contract is signed, but we know the PB we're going with, and have an idea of what we'll be getting. I plan to post the specs in a future post to get feedback, but just wanted to get an opinion about size.
We've had the PB out twice to answer questions and site the pool. We have two locations to choose from (so we think). We live in a somewhat rocky area, so concerns about siting the pool might be moot if we hit rock during a dig. Initially, the PB gave us a quote on a 20X32 mountain lake pool. Even on paper, I knew that would be too small, so we did ask him to come back out and spray the outline of a 23X37, as well as a 23X42 mountain lake. We like the larger size, but realize it will be more expensive, and it may not fit in the desired location without a lot of tree removal, retaining wall, $$$. Our PB says the larger size is "just massive", but just going by the outline, it felt like a nice size. Growing up, I had a pool that was an 18X36 rectangle. For some reason the 23X37 mountain lake feels quite a bit smaller than the 18X36 rectangle (I do occasionally still swim in it, as it's at my parents' house, so it's not some distant memory).
My question is: Does the spray painted outline of a pool feel smaller than the actual pool, once it's in the ground? Our PB says it's like framing a house, where the initial slab or crawlspace area feels small, but once it's all framed and sheathed, the house feels much bigger. If this is the case, I think we could be happy with the medium size, and save some money + hopefully get the pool in the desired location. We wouldn't need the retaining wall, the actual pool would be cheaper (albeit slightly), and the trees we'd need to remove would be fewer. We definitely don't want to have regret at getting a pool that's too small, but at the same time, I don't want to stretch the budget so much on the actual pool that we don't feel like we can spend money on other aspects of the "outdoor living" experience. Obviously the PB could just be trying to sell me a smaller sized pool, for whatever reason, but I do have some trust that he *knows* what he's talking about. On the other hand, it's a fairly expensive mistake that we'd have to live with if we're disappointed by the size.
Initially, we thought we wanted a diving board, and so we were quoted an 8 foot depth. The slope created by wanting an 8 foot depth, coupled with having interior steel stairs covered with the liner in the shallow end (aesthetic decision), made the 23X37 pool's useable shallow area feel woefully inadequate. We do not want exterior stairs because we think they'll break up the organic shape of the mountain lake. We also do not want white plastic stairs in the interior of the pool, either, as we feel they'll be less visually appealing. If we do go with the 23X37 pool, we're thinking of doing a 7 foot depth in the deep end, thereby reducing the slope, and giving us *hopefully* more useable shallow area.
Our family has 2 adults and 2 young kids (5 and 1). We want to be the house where our children and their friends congregate as they grow up, so we'd like to err on the side of more pool. But if that could be had in the 23X37 size....
Thoughts?
Thanks!
Laura
