Wife wants pool, came here to be talked out of it.

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jdsaengine

jdsaengine

Well-known member
Oct 2, 2018
92
Indy Area, Indiana
As the title says, for 20yr the wife always wanted an in ground pool and I always resisted (too much $$, too much work, poor resale value etc). For several years I ran the neighborhood pool, cleaning it every day, checking chemicals, chasing out the ducks, removing dead squirrels and rabbits from skimmers, so I know the drill. So now we are approaching 70yr and will be in this house for another 10yr I guess and she wants a pool for the kids and grandkids to come over and enjoy. I've been lurking here for a while to pick up tips on systems, pool types and ALL the problems people seem to have on chemistry. If we pull the trigger, we would get a smallish fiberglass pool, 12' x 26', 8000 gal, salt water with gas heater. Central Indiana has about 4 mo of pool season, and the wife likes the water to be hot.

I'm mechanically inclined(built and restored cars and hot rods and built our previous house ourselves) and the time to maintain the thing daily or fix things don't really bother me, and even might give me something to do in retirement, So. . . I need to get this idea of a pool fired up in my head.
 
Welcome to the forum! :wave: Since wives tend to speak to each other and have their own secret network :blah: :blah:, we tend to agree with the wife as well. :) Make sure to start at our ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry page to get brushed up on some things, then save/read those Vital Links below in my signature. They'll get you ready. Welcome!
 
Getting to watch your grand kids swim would be great, that should make it worthwhile all by itself.
It will give them a reason to come visit, so you'll get to see more of them, probably your wife's grand plan.

Maybe add a small spa that you can heat to your wife's liking?
Or make sure there is an easy way to cover/uncover the pool, covers really help maintain the heat.

Good luck with the pool
 
Worst investment you can make, zero or no return, yearly operating costs, broken down equipment purchases and chemicals.

If you are planning on taking your money with you when you die, don’t do it.

If you want to build memories, watch your grand kids swim in glee, enjoy the outdoors, host pool parties and generally start enjoying your money, then I say go for it. Second option would be a cottage by a lake or ocean, great investment and everyone will be coming for weekends.
 
We used our pool a lot when the kids were teens and it was new. Then when the grandkids came along, we used it all the time then too. For us it was about 20 years of fun. But after that, it now fers used a handful of days a year. But we maintain it constantly (in Texas the pool is never really closed down). Nothing drastic, nothing you didn't mention. If I could get rid if it now I would, but it was really a hub of activity for all the kids and their friends the first 20 years or so. It was indeed our "kid magnet".
 
Welcome to TFP! Good to have you here :)

I'm recently retired as well, and before our latest pool, I didn't know about Trouble Free Pool Care (TFPC) and shared some of the same fear about maintenance time. But now with TFPC, it's not much work at all - approx an hour a week to keep it looking great. For me, it's less work than the same square footage of lawn and garden beds. There are a few annual tasks and a bit more effort before going away.

I now do four family pools (best unpaid job I can think of!), so I sort of 'test' the minimum effort because of the driving time and needing to provide simple methods when I'm out of town. In winter I go once a month, and once a week in summer. I go twice if there's anything I'm concerned about. Overall, I've been very impressed with TFPC, so the pool school here is really helpful reading.

You're on the right track considering SWCG, which makes a big difference in maintenance time. One of the pools is on liquid chlorine, so I have to add the time to go get chlorine, but even that one is not too bad (I leave pre-measured jugs for my mother-in-law to pour in between visits). I would add a robotic cleaner to your list of features for the cleaning advantages, or if that's too much, then a suction cleaner left in the pool to keep the bottom tidy.

I like a sand filter for the simplicity, but an over-sized cartridge filter might only need cleaning once or twice a year and would also be a good choice for low maintenance. TFPC pools don't need as much filter maintenance as typical pools because there's no algae lurking at a low population and filling the filter.

Good luck with your decision!
 
Or you could be like our family, in-laws built a pool for all 6 grandboys (3 families with kids 3-7 years old). We all found out all ours kids love the pool so much we all built our own. :p
 
We built a pool when we built our new home for retirement. Our kids (and now grandkids) loved it so much that my son bought a new house with his own pool. So the bad news is the grandkids now swim in their own pool. The only good news is that their house (and pool) is directly across the street from our house.
 

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I say do it. I’m doing it for some family time. Any time I can get my teens off of their phones without being upset with me is a win in my book. One day in the future I hope grand kids will come and enjoy it as well. I like to exercise too so adding some swimming to my routine will be good(easier on the joints than running). The thought of being able to jump in a pool to cool off after a run in the sweltering Texas heat might be worth it alone! I’m not worried about resale value either. We built this house 10-yrs ago with the idea of this as our forever house.

The memories I hope we will build in our backyard will far outweigh the cost. Family time is irreplaceable, especially in our fast paced society. To quote Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you just might miss it”. Good luck!
 
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