Dang is this hard!!!

[cruzmisl]

Pool all the way. Boats are a poor investment. So is the pool however if you want to use it, it's located in your backyard.

If your going to waste money do it with a pool.

[cantileveredge]

You're on a pool discussion forum... what do you think they're going to say? I bet if you go to boatforum.com (or whatever) you get a different opinion. Kidding aside... I actually bought my house with the inground "swamp" included. My wife and I mucked it, I tested the equipment and lines, did some serious cleanup and repairs and we had someone drop in a liner. A couple years later I don't regret $1 of the 4 thousand plus or minus we spent on the restoration. I have three kids 5, 8, and 10 and they are in it almost every day. It is a little work but thanks to this extremely knowledgeable and helpful group it has become quite painless. I'm now looking for a boat that I can buy cheap and fix up like new. You just have to pick what you think you and you family will get the most out of. You don't get full return on either a boat or a pool. I will tell you this much, I have never decided not to get in the pool for an hour or two because I didn't feel like hooking it up and dragging it off to the lake. Good Luck!!

[hsdancer]

We built our own (couldn't afford it otherwise), and my only regret is that I wish we'd had it when our kids were younger (13 and 15 now).

One reason we built our pool hasn't been mentioned -- we want our kids' friends to come here instead of going somewhere else to hang out. Having a pool doesn't give you an instant social life, but it also gives us old folks the motivation to invite people over more often. It's instant relaxation.

I'm finding -- to my surprise -- that having a pool is like having a mini-vacation in my own yard. Sometimes when I need a break, even ten minutes, I go outside just to take a breather. I didn't expect to enjoy just sitting by the pool as much as I do.
Jo

[s6skuzy]

Thanks for all the reply's. We went this weekend to check out some pools and references for the contractor we liked. They must have all be relatives. Everyone we talked to gave this guy an A+. Not one of them had a complaint. The down side was that the size pool we were looking at seemed kind of small. We originally wanted an 16x32 rectangle, but liked the kidney style better. Bad thing is, the Kidney size we liked was the 20x40. We think that's a little bigger and more expensive than we would like. We talked to the contractor this morning who will be out tomorrow with the price of an 18x35 kidney. Hope this size works along with the price. Getting more expensive and we have not even signed yet...

[goosegunner]

We did the same thing 5 summers ago. Sold our boat, put in a pool. I did the install my self 16X32.

I can tell you there has not been day that I have missed our boat. The best thing with a pool is you can use it any time of day for brief or long periods.

You can use it several times a day.

You can use it on marginal weather days, unlike our boat if the weather looked questionable we stayed home for the day.

Nothing like walking out your door 20' to the pool and having your refrig and food right inside, no more coolers and ice. Also having your own bathroom is pretty nice ;-)

gg

[s6skuzy]

Ouch... Just received our estimate for the 18x35. Now we're at 40K without the retaining wall. Need a 4 foot at it's highest point with a total length of 110ft. The boat is not looking to bad now. This puts us out of the market it appears.

Need to start playing the lottery again...

[CarlD]

If you want to build it yourself, you can get a vinyl liner steel IG pool for about $7500--in various shapes of the size you like. You'll have to get permits, get it dug, install it, etc, but you can save SERIOUS $$ by investing sweat equity instead.

Alternatively, if you have a flat (and I mean FLAT yard) you can put up a temporary pool like an 18'x42" Intex donut or donut oval and wait for them to hassle you. You then claim it's temporary and can take it down--or see how much the fine is and if it's worth it. 18' rounds sell on sale for about $300 to $500. lowestdeal.com has them instock for UNDER $300. 15' rounds are less then $200...If they make you take it down, it's not a huge investment and you learn whow hard pool maintenance is.

I can assure you that you get just as wet and just as cool!

If' you've got a fence it may be a while before anyone notices. Most HOAs try not to get too nasty about some stuff. Just threaten to sue them and they may back off. Find out if they've hassled people about kiddy pools and if not, you've got them. A kiddy pool is temporary--so's an Intex inflatable--you HAVE to take it down for the winter.

[MarkC]

I had the same sitiation you did. I needed a retaining wall about 100 ft long and 4 ft at the highpoint. It cost about $6,000 using EP Henry Coventry stone. I could have saved half by putting the wall in myself but I was occupied installing 300 linear feet of aluminum fencing that took me a month of weekends. We put in a 16X32 kidney but I wish it was a 18X36.

[Jeffski]

I asked the kids if they wanted to sell the boat and get a pool, and they said yes. The wife and I like the boat too much to sell it so we kept it and are building the pool right now.

The wife stays home with the kids all summer so it makes sense to have a pool. We still use the boat every nice weekend or on camping trips. I wonder if we'll have less desire to take the boat out on the weekend once the pool is done? We'll see.

[Bleach=Chlorine?]

We use our pool/patio area CONSTANTLY! Never realized how much having a pool would turn the backyard into our own vacation getaway. I really voted against buying a house with a pool but was glad I was over-ruled by the wife . I really enjoy coming home from work and wondering out back to sit and relax or take a swim. Also, as someone else pointed out, we didn't have a lot of people over/parties before the pool... now it's tough to go two weeks without people FIGHTING to come over.