My family has never owned a pool before, not unless you count inflatable pools. LOL! Thankfully my great-grandparents lived next door and they had a pool so at least my cousins and I had a place to cool off during the dog days of summer.
We are currently house hunting in hopes of moving out of our condo and owning an actual house with a yard. Four people, five cats and a dog in a small one bedroom condo just doesn’t cut it anymore.
We have five houses that we are planning on going to see two weeks from now. Two of the five houses have a pool. My kids are super excited about the idea of having a pool, but my husband is dead set against it. He says pool maintenance is just way too expensive. He doesn’t even want to look at houses with pools because he feels that knocking a pool down is too much work and he won’t even look at houses with in-ground pools because he feels they would be impossible to cover up without spending a small fortune.
I’m curious to know from my readers who have pools, or who have had pools – is it worth it? Does owning a pool cost a lot of money for the upkeep and maintenance? Are they more of a inconvenience than fun? Please feel free to comment on your pool ownership experiences.
Personally I would love to have a pool. I’m a very “Rubenesque” woman and the idea of being in a bathing suit in front of others is not fun for me. When my family goes to our condo pool I stay home. I don’t want to be seen in a bathing suit.
If we had our own pool I would probably be in it all the time, especially if I don’t have to worry about someone seeing me in my bathing suit. Not only that swimming is a good low-impact form of exercise.
What are your thoughts on owning a pool? I’d love to hear all the pros and cons.
Kimberly
About Kimberly
Pools are great to have for the fun and exercise they provide, if they’re properly fenced for safety. The downside is the maintenance……daily skimming and cleaning, periodic filter cleaning, cost of chemicals, liner/surface repair when needed and winterizing/covering depending on where you live.. You will quickly tire of doing all of the cleaning yourselves. If you can be a tough parent, make the kids who are old enough responsible for some of the daily chores, with no one in the pool until that day’s chores are done. Be firm about this!! If you can afford it, you can hire a service to do all of the work.
If you will have to constantly worry about young children drowning, and don’t have the fortitude to enforce the kids’ cleaning schedule, and can’t afford the chemicals and possible occasional large maintainance expenses, don’t even consider pool ownership.
We owned an above-ground pool with 5 children – 2 teen-agers, ten & nine year old, and newborn who learned to swim at an early age.
Ah! Now, that’s the big question. I think the biggest issue here is safety – that’s what I’m most concern about. I have a toddler so I’d be concerned all the time when she’s out of my eye sight. I know there are safety gadgets that you can use for children’s safety around pools but you just can’t be too sure.
I’m more than happy to say that I’ve had a wonderful experience with the pool maintenance services provided by Miami Pool Tech in South FL. They’ve always been courteous and dependable in the 2 years I’ve been using their services. I’m happy to recommend them for their great service. If you need pool maintenance, check them out at http://www.miamipooltech.com
I love my pool. Love, love, love. We’ve had one for almost all of my daughter’s live (she turns 12 Friday), and I’ve never worried about safety. I think that’s just a matter of watching your kids and having limits they know (or at least for us that’s all it took). However, it is a big expense. I hate to think what I spend a year (I refuse to keep up with it) in chemicals, electricity, and water for it. And that doesn’t count the big expenses that come up from time to time like a liner, new stairs, pump, and hoses, but would I trade it for anything. NOPE! The only thing I really hate is the hassle when we go out of town. I haven’t found the trick to keeping it clean when we are going for more than a couple days (and I don’t know of anyone around here that does maintenance service) so everytime we come back it needs heavy treatment (and more money).
Pools are a lot of work and can be a big expense. Not only in chemicals but electricity for running the filter and water (especially if you need to empty for any reason). It takes a lot of work to keep clean at times – I’ve had a pool all my life and there have been years normal skimming, filter running, vacuuming, etc and the pool stays perfectly clear all season long. Other years it has taken hours upon hours each week working to keep it clear.
As for safety, I do worry about it.. we have an above ground pool and the ladder (outside part) is always taken off and stored in the locked shed when the pool isn’t in use. We have locks on the back doors (regular and higher up) and you have to go through a patio to get to the actual yard, that is also locked. My kids know from an early age not to go outside without an adult (period! not just because of the pool).. and they have always been good about it and we’ve never even had a close call or any sort, but i still worry because drownings happen so frequently around here.
That said, is it all worth it? Absolutely!!! And I’d like to think we save a tiny bit of money by having it since we don’t go a lot of places during the summer anymore because the kids just want to stay home and swim, play in the yard, swim some more (and then they are always completely exhausted at night lol). I love having the pool and so glad we decided to get another one.