What do you wish you knew before you had a pool?

[North of Mouse]

We've never owned a pool (and won't) but thought I'd mention another side. Dh was transferred often with his job, and certain areas had lots of in ground pools.
Our realtors would always ask - pool or not - and there were many homes that we liked from pics/description, but the pool was a killer, so never looked at them.
We were told more than once that pools were a liability for most sales, as there were limited buyers that actually wanted to buy them. Unless you really love them, the ins. cost and liability can be steep, plus the maintenance.

 

[DisNerdSocal]

I wish I had known just how much difference a pool would make in my electricity bills! Our former home had a pool with spillover spa, we ran the pool pump overnight because of our Labs enjoying swimming. Our electric bills regularly ran into the $600-700 range during summer with running our a/c (in Southern California). We've since purchased a new home, no pool, and our a/c bills are 1/4-1/3 of what they were when we had the pool. While I'm sure the dogs miss having a pool, the fam didn't use it enough to justify building an in-ground pool at our new home.

 

[PollyannaMom]

What do you wish you knew before you had a pool?

How much I would spend on food being the house where all the kids hang out.

Seriously, though, some years we used it a lot, other years not so much. My biggest tip (if you're not in a year-round use area) is to close it before you get bored with it at the end of the year. It's actually harder to keep the chemical balance correct when nobody's using it daily, so DH would always start to get frustrated with it near the end of the season.

 

[Hikergirl]

I’m not just saying it, I lived it. For whatever reason it fell on me to take care of the pool. It was a never ending job that I’d never want to do again. More than half the people in this thread have said they wouldn’t do it again.

This was how it was for me too.
I would have loved to have a pool that required a few minutes per week of maintenance but that was not the case for us since we are surrounded by trees. It was a daily job to make sure it was clean and testing a couple times a week, and if we went away who knew what we would come home to.
When the kids were younger we used it alot and it was nice to have, I liked being the house the friends came too. If my kids were going to be swimming I wanted to be the one watching them instead of worrying about them at someone elses house.
The older they got the less it was used, but it still had to be taken care of.
Finally a couple years ago we didn't even open it- what a relief. Now it's gone, an even bigger relief.
The pool was here when we bought the house, if it wasn't we probably would have never put one in.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

I wouldn’t want to do the work (or pay someone else to do it) for the upkeep of a pool. That is why I am glad our HOA includes a community pool. $40 a month and I have access to 4 different pools (regular, waterfall, kiddie and lap pools), a gym and hiking trails.

 

[sk!mom]

I don't mean "fantasy" in terms of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and being able to afford it financially. I mean fantasy in terms of thinking that free time will magically appear to use the thing. If you work all the time now, will that change with the arrival of the pool/RV, etc.? If the kids are at activities from dawn till dusk, will that change? If you have other hobbies you love, will they be shelved when the pool comes? If you have very little leisure time to begin with, more won't magically appear when the pool does. I've seen too many people say, "We'll use it all the time," but they aren't thinking realistically about their life. Then they regret the money spent when it goes unused. All I'm saying is to realistically look at what free time you have, how you spend it, and how that might change if you have a pool. Then do the math on whether it would really get used and if the price tag is worth that amount.

Very good points! We have friends who recently sold their RV. Before they bought it, they loved camping. A couple of times a year they rented a cabin or tent camped in state parks. They wanted the RV so they could camp “all the time.” Just as you said, they realized after a few years that they only camped a couple of times a year because that’s all the time they had and during longer vacation breaks they actually didn’t always want to camp. The expense of the RV forced them to camp for a few years and they grew tired of it.