Lets talk pools

Do I need? / want a pool?

There is no such thing as needing when it comes to a pool and believe it or not many folks get along well without. If you plan to live here full time and have some basic knowledge when it comes to pool care and maintenance they can be a wonderful thing. BUT. They require daily care and feeding just like the chickens and the cows. When a pool goes off it can be frustrating and time consuming to get it back to where it belongs. Finding a good pool builder/contractor is also another challenge. Just because you have found a house builder that came highly recommended does not make him an expert on pools. He might be very good but don't assume he really knows all the tricks of pool building. Again check the references specifically regarding his pool building, and hire the best. Also, don't cheap out on the filter system. If you ask the pool guy to give you a price on a system and he will usually under rate the requirements substantially and you will have to upgrade once you figure out the problem. By then he is long gone. Many folks get all excited about "salt water" pools. They can be a pain in the ass and finding maintenance guys that totally understand the systems involved can be a real challenge. Unless you are ready to become the "expert" stick with what is readily available and don't play around with fancy stuff. By the way. Salt water pools are "chlorinated" Google it (click here) and you will find that they employ a converter that takes the salt water and converts it to chlorine and injects it into the system. Yes there is chlorine in a salt water pool. They tend to be "cool" to talk about but be careful.

So think about it

- Are you a "handy kinda guy"?  Critical point. Seriously!
- Daily maintenance
- Chemical storage and cost
- Power costs - going up and up
- Safety issues.
- Nice big tree means lots of leaves in pool.
- Placement of pump and filter system so you do not have to listen to it all day/night
- Re the above. NO an hour a day is not enough.
- No matter what your cheap neighbour says.
- Waterfall feature
- Tile on the deck. Non skid and cool in the sun.
- Infinity feature. Super neat but hard to achieve a perfect edge.
- Privacy cuz you like to go "natural"?
- A ledge/bench underwater to sit on to chat and sip.
- Lighting effects.
- Automatic level control system (cheap, simple and worth it)

These are just a few random things that you need to consider in planning just the pool part of the project so think about it carefully. Do you need this on top of building the house, the carport, the gardeners casita, the fence/wall, the gate system and dealing with the landscaping?