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- My family was not wealthy, but we always had a pool. Cheaper than vacation.
- After my husband and I sold our first home, when we were buying the house, we gave them points for the pool.
- But after losing a lot of bidding wars, we decided to make our dream come true by buying a house without a pool.
My family moved many times during my childhood, but one thing always remained the same no matter where we lived. That said, there was always a pool in the backyard.
The pool has always been a 24-foot-tall circular above-ground pool that my parents purchased and installed themselves. We never had a lot of money, so it seems strange in hindsight that they were consistently making such extravagant purchases, but we weren’t as far inland as we ever were. Living in the Midwest, I’d say a backyard oasis is still cheaper and easier than a 100 cross-country seaside holiday that’s been going on for over 60 years.
As a child, I enjoyed going to pools, but as an adult, I found the above-ground pools of my youth to be aesthetically displeasing and the in-ground pools to be the equivalent of private jets. Wealthy people spend unnecessary money because they have money to burn. . But when my husband and I started looking for a second home and learned that many homes in our price range already had in-ground pools, my perspective on this changed.
My husband and I searched for a house with a pool in vain
I found these houses to be of particular interest. I could see my kids with birthdays in the summer having party venues for the rest of their lives. Every summer, I envisioned having weekend entertainment built into my home, having drinks in shallow water with friends and entertaining out-of-town guests. Nevertheless, even though my imagination was completely running wild, and no matter how expensive the offer was, I had a hard time finding someone who would let me buy a house to fulfill this fantasy. It seems that
We continued to be disappointed, but with our failed offer for #5, the largest pool in history, becoming a pool owner seemed more like a non-negotiable than a pipe dream. I felt it. Her husband also agreed. So when I found a cute house in a nice neighborhood with all the bedrooms and square footage on my wish list, I didn’t understand how I could overlook the obvious deal breaker that the house doesn’t have a pool. . But I had a plan.
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I figured out a way to raise money to build a swimming pool in my new house.
The house was priced at $80,000, below our stretch budget of $360,000, so we decided we could take some of the capital from the sale of our previous home and build our own pool. After a quick Google search, I was optimistic that the price for this effort would be around $30,000. The backyard was huge, so I thought there would be space. After all, if you’re going to spend more money on a house with a pool, why not just buy one?
First of all, obviously, the average in-ground pool costs well over $30,000. Try something around $80,000. $360,000 was the highest of our budget, but not really what we wanted to spend. Knowing all the hidden expenses that come with buying a home, I knew I couldn’t maximize my budget on pools. act wisely. It turned out to be no problem. Because even though it looks as big as our backyard, its odd shape quickly violates city ordinances in all the wrong ways, making my dream 20-foot-by-30 pool unrealizable. Because I found out. .
Despite all these unflattering revelations, I spent far too much time imagining a party that began with a five-course dinner served poolside and ended with a dance-off scene from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” , dissuaded. I kept digging and researching my options. I learned that pool prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic and the waiting list is very long. The unusual shape of our garden meant we couldn’t get the pool I envisioned, but it turns out that this restriction can actually solve all the problems.
The pool guy I decided to work with said 12ft by 24ft was the largest pool we could build because of easements. With size restrictions and she has 3 kids under 10 we decided a deep pool was unnecessary but still didn’t want an above ground pool. This made fully buried semi-underground (pools in the ground without deep edges) the only option. Add all the extras like heat pumps and the semi-underground cost him $40,000. Not only was this close to our original budget, but it allowed us to skip the waiting list and break ground on the pool in a matter of days. months instead of years. we wrote the check.
I couldn’t be more happy with my pool purchase
I’m not going to lie. Not necessarily good when you consider all the compromises I’ve made between scoring extra points in the pool during a house hunt to blowing $40,000 worth of stock in a 12-foot-by-24-foot hall in the house. It’s not an investment, but I feel like I made a big mistake. But then I had to ask myself. What went wrong?
We have friends already planning to celebrate the christening of the pool with a bottle of wine when it opens in May of this year. She plans to throw her three pool-themed birthday parties, a date on the patio with her husband, a barbecue with friends, and a sleepover party with her cousin, which she sells out every day for five months in a row. I plan as much as possible. Looking at the summer itinerary we built around the pool, I can see all my dreams coming true.
Sure, we could have taken the capital we had budgeted for the pool and paid more for the house instead. Or I could have kept that money and saved it for years to buy something more luxurious that my kids would enjoy. When they come home from college, we choose ourselves. And if I had to redo the whole thing, I would make it again.
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The pool is fine for us but not for everyone. For others, it might be a trip to Europe, a degree with a reputation for uselessness, or a speedboat. As they spend hours researching online with their fingers on the buy button, they shout in their heads, “Really? Is that a converted school bus? I have retirement plans.” dreams.
But if we’ve learned anything from spending a lot of money on what amounts to an enormous luxury, it’s that when we allocate money to fund our dreams, whatever it is, even when the money is gone , is that we can still live the dream. And what do you have to regret about it?
This article was originally published in November 2021.