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Rayoh -> RE: Do you have a pool? (6/20/2008 11:30:35 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: stampinlady
I thought there was a thread about this, but maybe it got old. Anyway, we're thinking about buying a Doughboy above ground pool soon and I'm just not 100% sure I want one. We have enough room and I love to swim, Our kids are old enough and swim. I love the idea of having their friends over and making our home a fun place to hang. Any thoughts?
This is our third summer of having a Doughboy above ground pool. It's 28 ft.
My thoughts on it. The start of the season each year I go through a period of regret getting it. Each year it has cost us about $200-$300 getting it cleared up for the summer season and in swimming condition. Even winterizing it you will spend money getting it ready. That is just the beginning not counting regular stuff to maintain it during the summer.
Once it's clear though my regrets go away because we do enjoy it a lot. Our electricity does go up about $40 more a month but we run our pump non stop. After the initial part of getting it clear I don't think it's that bad. All I usually am buying for it is shock and these blue stretchy things to put over the skimmer basket that help to collect smaller particle stuff, and some chlorine sticks. The chemicals are very expensive though especially at the pool place. I think one bag of shock is like $6.99. We use about one of those a week depending on how many new swimmers we have in the pool during the week. Once we get it cleared up I sometimes buy that type of thing elsewhere cheaper. It's just little stuff I'm buying but it does add up over the summer.
I was really scared what it was going to cost to clear it up this summer. Our cover ripped last winter and was floating on the water all winter. So leaves and all kinds of stuff got in there. It looks like new now and crystal clear and cost us $200. That was less then last year. Although I did have some of the stuff the print out said we needed, from the water sample, on hand. Or that probably would've been an extra $50.
We aren't as dedicated as some of the other posters that have commented. We vacuum once a week. If it looks like it needs it sometime during the week then we do it. We clean the skimmer basket daily. That takes all of a few minutes and no big deal. We brush it daily which again is no big deal because we are in there anyway so just do it while we are in there. We don't sample the water daily. About once a week to check the balance etc.. of everything. If there has been a lot of rain or kids had a lot of people over we check it more often. Again it's not a big deal. Stick the strip in the water and compare the colors on a chart. Doesn't take long at all. Once we get it where it's suppose to be we do the weekly maintance of shock etc.. the pool place suggested. I don't take a water sample in weekly either. More like once a month once we've got it where it needs to be. We must be doing something right though because there has never been any problem come up when I've taken in the sample.
There were different chemicals you could go with as well. We went with the Nature 2 and it uses less chlorine so you don't have that smell etc...
Another thing is your water source and if you have hard water. We live in the country so when we first got ours and filled it up it took a while to get things balanced out because of our water.
There are pros and cons and I also think it depends on where you live. For me there are more pros than cons. As I mentioned we live in the country. It's 30 miles to either town that has a pool. That is a long way to go to just swim a few hours especially with the cost of gas now. Plus the price of getting into these places. I don't know if some places do, but I'm sure you aren't allowed to bring your own snacks/beverages at these places, so there is the added cost of stuff at the concession stand. I also just don't like swimming in public pools. I don't like worrying about if any of the kids are peeing in the water. When it's really hot they usually are so crowded you can't just take off and swim. Or it's hard to just be able to float and relax on a raft because of all the commotion going on. Those are my personal hang up's though. LOL
Since we are in the country I don't have to worry about neighbor kids sneaking over trying to get in when we are gone. I don't have kids coming over bugging all the time if they can go swim. I don't have to worry about anything but my own kids , who aren't all that little anymore. The oldest is 16 and the youngest 10. That's a lot different than if I had for example a 3 year old etc... I don't have to deal with the regulations like if I were in town needing a fence or get permission to even have one with my neighborhood.
The cost can get high but it's not really a con to me either even though I gripe about it the beginning of every season. We never go anywhere on vacation. Some people will easily spend what I do on the pool for the summer on their summer vacation. A vacation that can be lots of fun but a couple weeks long. So I might only get to use the pool 3 months out of the year but I don't mind spending the money on it since we aren't using it going on a vacation somewhere. If there is a definition of homebody in the dictionary I'm sure there would have to be a picture of my husband next to it!
We are making daily memories during the summer and yes I realize you don't need to have a pool to do that! The kids have their friends over and I know where they are and what they are up to. I go out with them but when they are all done I can also enjoy my time alone relaxing in peace on my raft. We've had lots of fun nights going out and being in the pool just looking up watching the stars. One night last summer was awesome. It was unreal the amount of stars that were out. We saw the milky way, big dipper all of that. The cool part though was the number of shooting stars and falling stars we saw. It was such a clear night you could see the tails on the shooting stars. It was so pretty. I'd never seen so many in one night.
I can't comment on what it would be like in town since I don't live in town so I'm sure there are things to deal with that might make it on the con list. Also things that put it on my pro list might not be a reality for in town. Also living in the midwest I'm not dealing with the pool year round. If I lived in a different place where I had to do it year round that might change my mind as well. I don't mind the expense several months out of the year but don't know I'd want to do it year round.
My only real con is the price of chemicals. The cleaning and all of that isn't a big deal to me.
If you aren't 100% sure I'd take some more time thinking it over,though, because it is an expense and responsibility, and not something that has to be rushed into. I've always wanted a pool. Always. We had several of those pools like you can buy at Walmart over the years and am glad we finally went ahead and got what we did.
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