Pools
 

We are in the Midwest an hr or so from Chicago. So we moved into this house 1 1/2 yrs ago and not paying attention about how sunny it gets in the backyard. Well this year we want to have a pool and had our minds set on it. Until yesterday someone coming around about solar panels said that we only get the sun from about 8am until 11 am or 12pm. We also have the neighbors pine trees near the back fence which some branches are hanging over so we were going to trim them. And the we have a big tree and a couple of those branches we could trim back too. I do see the sun shining through the trees in the afternoon around 5pm. but still some what shady.
My question is what do you guys think…do we get a pool? Would it be worth the time to go through all of that? Of course it would be a 10 or 12 ft above aground.

We had a pool in our last house. A lot of sun wasn't fun. We preferred to have shade in the afternoon. Pool maintenance was everyday no matter if tree dropping or not. I don't know how the roomba pool units do that are available.But it won't remove floating thing. When we sold our house my husband said no more pool please. No good pool service around our area and the one that was the closest was very expensive with a yearly contract. Also our insurance was higher with a pool. We enjoyed it when the kids were home and we were younger too. I say a pool is worth it if you have kids at home or you plan on using a pool a lot.

Lol.... I had to look up a 12ft above ground pool.....I was thinking deep.🤣🤣 When Google showed me diameter I felt foolish.
In all seriousness, DH owns his own construction company, he cannot count on his two hands how many pools he has filled in for home owners over the years.

Yes we enjoy a pool and hen it is hot. I hen we lived in Ga we had a pool. And now we have grand and great kids that come over. The pool we want isn’t very deep less than 4ft.

I love having a pool! And a hot tub! I've been using the hot tub since March! It takes little time to heat up. Now that the cold fronts have ended, I heated up the pool last weekend once and it stays warmer! We are expecting temps in 90s next week.

We put in a pool in 2000 at previous home. Kids were younger/teens. Thought it was for them, but we used it the most. An outside bathroom was an essential alternative to dripping through house to bathroom. The "cabana" had a sink, tiled surface, and a fridge. But we were in the country, so mice, etc. were a small nuisance. Also, had 2 oak trees that provided shade in afternoon. They dropped pollen in the spring, and leaves in the fall!

Then we moved to the city for a few years, knowing it was temporary. No pool. Well. the hot tub liquidation commercial came on tv. Let's just go look... They delivered and set it up! It was before Covid and cost around $6,000. Worked great for the small backyard we now had. We could drain it and refill it easily. It stayed clean with a cover that folded back. It worked, but it was not a pool. My mantra was, "My next house will have a pool".

Now, in our new home/ranchette, we have a pool with an elevated hot tub that flows into the pool. Lovely, relaxing water feature when rocking on back porch. No trees around it to drop stuff in pool.

You live near Chicago? How many days will it be comfortable to be in water outside? How do you plan to use your pool? Swimming laps, soaking in the sun, ...
The hot tub might me a viable option.

We are pool killers. We have filled in two. Reasons were lack of sunlight which meant exorbitant heating costs, the short length of time it was comfortable to use each year, expensive and/or lack of pool maintenance supplies/personnel, higher (much higher!!) insurance costs and the list goes on.

The first thing you should do if you are a responsible home owner, is to check what your community/city's bylaws are, regarding pools. Often, a fence of a certain height and a locking gate are required--even if it is an above ground pool. The second thing is to check your home owner's insurance and liability.

Having and using a pool in Georgia is hugely different from where you live now.

In our center of Illinois we saw many houses with pools. I think it would be a local jurisdiction sort of thing but I was amazed at the lack of fencing on many of them -- had never seen such a thing before.

My suggestion would be to try a 10-12 foot wading pool this year. Amazon has many options for under $100 -- of course no deck or filters etc. and a lower water level but it should give you a good idea.

And remember, the cicada-geddon this year only happens every 14-17 years most of the time!

We moved into a house with a pool. We loved it. After about 30 -35 years it had to be filled in. I miss it everyday in the summer months.

You could try an above ground to see if you like it. They are a lot of work. We had a temporary one about 3 ft deep when our son was small. I was so glad when that thing came down. It was big enough for him to swim and me to float.

The pool we would be getting is an above ground 10 or 12 ft around and anyway from 33” to 42” deep. We just don’t know about the sun only being from 8 am to 12 pm.