The cost of owning a pool

When we decided to buy a house, we were NOT interested in owning a pool.  I am not much of a water person to start with.  Add in the time and energy it takes to keep up a pool, and we just weren't interested.

Then we started shopping for a house.  After looking at a dozen homes...we found out that the homes in our price range were dumps.  D-U-M-P-S.  We looked at houses that had sheetrock falling off the wall.  The house that had so many pet stains on the hardwood, that it was almost rotting.  The house with the black carpet.

We were just about to give up and bump up the price point when we found our house.  Unfortunately....it DID have an above ground pool.  Additionally, the upper level of the deck was built to be flush with the top of the pool, so if we removed the pool, the deck would just be floating there....PLUS, the cost of collapsing the pool, digging out the sand level base, and then having to redo the yard....we decided to just keep the pool.


OK...it isn't bad when it is super hot.....but for the first several years of the kids' lives, we never used it.  We did have to still keep it up, and add chemicals, and clean it.  But we didn't GO IN IT. 

In the time we have owned our house (almost 10 years), we have had to replace the sand in the filter, replace the cover, replace the solar cover (twice).  Patched it a few times.  Buy new scrub brush. A new vacuum hose. Buy a new skimmer.  Plus the chemicals.  And the electricity to run the pump.  And the water to refill the pool from evaporation and from lowering the level for winterization.

We have to weed all around the pool, and then put mulch down (or deal with the weeds).  The outflow part when you vacuum the pool floods part of the yard.

I really don't like the pool.

Now...the liner has sprung another leak and it will have to be replaced.  This means draining the pool, removing the old liner, and laying a new one.  Not sure if we can do it ourselves and get a good result, so we may have to have someone come in and do it.  Last thing I want is to install it incorrectly and negate the warranty.

Isn't this all super?  Oh, and we need ANOTHER solar cover too.

So this weekend we have to research all of this and figure out the cost.  We know the liner is a few hundred dollars, and now we have to figure out the installation part (US vs THEM).  I think the little "extra" we had is going, going, GONE.

If we are ever able to move...I will not even consider LOOKING at a house with a pool.  Don't care how great the house is.  WILL NOT DO IT.  Nope.  I have never figured out the total cost of what we have spent on the pool....but I can guarantee you that it is way more than the enjoyment we actual get from the pool.

Now that the kids are going on 9...they love the pool.  And that is the only reason we are fixing it.  If the kids weren't in the picture, I would consider collapsing it and doing all that other stuff.  But for the kids...we will fix the pool.

We better have a HOT summer.