To pool or not too pool

To pool or not too pool, that is the question!

When we bought our new house we were adamant that the first thing we were going to do was put a pool in. We turned up at the pool shop with measurements of our yard, photos (aerial and normal), the water, sewerage, gas and electricity maps - everything! To an observer you would say we were pretty much a sure sale! The price just had to be right!

When he said the pool we wanted was around $20,000 installed we got even more excited. On the quote there was a list of "optional" extras for us to think about. We had the pool man visit us to check out the feasibility of our site and then he went through those "optional" extras. Well as it turned out a pool shops definition of "optional" and the dictionary's definition is quite different. So once we factored in the optional extras (and after some cash back deals) the pool was going to cost around $25,000. Ok still not too bad!

The we added in the tip fees, kerb fees, pool fence, decking, moving our electricity service wire (otherwise we would have a live line over the top of a pool - not a good idea) and doing some work on the water main. With just some rough estimates for some of these things we were up around $45,000! Hmmmmm we started to rethink our pool decision! I mean that's 9000 pool entry fees!

So after all our research, thinking and planning we have decided to not put a pool in for this summer!

So now that the pool is off the cards it has opened the door for other improvements to the house. We will be replacing our side fence (which half blew over in a recent storm), we will "renovate" our back garden and put it a food garden (some citrus plants, herbs, tomatoes and lettuce), and we are currently investigating solar panels!