As if I don't have enough 'projects'

We have a hot tub that gets dumped and refilled every three months (fun in winter, planning is key), bromine tablets, shock, cleaner, filters, and I'm comfortable with the cost. A pool, I can only imagine.
 
Fill it in and build a garage on top of it, then you'll have something useful.
 
When we moved to Canoga Park, out in the west end of the San Fernando Valley in 1966, from Catonsville we all though let's get a pool. Right, that is what one thinks when new to Southern California back then. Many on the new street were doing it. So we got one along with several neighbors. Naturally we didn't always use our pool as we could go to our friend's house and so on. It also became obvious that my father was not going to do the work and he rarely was in the pool. So it fell to the oldest to sweep the pool and change out the diatomaceous cleaning filter. Yuk! Naturally my father rarely went it. By the way have you ever swept a pool after a few days of a Santa Ana wind? Lovely time as you end up with at least two inches of dirt on the bottom. I wasn't a fan after awhile. I know I have a picture of the brand new pool somewhere.

Then we move to San Diego and the guy who built our house lives a block away. he asks my father if I would like to clean his pool for pay. Yeah, I did it as there are no Santa Ana winds there. The damn filter was under the house making that a PIA. Then I got his brother's house and did the two between the age of 15-16 at which point I got my car. From there I got a more professional job that paid very well and got me a company car at the age of 18. The man who built our house also owned a Datsun dealership and offered me a brand new on the market 240Z ahead of the long waiting list. All I had to do was sell my Cougar. I declined and as you know still have the Cougar.

My take on the pool... FILL IT IN!
 
Found them. Pool equipment in the background. Pool just finished. No landscaping. End of SF Valley in one shot. Me at 13 smiling before I find out it is basically my pool.
pool_01.jpg
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pool_03.jpg
 
GJS said:
Who the hell thought swimming pools were a good idea?

My Father always said (he's always been a gruff 'tough love' type) "Gavin, swimming pools are for rich a**holes who can pay to have their a**es wiped." I saw his logic even when I was young.

Flash forward 40 some odd years, we buy this house. Don't get me wrong, the place is gold. Like nothing I ever thought I'd have. However, I had my misgivings on two points:

1.) Close to 3 acres of grass to mow with steep hills
2.) Big ole kidney shaped swimming pool in very questionable condition

Point one was pretty simple. Bought a zero turn, use a push mower on the hills. Not ideal but certainly gives me good exercise and zero turns are fun.

Point two:
View attachment 190354 View attachment 190355
So, the pool was built in 1983 and in service until 2013 when a dog got in it and ripped the liner. In 2014 a new liner was put in, the pool was used for the summer then closed. Over the course of the last 4 years, it developed a tear around the light, drained, floated the liner in the deep end, shrunk the liner on the stairs in the shallow end, filled up with LOTS of dead stuff, bred mosquitos, cracked a filter tube ....

We drained her as far as we could last night. Theres about 4" of water over 6-7" of DEATH there and we don't even know if the concrete survived.

Bottom line, assuming the concrete is ok is $11,000.00 but that could easily reach 20 if there are structural problems. Trying to tell my wife that anything short of filling it in a piss poor idea is impossible.

A car? Hell yea, I'll screw with that all day long ..................WTF? I NEVER EVEN WANTED A POOL!
Click to expand...
When we shopped, Viv loved the idea of a pool. I wanted someplace I could drive into the back yard and might get to build an accessory garage one day... I figured out the pool issues pretty quick. Around here, for new construction and most sales, you need a gate system to keep little ones out... which ruins the ambiance and makes it a bigger PITA IMO. It just takes up "non-permeable" real estate with an expensive and useless hole in the ground. Old ones are going to cost you $$ whenever they chose.

One of the houses we kinda liked had a really deluxe big pool... The folks prior were disgruntled by their foreclosure enough to drain the pool which literally exploded out of the ground during the next good rainstorm. It looked like a bomb hit it... giant chunks of concrete sticking up at all sorts of crazy angles. My deductive reasoning was kicking in trying to figure out how to turn that into garage space, but the community was built without enough clearance to get a car to the backyard. I'm glad we passed that one.

I wouldn't want the hassles here, I can't fathom one there. My guess would be your pool sitting empty has lots of fun structural issues from being empty and from freezing. I would never trust any repairs had completely restored it.
 
cantflip said:
When we shopped, Viv loved the idea of a pool. I wanted someplace I could drive into the back yard and might get to build an accessory garage one day... I figured out the pool issues pretty quick. Around here, for new construction and most sales, you need a gate system to keep little ones out... which ruins the ambiance and makes it a bigger PITA IMO. It just takes up "non-permeable" real estate with an expensive and useless hole in the ground. Old ones are going to cost you $$ whenever they chose.

One of the houses we kinda liked had a really deluxe big pool... The folks prior were disgruntled by their foreclosure enough to drain the pool which literally exploded out of the ground during the next good rainstorm. It looked like a bomb hit it... giant chunks of concrete sticking up at all sorts of crazy angles. My deductive reasoning was kicking in trying to figure out how to turn that into garage space, but the community was built without enough clearance to get a car to the backyard. I'm glad we passed that one.

I wouldn't want the hassles here, I can't fathom one there. My guess would be your pool sitting empty has lots of fun structural issues from being empty and from freezing. I would never trust any repairs had completely restored it.
Click to expand...
This is the issue, we just don't know and won't till the liner gets out.... it could be just too far gone. The only certainty I have is that the pool will be a gigantic PITA either way.
 
So far, I haven't seen one single post justifying a pool.
What does that tell ya.

FWIW, I wouldn't trade this for a gazillion bucks:

7161c6594d7279896d44a0fafe9811f910fd3a4a-1S_1280.jpg
 
DSC00069.JPG
When the girls were young we made the decision to not put in an in ground pool rather go with a temporary above ground as long as the kids were interested. It was a good strategy since once they were past 10 years old they completely lost interest. At that point we decided to go with a more natural water feature in the back yard consisting of two small ponds connected by a stream. Water circulation is handled by a 1200 gph pump using about as much energy as a light bulb. This is what our back yard looks like now.
 
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Fratzog said:
View attachment 190613 When the girls were young we made the decision to not put in an in ground pool rather go with a temporary above ground as long as the kids were interested. It was a good strategy since once they were past 10 years old they completely lost interest. At that point we decided to go with a more natural water feature in the back yard consisting of two small ponds connected by a stream. Water circulation is handled by a 1200 gph pump using about as much energy as a light bulb. This is what our back yard looks like now.
Click to expand...
What the heck is that red bush in the foreground?
 
Wow! Just WOW!
Crime that your summers are so short up there.
Martha Stuart couldn't have done as beautiful a job.
Nice work. I'm sure Mrs.Fratzog deserves some kudos.
 
When my boy's were young we had a quick set pool it worked good but I am glad they are grown and we are done with the pool thing
 
Bought our house with an above ground pool. Pools are a money pit between chemicals, pump repairs, toping it off with water, replacing the cover every few years etc... When my son hit his early teens and found girls his interest in the pool and his desire to help maintain it went south so when it needed a liner, down it came and part of the 40 x 32 garage I built in my back yard sits where the pool was.
 
You know, just kinda thinking but, with about 2.5 acres of cleared land including the pool all filled in... considering I already have a garage and a shop....
FCBO Show Grounds New England?
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