Light stream is a good option for some foks. Rate will likely be in the 9s but its crazy easy. You submit your info, they pull credit, and the money is in your account in a day. Unsecured. Personal loan based off your credit score and whatever you tell them your income is. Seems borderline scamy it's so easy but I've used them and been happy. Your score does need to be pretty high though. The rate doesn't hurt too bad if you can pay it off quickly.

If you think you might hold the loan, then using your home equity might be a good place.

To add on to my previous post, I agree with those that said to upgrade the spa size some. We had a circular hot tub and added a foot in radius to what they wanted us to do. They said that was pretty large but my wife didn't want people to touch feet, so we made it bigger. It was plenty of room for 6 adults and easy to heat up quickly. The one thing I will say is that most I see are strictly hot tubs and not therapy spas. If you want therapy, I would buy the stand alone spas and add it to your backyard design.

We've built two pools in the last 10 years. Love it. My biggest piece of advice is to do an outdoor kitchen and anything else you might end up wanting out there at the same time. The most recent build is damn near perfect (for us) because of what we learned the first go-round . . . including that snippet about doing it all at once.

I have a house that was built in 15 but the pool is from 91. This wasn't disclosed during the process until we had the pool inspection done. Overall it has held up well. Needs to be resurfaced and doesn't have a spa (really miss that). Had to upgrade all the analog controls to digital I can use with an app.
If you want a heater installed make sure you put the pool equipment close to the gas meter. Our idiot builder put them on opposite corners so we would have needed 150ft of gas line minimum ($10k). So we went with a heat pump heater. It works for smaller pools with no spa and get the temp up to about 88F.
I don't have an auto fill but I have a line from a nearby faucet that runs underground and into the pool so I can fill up that way. Better than running a hose or realizing the auto fill is stuck open.
If you have little kids get a safety fence setup. You can take it down later and it also helps keep the dogs from laying down in the pool every time they go outside.
In the summer my pool gets too hot. If I had a water feature (waterfall, fountain, etc) it would keep the temp down. Since I don't I bought a $40 pvc kit that installed into an inlet port and makes my own little water feature. Lowered the temp 6-8F which made a huge difference.
I also like to have small tile put on the edges of the steps. It helps see where they are and adds a nice little look.
We resurfaced our last pool with a pebble finish. We found it to be really rough on the skin and the kids complained about their feet and hands hurting. I would look for a smoother finish if you plan to be standing in the pool alot.

Just finished ours, as mentioned by others, the advice we kept getting was to make your spa bigger than you think you need, it basically becomes a smaller pool you can use all year. Ours is about 9.5' x 6.5' and could sit 8 comfortably and its awesome. A heater big enough to also heat the pool will greatly extend your season. My only regret was not including my patio TV wall in my plans for some reason and now I'm trying to do that after the fact. We added a chiller since we wanted a dark finish, small pool and the backyard is on the south side, so knew it would become a bathtub by July. Remains to be seen how that will work. But so far love it despite being against them for a long time, but the process was still a PITA and no mattet who you use, there will be issues that arise. Everything is controlled via an app these days, we can be at dinner and turn on the spa to be ready when we get home. Financed thru Frost Bank, they have a good program.

I would be happy to help answer questions and direct you to good contractors in different parts of the state/country

Also happy to review proposals or specs if that's helpful

Thanks and gig em!

I was saving up in an after tax brokerage account and sold out of it when the market was in pretty good shape in terms of my returns, so I sold positions and paid cash for the pool. I was lucky to do the pool contract before Covid…I paid the last milestone payment the first week of March 2020.

Love my pool. Small, but didn't really need a big one because at least 75% of the time it's a "water feature" that one would sit by and enjoy, so designed as a "water feature" that you could get in. Just large enough to swim circular laps and small enough to keep heated as desire or required. Agree with the previous auto-fill feature remark. Not a huge deal, but wish I had added it. Operate it year round.

Love our pool, cant imagine summer without it.
Both of my kids had severe eczema. Met a builder that does a high alkaline, oxygenated system that uses very little chlorine. The pool cured my kids' eczema in 2 weeks! We were on every trial, every program possible thru pedi dermatology in Houston. Nothing helped until the pool. I would pay the price 10x over for that relief for them.

What it means for me....i bought a robot i turn on in the mornings, put anti algae goo in 1x per month, put a handful of mini chlorine tabs in the skimmer. Thats it. Insanely easy to maintain and cheap compared to all my neighbors.

Cant speak about financing, didnt use it. But before you go through a "pool finance" look and see if a cash out heloc is more competitive.

Just finished ours in B/CS! Love it and excited for our girls to grow up with a pool. Only thing I'd say to look for is whatever you think your landscaping is going to cost, double it. We found ourselves adding on things while the area was torn up so it'd be more of a one and done type deal.

lawless89 said:

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Just finished ours in B/CS! Love it and excited for our girls to grow up with a pool. Only thing I'd say to look for is whatever you think your landscaping is going to cost, double it. We found ourselves adding on things while the area was torn up so it'd be more of a one and done type deal.

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Look at Purple Leaf umbrellas. Your pool is gonna heat up fast and high!

I'd skip the umbrellas and go straight for sun sails. Umbrellas are good for covering people, but tough to get the angles needed for any meaningful, consistent shade over the water. At least in my experience, and I already have a fairly shaded pool

I'm considering a pool for a small area and have come across the precast plunge pools. Two of my three kids will be out of the house this fall so I don't have the kid traffic as much as in the past and want something to relax in with less maintenance. Anyone have experience with these? I've seen a 15x8 or 16x10 that would be perfect for my space.

MrWonderful said:

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I'd skip the umbrellas and go straight for sun sails. Umbrellas are good for covering people, but tough to get the angles needed for any meaningful, consistent shade over the water. At least in my experience, and I already have a fairly shaded pool

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Mostly agree with you. However, my wife thinks sails are insanely tacky and didnt want something permanent. The purple leaf are big ebough to cover his pool, rotate 360, and invert. The base is rollable and it disassembles easily with one person.
But again, if you dont mind adding poles and having sails then i agree...great option.

No time to read the whole thread so some of this might be redundant but…

- I think a hot tub is a must. The pool isn't usable for 1/2 the year unless you heat it (expensive) or really enjoy cold water (weirdo).
- upsize the hot tub…we added a foot to the diameter and would maybe even go bigger next time. It's much more manageable to heat when needed and can be used year round.
- we love our sun shelf with bubbler (water feature).
- DIY water treatment and pool maintenance isn't terrible but it can be a pain if you have trees around.
- if you ever experience a leak…first place to check is behind pool/hot tub light. I learned that the hard way and spent hundreds on leak detection for something I could've fixed myself for a handful of bucks. NEVER chase water…you could be noticing it 50' from the source and dig up your yard, etc…all for nothing. (I may or may not have personal experience with this.)
- YouTube any repairs/maintenance before hiring it out. I've replaced my pool pump (super easy) and also the motherboard for the heater (not as easy but still pretty much a 'plug and play' type repair)…bought the replacement part off eBay.

I'm glad we put ours in back in 2017/2018…I think they've doubled in price since.

Ya - they can be tricky. Had to strong arm my wife into letting me give it a shot, and she was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out.

My setup doesn't require posts though, which helped.

We have installed these for a handful of clients where they were a good fit….

Happy to answer questions if you'd like

Ours is older, and we are empty nesters, but we still enjoy…

Forgive my lack of technical terms but my favorite features of the last pool we had built:
- built in "sprinkler system" thing at the bottom that eliminates the "robot vacuum"
- I designed the layout for maximum visibility of my outdoor patio TV from the pool and hot tub. I have a Bluetooth adapter on my TV that runs the sound to my JBL speaker in my giant cabana pool float. Maximum laziness achieved.

Mines heating now…

We built a pool in 2015 because my wife wanted it. I didn't. First few years I maintained it myself and hated it. Finally started paying someone and got a couple of grandkids. Now my biggest problem is having to tell my wife that she was right quite a bit. The grands are now 6 and 8 and excellent swimmers. It is great to smoke a brisket and have my parents and my daughter's family over.

Don't forget good lighting, this is our recent addition and we love it. Did it ourselves and it was more work than we thought it would be, but worth it.

Question about your lighting…(because I have thought of doing the same thing)

Are those lights on GFI circuits in case they fall in?

Not currently but I might have my electrician change them.

Beautiful pool and beautiful house. Really nice sir.

Nice!

All you guys sure got some pretty places! Good going all.

Thanks Gunny…it's no ranch though…still saving up for that!

Your place is beautiful though. I don't have anything that nice.
And I'm out fixing 2.5 miles of fencing gone from the floods last week! …….and wishing I had a place like yours!

After spending 3.5 hours power washing my pool deck with a 14" surface cleaner I would suggest to not go with a heavy textured finish. All it does is just trap the dirt you just loosed from another place.