I already have a hot tub off our bedroom, actually. That gets used almost daily.

With a bar, and accessories, :O:

Nah, I have little interest in sitting in hot water and getting drunk. Sometimes I bring a glass of ice water.

It is more than enough,:yep:

Build a koi pond, use it as a pool. Swim with the fishes. :D I sort of do that when I clean the filter of the koi pond that I built. If I had made the pond about a foot deeper it would almost be a pool, would have protected from the darned herons more too. Great thing about the koi pond are the mosquito fish, never get bite by mosquitoes in my yard. No chemicals to mess with either. Probably would be cheap to DIY out west if rocks are plentiful. Looking forward to eating the first tilapia soon!

Moving the septic, and rebuilding a smaller driveway will be less than I thought (even though given where we are we need the most fancy type of septic).

Now to find out how cheap I can build an adobe garage... maybe I can do it myself (or myself helping with bricks and mud...).

We built a big in ground pool about 7 or 8 years ago when we built the new house. We had one at the old house, and only lasted a year in the new place before we decided to build another. Perhaps my circumstances are different from most: I have roughly 8 dozen children (give or take 7 1/2 dozen), each of whom has a least 56 thousand friends, and all of whom appear to live at our house. Only one summer without it convinced us that a gigantic hole in the back yard filled with water is preferable to having them all in the house.

I can attest to the fact that pools are expensive to build and maintain, and they are definitely a PITA to keep clean (particularly with hairy 3 black labs in the mix), but I still wouldn't be without one. At least when the kids and their friends are lounging about the pool my house, I know where they are and what they're doing with whom. That ain't the worst thing in the world when four of the kids are of the feminine persuasion. Plus, it's great for parties (although I never seem to get invited).

If I was to do it again, though, I would definitely go with salt water rather than chlorine or Baquacil. Far less expensive to maintain, and much more pleasant to swim in too. We'll be switching over to salt water at the end of the season, and this time I mean it!

Good luck!

That was exactly our experience with our pool in CA. We were so excited the first year, but as the years past, our interest waned. However the maint expenses don't wane. I lived in that house for 7 years and I think we only used it for the first year. The last four years I lived there we had a cover on it 365.

The problem with having a pool is that since it is always there, it stops being something special.

And pool maint is not cheap nor effortless.

Yeah, I'm considering a salt water chlorine generator (for those thinking it's salty like the ocean I'm being clear---8212;it is minimally salty, and uses the NaCl to make Cl constantly).

Where my house is, we have no beaches without an airline flight required. So swimming is in a pool. Public pools are a zoo. Since we have little shade, playing outside in June-August is pretty hard most of the day. It's simply too hot. A pool would give the kids something to do. We visit the grandparents a few days a week in the summer already, and the kids spend hours in the pool. Downside is that we don't feel like we should invite other kids, though having friends is exactly what the kids want.

I suppose it might be worth looking into a country club as a reality check.

How big is your pool, flatsixes? We don't have room for a huge one given the slop, huge boulders, etc.