When my wife and I bought our house, the biggest drawback was that we would no longer have access to a swimming pool.  Our previous apartment had a pretty large pool, that both my wife and son used all summer long.  I enjoyed it too, though not as often.

The talk around our house recently keeps coming back to pools.  We would like to put one in our back yard.  Certainly we have the space for one now, and it would be great to have access to whenever we want.  So on Sunday we went out pool shopping.  We didn’t really know how much they cost.. we were figuring somewhere in the $1500 area installed.

Surprise – and not the good kind!

For a good quality pool in the size we want ( 24′ round – oval was too expensive ), here’s roughly the damage:

• $2399 – Pool and filter system.   This was also on sale – though I don’t know if pools are always on sale like some items.
• $499 – Installation.  Includes excavating the land to make sure it’s level, and assembling the pool / filter.
• $175 – Surcharge for a “mini bobcat”, since a fullsize bobcat won’t fit through our fence / gate
• $300?? ( guess ) 6 tons of sand – estimated amount needed.  SIX TONS?? 12,000 pounds?
• $299 – ladder
• $250? ( guess ) electric line run out to pool filter. 
• $800 – fence around pool area.   I want to keep my dogs away from the pool.

So, using my extremely rough guesses, plus the definites, I’m looking at roughly $4725 to put up a pool.  That’s over three times what I was expecting!  As if that wasn’t bad enough, the pain doesn’t end there.  That huge pool needs to be filled with water, which isn’t free.  The filter runs on electricity, which is quite expensive.  And of course there are various chemicals that need to be purchased.  Guesstimate on costs?  Probably in the neighborhood of $100 for water, electricity, and chemicals.  Since summer is long here, that’s probably $800 or so per year in ongoing costs.  Oh, and I forgot the cover ( at least another $150+ )

We haven’t made a final decision yet… though it looks like we’ll have to wait for our pool.  In fact, we might end up picking up a cheap Wal-Mart type pool, to see how much we use it.  Even if it lasts just two years, the $500 or so we’ll spend will let us know if a pool is even something that we will use a lot.  We still have some talking to do, but it looks like the big pool isn’t in the cards, at least not this year.