Time Skip: Pool Time

    Oh boy, what a year it's been.  What?  Three years have past?  Well I guess most of you know what has been going on globally in the past three years.  Personally, we've been getting by, making a new kid and raising the two we already have, and trying to tackle small projects while saving up for the big one.  The biggest one.  It's time to get that swimming pool built.

   We've always had an eye on installing an in-ground pool since the inception of the house.  The initial landscaping plans created way back in 2015 (almost 10 years ago?!?) had a rectangular pool with a squared off pool decking area surrounding it.

For almost 10 years, we've looked at that empty, partially grassed area in the back yard and imagined a 35'x20' rectangular pool with a shallow sundeck and spa on one side and a fairly large pool deck to house our various loungers and seats.  In the interim years, I've leveled out that space and laid down tarps to put under a small 10' seasonal above ground pool for the kids to play in, seated right next to the large 14' trampoline they got a few years back.  Come and gone were the tales of homeowners flooding pool installers for requests during Covid lockdowns.  Horror stories of multi year waitlists for in-ground pool installations.  Constantly increasing the pool fund to account for skyrocketing inflation.  Staring at that patch of land that no sprinklers will hit because we've always planned for the pristine blue usage of that space.  Now that time has come.  The oasis of the yard.  The destroyer of bank accounts.  The summer maintenance time sink.  The pool.

Since the house was built with ICF, we've always had the notion to make the pool out of ICF and create an equipment bunker to house the pump and heater.  However, it doesn't seem like ICF pools have caught on for pool installers in Michigan because I couldn't find one that recommended it.  In-ground pools can be build a few ways, fiberglass drop in, metal shell with a vinyl liner, or concrete (shotcrete, gunnite).  The price and ease of installation are an inverse relationship and increase in order of the examples provided.  I momentarily entertained the idea of a fiberglass or vinyl liner pool, but fell back on the same default thought we had when we build the house:  This is the final house so build it to last.  That leads us to the last (and most expensive) option: the concrete pool.

The installation of the pool has been the limiting factor in what exterior projects we could tackle since it requires heavy excavation equipment to install.  All that equipment needs a path of destruction to reach the construction spot, and that path is the side of the house closest to the driveway.  So development of that side of the house has been held hostage for all these years by the promise of the pool.  Paver patios on both basement walk-outs, additional retaining walls leading to the back yard, final plantings, all remain in the planning stage due to the destruction the excavators would wreck.  The pool construction was the keystone to completing the rest of the landscaping plan.

I won't bore you with the multiple calls to pool installers, trying to find a palatable budget and time frame and jump right to the good part.  We're having the pool installed by Tango Pools, based out of Rochester.  I will tell you that my search consisted of Googling "Best pool installers near me", reading reviews on Houzz, countless hours of YouTube videos about pools, pool installations, pool maintenance, latest pool technologies, pool automation systems, do's and don'ts, why's and how's.  I'm proud to declare that I'm a pool expert with no practical experience.  After phone and zoom meetings, discussing budget ranges, in person office visits, we're partnering up with Eli, the owner of Tango Pools.  

After the initial phone call and first meet, Eli took a look at our existing, partially implemented landscaping plan for the backyard and decided to completely scrap the rectangular look of the pool area.  He saw the natural surrounds, the organic curves of the existing beds and wondered why the plan included the hard edges of a geometric pool area.  Using the existing landscaping plans, he made a rough overlay sketch to plant the seed of an idea in our heads while also filling them with the various pool finishing surfaces, decking materials and manufacture brochures for pool equipment, lighting, and ideas.  We came away with a very rough budget and installation timeframe.  If we moved quick enough, he could see a late season completion, this year.  From all the horror stories, we were expecting to get on the books for next year or at best, at the end of the season.

Here's the general timeline.  Pay some money, get formal drawings after a site visit.  Pay some more money, get engineering drawings and permits.  Pay a lot in 1/3 increments over the process of the build with the final 1/3 due on completion. Enjoy being a pool owner.  That last part is still an unknown.

As we stand now, we're on the second step.  After an initial payment, Eli sent his partner, Alice, out to the property to take pictures and measurements for the color rendering.  This rendering will be mostly based off the initial rough design since we pretty much liked everything Eli was proposing, but would yet to grounded in formal engineering.  Luckily, we had our previous elevations from when we had the house built.  Unfortunately, Eli found that the original engineering firm no longer existed, as he was hoping he could save some time and money be using them to insert the pool design to the plan on file.  So off to his normal engineering firm the plan went to have them insert the pool.  Meanwhile Alice created the final color renderings of the pool design.

Sharp edges gone!  Pool size increased to roughly 40 ft. along the most unobstructed swim path by 16 ft. in the narrowest part.  A few items of note:

• No spa.  A spa and associated additional equipment would have probably added around $30k-$40K to the overall price and be unusable in the winter time, since the plumbing is all combined.  We're reserving the right to have an above ground hot tub somewhere else in the future.
• The pool depth will be around 3.5 ft. in the shallow to around 6.5 ft in the deep.  We're not going with a true diving depth because of increased insurance cost and increased depth transition change.
• The submerged sundeck is still in the plans, with the addition of a little bubbler.  It will be a nice place to sit semi-submerged or have the little one play in.  Also, having just part of the width populated with steps makes the other part a nice sitting place.
• The swim out steps on the right, in the deep end, will also make a nice place to sit partially submerged.
• The placement of the main pool deck area has the most sun exposure during the majority of the day.
• The green space at the top of the pool will be planted with low ground covering right up to the retaining wall, to partially simulate an infinity edge.
• Besides the lounging area, there will be a space for a table and a slightly lower sitting area for a fire pit.  Will probably just get a portable pit like a solo stove rather than having another permanent fire enjoying device (fireplace in the gazebo).

Here's a different rendering of the pool area.  I think the primary difference between this vision and the actual implementation will be the amount of visibility there will be to the lake.  It's still early spring here but during the summer months, the wetlands fill up with cat tails and other taller vegetation so the pool area should retain some privacy from the lake.

Lots more to talk about, but I think I'll divide it up into individual posts rather than trying to mind dump everything right now.  As a preview, we've gotten interim HOA approval, have final engineering elevation plans, but still have to stake out the location, have City permit approval, need silt fencing installed, and selected hard surface materials.