Goodbye, pool. You’ve served me well.
When I moved to Florida, I wrote on my property shipping list ”no pool.” They’re expensive, things break, and they need regular maintenance. But then I found a great foreclosure, perfect in every other way, especially price. So I bought a house with a pool.The cost to tear out the pool ranged from $10k-$15k. I had just spent every last penny, and it seemed insane to spend that much money to reduce the property's market value. Instead, I learned how to test the chemicals and made time one afternoon each week to take care of it. The water-filled hole worked out for the best, because I could charge more per night rented through Airbnb.
After getting married, I said goodbye to Airbnb, and my husband and I started living without guests. We rarely used the pool (I’m a beach girl); but short term, it cost way more to tear it out than to maintain it.
Work ramped up, and salaries increased, so we hired a maintenance company. The expense to tear it out still didn’t feel like it made sense. Though looking back, that was the point where it probably would have.
And inertia carried us forward, for years.
In the end, the flood---brought by Hurricane Helene destroyed the pool.
How does a flood destroy a pool, when a pool is literally a hole filled with water? Great question. Well, it would cost $2-3k to change out the water (now brackish, a mix of saltwater and sewer water, with barnacles growing and fish swimming). $2-3k for the new pump (it was submerged), and $15k for the heater (also submerged). On top of that, our wooden deck degraded substantially. The concrete patio had cracked on the side, partly from old age but also possibly from the pool popping due to the pressure of the groundwater. There seemed to be a leak somewhere. On and on, it all added up to a $30k+ project. So we tore it all out for $9k.
On the one hand, no one can predict the future. Hurricane Helene brought the worst flood to Tampa Bay in over 100 years. At the end of the day, we can only do our best with the information we have at the time. On the other, we would’ve spent less money just tearing it out years ago. And we really should have.
But it is what it is, and we are where we are.
After everything, it’s nice to have a fresh slate.