Bye Bye Pool!

So, We've Decided to Sell the pool.

There are a number of reasons why we've decided to, and I'll go over them in detail below.

First, The pool:

Its one of the smallest "permanent" pools you can buy - a 12 foot round, 4 foot deep pool. Its got a Big Sand Filter, and a 1 HP Jacuzzi Pump, which are both great brands and long lived.

Before we sold it, I tried a few things to justify keeping it:

Cost Cutting:

I set the pump to run only 4 hours a day, However, quickly realized that that wasn't enough - the pool turned green as I use chlorine pucks, and the lack of water flow caused them to sit there and not dissolve. It then cost about 40 dollars in chemicals to bring it back into line.


Using it more: 

I bought a new Solar cover to get the pool to be warmer. Result: during colder weeks, the pool reached a very respectable high 70*f 's range, However, It was cold out, so we didn't use it.
When it was hot out, The pool got above 90 degrees... which wasn't refreshing at all. So... we didn't use it.
When the solar cover was off on a heat wave, the chlorine was eaten up within 24 hours and I had to shock the pool, making it pretty much un-fit for swimming, Although, that didn't stop everyone from using it.


Cutting off the A/C to the house:

I got that Nest thermostat - I set it to perma "Away" mode. This made both of us cranky, and not sleep well. We did use the pool more, but the overall quality of living went down, so that lasted about a week or two.

Game Over man, Game over!

Last week we made the decision to sell it. It didn't last long. 2 days later (a.k.a. Yesterday) and its sold. I've already got it drained, and the fellow is helping me take it apart Monday night.

Why?

Its too close to the fence:

I can't get the lawn mower around the pool. The result is 3 foot tall weeds, unsightly, prickly plants. its made it so I don't want to entertain.

Its just too big for our backyard:

We have a Semi-Detached "link" home. 30 foot wide lot, and our back yard is maybe 25 feet deep. Between the large Deck, and the pool, we have about a 10X15 patch of lawn to "play" in.

Monthly Cost of running the pool:

Running a pool pump 24/7: $60
Chlorine Pucks: $20
Shock, Algaecide, PH-Up, Calcium, etc: $5-10
Budgeting for wear and tear (new tarps, Solar blankets, floaty toys, etc) : $5

Total Monthly cost for that small pool was around $90/Month!

Over the summer so far, I've used it 5 times in 3 months.

Averaged out, that's $54 per swim. 

On that reason alone:

Bye Bye Pool!