The people who had this house before us were of the opposite mindset as we are. They did things large, but poorly. The bedroom was so ridiculously big that we broke it into two rooms. The master bathroom boasts a gigantic tub with jets, but no sprayer head, so it is nearly impossible to clean. The shower is a separate stall, and the pipe in the wall, which leaked recently, had been repaired with a car hose and hose clamps. There are twin sinks, of which we use one, but no windows, even though it has an outside wall. I don't think they ever opened any windows once the air conditioning was installed, so it didn't matter to them, but I like natural light and air when the weather is good.
Low quality, high maintenance.
But the biggest boondoggle of all was the pool. We had a 24' diameter pool at our old house for years, and enjoyed it every summer. It was partially shaded, which kept if from being too warm, and we bought something that kept it vacuumed, which is important if you have trees nearby. Wild grapes used to fall into that pool all the time.
The pool here is also above ground, and it is 33' in diameter. I have never seen another above ground pool that large, and there is a good reason for that. WIth one skimmer and no bottom drain, the water doesn't circulate in a pool that size. In addition, there are no trees around it, and it stays the perfect algae growing temperature. A pool that large requires a huge expenditure in chemicals, and the pool has been unusable at least half the summer because it keeps turning green no matter what we do.
This morning, I unplugged it. It was time to admit defeat. We are wasting time, electricity and expensive chemicals trying to maintain an unreasonable purchase by someone who didn't think things through. And while it seems a shame to throw out a good pool, we're going to buy a reasonable one next year, assuming we're in a position to do that.
Bigger is almost never better. Just higher maintenance.
Comments
Post a Comment