Same boat! We are in metro Detroit. Our neighbor down the street had a built in pool (gunite) that we enjoyed very much for a few summers -- then they moved :(

Our kids are 6 and 8 and love to swim. I took them to our local rec center several times a week this summer but it is not the same as walking out your back door. Plus, I am a SAHM so I know it would get used on every nice day of summer. I do have some worries about the neighborhood kids always begging my kids to let them swim though.

I don't know where in MI you are but July and August would have been awesome for a pool this year (June was too rainy). Yes, the season is short but they days have gotten incredibly hot.

BTW, the neighbors with the built in gunite pool sold their house in 9 days in one of the worst markets ever -- the family that bought it has three kids 12-16 years. So, if you are wondering if it will make your home "unmarketable" - I don't think it will if it is nicely done. I will tell you it added almost nothing to their selling price.

I would also love to hear from other Northerners with pools.

Hmm, I would build a greenhouse over the pool. ;) Or, cheaper yet, move to Texas or Florida.

stir fryi - We're NW of Grand Rapids, out in the country, but still about 30 minutes from Lake Michigan. I'm not worried about resale. We built our home 4 years ago on family property and are here to stay. We joke that our son will put us into a nursing home someday so he can have the house. You're right - when it's hot here it can get really hot, but 8 months out of the year we'll have to stare at a winter cover. :-( I'm more worried about what it will add to our property taxes.

barco - my old mentor used to say that the only reason any of us live in Michigan is because our parents and our grandparents did - which is just a nice way of saying we don't know no better. :) He coicidentally retired to FL.

I have lived in Chicago for 8 years and routinely travel to Canada as a part of a job I had at the time. I am permantly cured of the need for cold and a pool cures any need to complain about the heat.

We live in UT and thought we had a short season too. But in reality, we use the pool April-Oct. April, May, Sept, & Oct we mostly only use it on warm weekends so we watch the weather closely so we know when to crank the heater. ;) We just hit our 40's and have 3 kids. We call our pool "our boat" or "our cabin" except we don't have to pack anything up to enjoy it, so we get to use it more than a boat or a cabin. We don't regret we put it in, and DH & use it almost more than the kids. If you decide to do it, I'd suggest an auto cover-it helps keep the pool cleaner and warmer so you don't have to use the heater quite as much.

fins_up -- are you thinking gunite or fiberglass?

We haven't checked into it yet, but are leaning towards fiberglass.

Hello
We have the same swimming season as you. We live in North Western NJ. We put our pool in last summer. And I don't know how we lived without one. Our kids are six and four and we were in it everyday this summer. We also happen to have had the perfect pool weather this year. If we ever moved, a pool would be a requirement. Since we have always lived in this climate and grew up with this swimming season, we really don't know any different. I highly recommend a pool especially with kids who love to swim. Just think, when they are teenagers and need serious supervision, all the kids will be at your house instead of getting into trouble.

If I were in a cold climate (I'm not, we're in TX) I would seriously consider a retractable pool enclosure. I put a link to one of the sites below, but there are several other manufacturers as well. It most certainly adds to the cost, but it would greatly extend the swim season and (at least in my opinion) they are cool-looking too!

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.retractablepoolenclosures.com/

Funny -- I was watching home movies with my mother today and watched myself swimming in our above-ground pool 30 years ago. It made me think of what fun we had in that pool until my dad took it down :(

stir fryi - At the risk of being booed out of the forum, I must confess that we're looking at a vinyl lined 16x41x24 L-shaped pool. From the research that I did - both fiberglass and gunite seemed way too expensive in light of the short season. Plus I need money for other stuff too - like DW's potager garden, another garage, kid's education, not to mention a fabulous tree house to which I can escape!

flowergirl - Thanks for the feedback. Your're right...the kids will probably be at our house during the summer months at least, but still getting into trouble since DW and I will be at work slaving away to pay for their good life. :) Hopefully they'll let us use it on the weekends!

tresw - those are pretty cool, but I'm sure I'd need to get a second job to fit something like that into the budget and since I'm saving working at McDonald's for retirement, well....

Hi fins up
I'm in CT where the normal season is early May w/ a heater until early Oct. We just installed a vinyl 20X38 basic rectangle and will be building a retractable enclosure like tresw mentioned. In fact, the link he gave you is for an outfit here in CT right around the corner from me. We couldn't use them, though, due to their narrow span. They'll only go to 29' and we wanted wider. Ours will be 34'X54' and was manufactured by a company in Canada. The typical price is approx $55/sq foot installed. I know they have sold a number of units in Michigan; in fact I spoke w/ a customer of theirs when we first started looking just to get a neutral opinion. They LOVE it! Feel free to email me for more info if you'd like.; I'm at soccerfans6@yahoo.com. It's a big investment but we figured we won't be able to retire until we're dead so we might as well enjoy as much life as we can now!! Who knows; maybe we can rent it out for weddings, birthdays, ect and help pay it off sooner!
Good luck w/ your decision!
joanneswimsct

Don't put it off. Life is too short to not enjoy a pool, especially for the kids. I would highly recommend a Radiant Pool because of it's inherant insulating properties. It will stay 10 degrees warmer thatn any other pool and if you add a heater you can definitely extend your season. Check out their website at www.radiantpools.com.

Agentsmolder

"It's a big investment but we figured we won't be able to retire until we're dead so we might as well enjoy as much life as we can now!!"

Hahaha! My wife and I were so diligent about saving money from the moment we started working and investing in all the "right" places (mutual funds). But as all us late boomers have learned the hard way, when they say "past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results" they're not kidding! The closer we get to retirement age the farther off retirement looks. Like you say, might as well enjoy some of that money now instead of letting the markets eat it for breakfast! How's your pool coming along? I look forward to seeing pics of it with that enclosure!

Hey tresw!
Thanks for asking about our pool; we are feeling our way around... Just had pool school so have had fun vacuuming all the crud from backfill and playing chemistry set! HA!
We won't be doing the building until mid Oct at the earliest. Ground needs to settle before decking then the deck needs to firm up a bit before the enclosure can be built. I apologize for not having any photos to share; I haven't taken the time to go to photobucket yet and do what needs to be done to submit the pics in our message. It's probably easy but intimidating as all get out!
joanneswimsct