Pool and Patio Details and Tour

Our pool is really special to me. It literally changed our lives. At least once, every time we’re using it, either Dan or I will stop and say how thankful we are to have it. When my dad passed away, we got some money for selling his house. It was money I didn’t want, if that makes sense. It made me sad. I’d rather have my dad. So instead of just having some money, I told Dan that I’d like to do something with it that would bring us joy. So we put it toward our pool. I think my dad would like to know he gave us such a special gift that brings my family together.

Once we decided to go for it, I spent quite a while looking at different shapes and sizes etc. I fell in love with my friend and fellow home design blogger Caroline’s pool. I loved the clean lines. My home’s exterior is very basic/ clean so I wanted to keep that going with the pool design as well.

Dan is a civil engineer and loves to plan things out to visualize them. He drew up this design and after having the pool for over a year, there is not one thing I would change. Feel free to use this plan if you like it!

We went with a shallow end start of 3’ and a maximum depth of 5’. I’m so happy we did! Even when you’re in the deep end, you can still keep your head above the water. It makes it great for when we have guests over so the entire pool can be utilized instead of only the shallow end. I also love having benches in the shallow and deep ends so there’s always a place to sit and chill.

The tile was a doozy to pick! The selections given to us by our pool contractor were very limited but I found one I thought I liked. The tile was delivered. The tiling guys showed up. And I freaked out. I felt like it was wrong and asked them to take it back. It was like Bridezilla but Poolzilla. It took me a couple more weeks of both online and in store searching, but I finally found a tile that both Dan and I approved of. This recycled glass is so pretty and I love the stacked pattern as well. It looks classic yet unique and stylish. Keep in mind whatever finish you choose for the inside of your pool will determine the water color. You’ll want to be sure your water color and tile go well together or once the water goes in you’ll cry.

Speaking of pool finishes… I wanted a kind of deeper blue or greenish water color and you get that with a tan or grey finish. My contractor basically said that if I went with anything other than the non tinted color (silver pearl) his guys would mess it up and it would look streaky and awful in a matter of months. Super awesome news. I was super thrilled. Grrrrrr. So… I went with Silver Pearl. This finish gives the kind of sky/aqua blue color that many pools have. It’s not 100% what I wanted but in the end it worked out.

Adding the hot tub cost us another $10-15k if I’m remembering correctly. Prices will greatly differ depending on where you live and who you hire, so I’m not going to get too into prices in this post. You can get free estimates from pool companies in your area. With that said, I 100% recommend adding the hot tub if you have the funds. We use it constantly. It doesn’t get super cold here in FL, but even when it’s a little cold out, we can fire it up and still enjoy our pool. It’s such a luxury and we absolutely love it.

OK so let’s talk screens. So many pools in FL have screens around them and if you live here you know why: mosquitos. We are lucky and don’t have very many mosquitos as our yard doesn’t get much standing water. I love the look of no screen and think it makes our pool look so much more like a resort than a house pool. We seriously feel like we’re on vacation when we hang out here, surrounded by nature. Do pine needles and things get into the pool? Yes. Do we care? No. We just need to skim the pool a little more often. No biggie. I love the look and it also keeps our water a bit warmer as well. Oh and it saved us about $15-20k so…. Win win in my opinion.

On the topic of keeping the pool clean, we test the water pretty much every week and add any chemicals it needs ourselves. By “we do it ourselves”, I mean Dan does it. We went with a saltwater pool. After some research it seemed to be a better option for us. We also got this vacuum and its SO GOOD! At first you may be like “That’s a lot of money.” But we figured if we hired a pool service it would cost the same as this in only 6 months. And this has lasted us over a year already so… its worth it. If you were wondering… as I’m sure you are… we call ours Gerard Butler. Because he cleans for us like a butler but also who doesn’t want to think about Gerard Butler while hanging by the pool? I think we can all agree this is a great name.

Pool decks. There are a lot of options. A lot of pavers. A lot of patterns. A lot of colors. A. lot. of. options. I narrowed it down and knew I wanted the large grey paver look without the large grey paver price. We were told we could get that look with stamped concrete. And you can. Kind of. HA! So here’s what happened.

The guy showed up to do the deck. I was told by my contractor all along that he could do what I wanted with the stamped concrete method. Then when I talk to the actual person doing the work about it and show him the photos he said “I can’t do that.” And I had a panic attack and died. Ok. I didn’t die. But it was a trying time for all.

After a lot of explaining, and a lot of discussion, and a lot of me crying like an idiot after he left, we got it done. What he did, if you want to persuade your stamped concrete guy into believing he can do this, is they spread the topcoat as smoothly as humanly possible so we didn’t get a bunch of those bubbles/pockets you get with stamped concrete. Then he scraped lines into this top coat to make the large paver look. It looks pretty dang close to the large pavers and we are very happy with it. Is it exactly what I envisioned? No. But it was so much more affordable than the huge pavers. And we don’t have to worry about any weeds growing through paver cracks which makes me loco. Once a year we pressure wash it and its good as new. Oh and you can choose the color or tint which is really nice! We went with SW Agreeable Grey.

Now, lets talk furniture. I think its such a good idea to figure out how you want to use a space before going crazy and buying all of your furniture. This applies to inside your home as well. We knew we wanted outdoor dining, a firepit, and lounge chairs to relax and watch the kids play. Once I knew what I wanted, it was easier to plan out where everything would go.

For the dining area, we chose teak for our table and chairs. I love them!

The firepit was such a great addition. I love the mood it sets when we turn it on. I use cozy rocking chairs with it and its one of our favorite places to enjoy a cocktail or roast marshmallows with the girls.

For around the pool, on the far end we added two chaise lounge chairs with a large umbrella for shade. These were all such a steal and the quality is great. Closer to the house we did these two accent chairs and some poufs for our feet. The poufs we have are out of stock but this is similar, just a bit larger. I like having options as to where to sit.

I was covering all of our furniture with rain covers but they got kind of gross and mildew covered and so did the cushions. Humidity is so bad here. So now I just keep the wood uncovered and store the cushions in this storage box. Its so easy to pull them out when we’re going to be using the pool for the day and keeps them so much nicer. Plus, the covers were not pretty and the bare wood looks so much better even without the cushions. And you know I’m all about a pretty view!

Per our county code, we needed to have a fence around the perimeter for safety. The fence we chose is by WamBam and I have a separate blog post with all of the details as well as a discount. We’re so happy with it!

That’s it! Let me know if you have any questions below.

If you need me, I’ll be out here, floating around like Billy Madison. ;)