The price can vary, but that is about the going rate. To us it seems very reasonable since it includes all chemicals, vacuuming, cleaning sides of spa, removing and cleaning filter, draining monthly and refilling. Bird cage clean is pretty much just a bonus.
Army Guy

Maybe you have a different kind of spa then we have. We don't do all of that in Upstate New York! We just put chemicals in once a week and let it run.

We have not met with T&D but the Villages salesperson said the summer kitchen was 25K. Are you putting yours in after the buildout?

This was for a stainless steel bbq and fan hood, hot and cold water and sink and refrigerator, cabinets and tile counter.
For 4K in savings I might wait until after we close.

using Villages pools vs building your own
 

Hey, I think if you can afford to build and maintain your own, why not? If nothing else, it's a beautiful place to entertain, even if you don't really use it much. For most of us here, this is the last place we will ever live, except perhaps for the "home." I say go for it if you can comfortably afford it. I think the very biggest financial factor in retirement (at least for me) is to be able to afford your lifestyle, whatever that may be. Buy only what you can afford. End of lecture.

As far as actually using the pools once you live here, I would say it just depends on the user. Ohioboy is a real swimmer, actually enjoys swimming 1 mile (at a time)! in the Sports pools and also likes to go for a dip on a warm or hot day at the adult pool. I probably go more often than I would if I lived by myself, just because he likes to go.

I am one of those that gets in the pool mostly to cool off, although when it gets hot starting in April I will sometimes go to a pool exercise class. People chat in our pool, but usually in one corner or another, and there is always a quiet spot. Seems to clear out around Happy Hour time and we often have the pool to ourselves then. I don't go at all unless it's about 78 degrees or higher. And, I do agree, the longer I am here the busier I am with other stuff. Probably also makes a difference that we are a 5 minute walk or a 2 minute cart ride from ours, and only 10 minutes from 1 sports pool and 15 minutes or less to 2 others.

Keith - Make sure you're factoring in the cost of tying the summer kitchen into the existing electric, plumbing, and drain system in you build it after the fact. Or maybe TV can rough all that stuff in (for a price) when the house is built - would make it a heck of a lot cleaner, easier, and cheaper to do the kitchen afterwards if those things are already in place.

Bill :)

I don't cook, so any kitchen would be wasted on me.

But.... For the people who have the outdoor kitchens.... Do you use them a lot? For that expense, I would be curious as to how much it's used.

You are not tracking all your cost. Just the water and electric is higher then that. I have our home with a pool and a rental property about the same size with no pool. So I have very accurate data that shows the real cost. Everything with the pool equipment is expensive. I have one new pump and the new one is now 3 years old and will go soon. And our wonderful elected light bulb police have now determined we have to have "special" pool motors that in order to pump the water to the roof for the solar panels has to be much larger and cost over $1000 for a new pump. Old one was around $550.

If you put in a pool, plan on 5K a year to support it. You are only fooling yourself if you think it's any less. Track ALL cost. T&D cleaning service, water, electric and maintenance.

I too opted for a spa instead of an in ground pool. After giving it a lot of thought I came to the conclusion that, like Gracie, once the novelty wore off I would not use a pool enough to justify the high maintenance costs.

So I bought an ISpa from Tri County Pool & Spa on 441 who sell and service the CalSpa line. So now on a hot day when the mood strikes me I just slide in. Then with my finger on the throttle and lips around a bottle, life is good again.

The grill in our summer kitchen gets used at least three times per week. The small refrigerator is used for water, soda and beer.

And I will respectfully disagree with you as we do also track all of our costs. Since we have a salt pool, which requires minimal service, we do the service ourselves thus saving the cost of having T&D or anyone else perform weekly service. The pool pump costs $0.26 cents per hour to run. That figure came from a SECO audit that we had done on our house back in October 2008. For five months the filter runs five hours per day and the other seven months it runs for nine hours. That comes out to a cost of about $700 per year to run the pool filter but as the filter ages and cost of electricity goes up I suspect that figure is a little bit higher. As for the filter pump it froze in 2010 and had to be replaced. Since it was under warranty the cost to us was $0 and the new pump came with a 5yr warranty.

Having said all of that I do not doubt your costs but I do believe lower costs, from what you are seeing, to operate a pool are possible.

Yes, after build-out. And we are in a CYV. We got all you want in yours minus the frig. Could not see the real need, plus extra electric to run. But got the upgraded cabinets, and that also includes the propane tank (250 gal) burying it and running the gas line from tank.

Army Guy

That is thr typical services required down here. All we do is pretty much walk in!
Army Guy

We use the summer kitchen more then the inside kitchen, year round.

Army Guy

The ref. T&D is offering must be really nice for the diff. of 4K in price.:mad:

The tank and bury is included so I guess the developer gets the addl. 4K profit.

The price was quoted based on the Sanibel model home as shown in Pennecamp and can be seen on TV's website of models.

4K is a lot of difference.

Seems to me the expense could be high. Assuming a summer kitchen costing $25,000, used 250 times a year (or 2 out of 3 days) for 10 years straight, would result in the per use cost of $10.00. It rises to $13.75 if you only use it every other day. :mmmm:
But, to each their own.

I guess that is one way to look at it but if you are like us and enjoy outdoor living then the price is not that big of a factor. After 50 odd years up north in the cooler weather we now spend quite a bit of time on our lanai enjoying the outside and the pool/spa.
But you should also add into your calculations the savings from having a beverage refrigerator in the summer kitchen instead of a full size 2nd refrig in the garage like some folks we happen to know. There is also a fair amount of storage space in the cabinets. But again it all depends upon what personnel preferences are.

My same thoughts.... There's a pool about every 2 blocks. i don't get it.

we got our summer kitchen for a hundred bucks at Ace Hardware.... a nice electric plug-in grill

When you ask them rough in the summer kitchen, does that just mean to lay pipes for water and drainage and lines for electricity? What about gas?

Yes.

If it's a new build, it won't have natural gas service. You can opt to have a propane tank buried and have that as you gas supply.

Bill :)

no grill for our kitchen
 

We opted for just the fridge and sink and not the entire kitchen with the grill. From our experience, grills wear out after about 2 years of use and to replace that large built in grill in the summer kitchen would have been more work than it's worth, so we decided to get our own cheapy grill and use it on the side. This way when it needs replacing, we can just throw it away and get a new 99$ grill! Works for us.

There are many reasons why we wanted a house with a pool. But I suspect from talking to some of our friends the main reasons they have a pool are privacy and no restrictions. You can use it when you want and it never gets crowded. I especially like comments from folks about how much work a pool is. Well that was true up north as our pool there required a lot more time and effort than the pool here does. It takes us about one hour per month to clean and service our pool. Once a month we bring a water sample to T&D for testing when we will be near the store. For us that is not a lot of time.

2 thumbs up on a pool
 

I agree spk. We opened our pool about Memorial Day up North and used it until Labor Day. That's 3 months of use. And, probably only 1/2 the time the weather was good enough to swim. Plus with the leaves and pine needles dropping in the pool we had to vacuum twice a week and put chemicals in more often than I wanted to. We did have the automatic cleaner so it could just roam around and clean but we still had to hook it up. So, after only swimming in it for about 45 days total we had to drain the pool, the lines, put lots of chemicals in it to close for the winter, put all furniture away, take out diving board, ladders and hand rails and cover it. It was one full day of back breaking work. With a pool in TV we get to swim in it for probably 9 months a year, never have to cover it or put furniture away and with a salt pool it should be less maintenance. Plus we can swim when ever we want in the privacy of our own home. Now I call that sweet!

Sounds pretty much like what we went through with our pool/spa in CT except that we had it open for about 6 months a year. Funny thing is that even though it was operating for 6 months that pool cost us more per year to operate than the pool/spa here that is open year round.

I understand your point about not having to put away the furniture here but we are not entirely out of the woods in that respect. Hopefully it is a rare event but when we first moved here all our lanai furniture was delivered two days after closing. One week later a tropical storm came through, went across the state and came back. So we had boxes of items, furniture and lanai furniture all over the inside of the house for three days. Guess we have our trials and tribulations no matter where we are.

Happinow: When you say grills wear out in 2 years, do you mean the entire workings or just the metal piece on top?

There is a "Pee" in pool but not in Lake Sumter!!!

Gas grill
 

The inside wears out...rusty, falls apart and beat from the drippings from meats. The outside stays pretty good. I know we can switch out just the insides but that gets expensive too. Our last gas grill was a big one and expensive. The inside wore out to the point it discintigrated (not spelled right, sorry) and the shell was good. Sold it at a garage sale for 10.00. So, I'd rather buy a less expensive one and use it for 2 years then get a new one.

Really surprised. We have an expensive outside grill and are really lax about upkeep. I mean really lax. Four years and it is just stellar. I will be selling it and am pretty sure we will get at least $400 for it. I would never expect the inside to "rot. But now I guess I will go check it out :)

Gas grill
 

Ummm. We cook on ours almost every night...even during the winter, so maybe we use ours excessively?? Glad you have had better luck. Keep on grillin'!

Well. we aren't grilling EVERY night but we do also grill in the winter. so you are right. maybeit just hasn't had as much use. whatever it is, I am not moving that big thing all the way to FL so figure we will just put in the grill. Less clutter on the patio.

Gosh, we must be doing something right. Most of our grills have lasted 10+ years. We clean and keep covered.

Army Guy

I've been reading your posts with interest. We are coming down at the end of the month to make our home choices and pool choices. We will be building in Sanibel. Any help or advice your may have on the process of designing the pool would be great. Never had a pool (never really had a desire to have one for 3 months in Ohio), but it has always been a dream. So...why not. Does T&D offer solar or do you have to go to an outside company? Anything you wish you had done or wished you hadn't done in your pool? Any info would be a help since I am a pool novice.

I hope these figures are right...Happinow?
 

Happinow posted some time ago that they paid 76K for a pool and birdcage. Fumar said his cost 36K. No dogs allowed in either.

I have heard it costs about 5K a year to maintain them.

You said it. Privacy and convenience, especially when family is visiting.
Plus lovely to look at through the living room and master bedroom sliders, open or closed.

Up north, an inground pool requires much more work by the home owner or the pool service; most people do it themselves. Lots of cleaning plus maintaining the correct balance of chemicals.......no birdcages so lots of leaves and "stuff" like pollen get into the pool ....not to mention bugs...so filters have to be cleaned out.....proper PH or whatever maintained. Just lots of cleaning, vacuuming.........then covering in the fall prior to winter and reopening, uncovering in the late springtime.........we kept the pump in our shed. We had a deep end diving board and a fibreglass sliding board on the long side......plus walk in steps.........a very big olympic sized inground.


In Florida, we've seen the pool guy come ONCE A WEEK.....and it's in and out very quickly. The water definitely stays cleaner under a birdcage.

Maintenance definitely seems easier. We were quoted something like $15,000 for a birdcage (two story one) and $25,000 or so for a pool which would have the salt water, supposedly a good feature. Also, GET A HEATER installed. Even in balmy November the heater was a blessing.........the sunshine was wonderful and the temps were in the low 70's but still the heater is needed.

WE were pleasantly surprised as we thought the birdcages would be much more...having seen them going up while driving around to get our "bearings" in all the villages. Home pool is one of the first things I checked out.

Not all the homes in TV are that close to a neighborhood pool. Having one right off your own lanai and under a birdcage would be wonderful ...........again, as you said, PRIVACY is why people have home pools put in.....plus convenience.

Happinow revised the number to $67 I think. Transposed. What do you mean no dogs?

ah hah! ;)

Just checkin' to see if everyone was payin' attention.

Can I bring my windsurfer?

Try Ashton Pools out of Spring Hill, Fl, We are getting nice Small pool (12x20), with added screen room space of 10-12 feet, pavers for the pool deck, 1/2 moon spa for 6,
autofill, salt water system, pool heater and solar heating system, $40,800. They are on the Internet.

Ashton Pools & Spas Inc :: "A Clear Choice" :: Spring Hill, Florida

Great price
 

Please keep us updated about this company and if they were reliable and if you are pleased with the finish product. I haven't heard of them before but the price sounds nice...Thanks