Let's Build A Pool!: Design

Let's Build A Pool!

Part 1:  Design

We're currently building a guest house / garage / man cave addition to our casa - and since that wasn't complicated enough we've decided to build a pool too! Being from Texas, I've lived the majority of my life in a home with a pool, but I've never actually built one.  Think of this as sort of an ignorant man's account of the process.

I'm calling the first step "Design", but what it really should be called is "Picking a pool company".  I wasn't sure what I was doing, so I contacted eight different local companies about doing our pool and actually got proposals from six of them.  I'm not going to name any of them except the one we ultimately chose out of respect for the companies and the individuals.  Ditto on showing any of the designs except our final one.  I'll just call them A..B..C..etc.

• A note on a mistake that I made during this process:  We didn't have a specific design in mind, and that was fine.  We told everyone what we thought we liked and let them come up with something cool.  The mistake we made was not giving anyone a budget.  I told everyone I wanted something really cool and wanted a lot of bang for the buck. They all came back with some awesome and pricey stuff, which was also fine, but not having a number to stick to made it difficult to compare designs and really wasn't fair to the pool companies.

I called or filled out online inquiries (sometimes both) for each company at about the same time one night.  

Company A:  This is a very large national company with a local office.  I had actually gone into their office a month or so prior to starting and talked to a salesman.  He gave me his card and I emailed him directly and sent him my survey.  He responded, but his response was simply to "let him know if I wanted to lock in end-of-year pricing".  He didn't offer a proposal or a meeting of any kind so I just never called him back.  

Company B:  I just never heard a thing from these guys.  Maybe it was a technical glitch, but I filled out the form on their website and never heard a thing.

Company C:  This is a small family run company.  They responded quickly and came out to meet a few days later.  I really liked the girl who was my point of contact.  She told me it would be about a week or so before we got a design back, but it actually took about two + weeks.  After that she was very responsive and quick with turn arounds.  We loved her design initially, but it was extremely expensive.  She used the Pool Studio software that provides a 3D model of the design.  I was a little concerned that maybe they were just really good with the program and it wouldn't end up looking like the design.  We asked her to scale it back a bit to get in line with other bids and she did that.  It was a finalist, but we ultimately went with another plan.

Company D:  This is a very well respected and known pool builder.  They were quick and professional, and they got a design back to us quickly using the 3D modeling software.  The problem was that it wasn't at all what I was looking for. They were the only one's that seemed like they didn't listen to what I asked for at all.  I have since heard from some neighbors that they did the same thing to them.  We didn't ask them to redesign anything and just kind of eliminated them from consideration quickly. 

Company E:  Local company with some really cool pools on their resume.  The owner was extremely interested.  He came out the next day and brought a proposal by two days later.  The pool was really cool, but he didn't use the 3D modeling and it was a disadvantage for me.  He gave us a large poster with a drawing of the pool and it was great, but I really like the 3D look.  It allows you to imagine what your yard will look like when you're done.  I never asked him to redesign anything because of this and that was probably my mistake.  I'm sure they would have built us a fantastic pool.

Company F:  This is a local company and they had two issues really.  One was that they were the other company that didn't use 3D software, and the other was that they got a late start.  I didn't hear from them for a couple weeks and then everything took a while to get.  E-mails, phone calls, etc..  It just all took too long.  They were the last to give us a proposal and we needed changes and that took a long time too.

Company G:  Another local company.  They built my neighbors pool and it looks great.  He also said he'd use them again.  The problem was communication.  It took me weeks to get a call back and a meeting.  I really liked the guy, and he listened to what we wanted.  He gave us a great design and then made changes to it that I liked as well.  He was also the cheapest bid.  We chose another builder over this one and it was really based on the design and the fact that I had trouble getting ahold of him from time to time.  My concerns were validated when he was the only one who didn't call me back after I let everyone know we had picked another builder.

Company H:  The winner!!  This is a large company that have an office near us. It took us a little while to get rolling with them, but once the salesman came out everything went pretty smoothly.  The initial design wasn't really what we were looking for at all, but they kept working on it and asking questions and sending back designs.  Finally, on about the 4th attempt, we got something really cool that we just couldn't say no to.  It wasn't the cheapest, but it has a lot of cool features that will tie our back yard together.  I really like our salesman and the owner and we are excited about getting our feet wet....literally.  

Our pool builder.......

We're already underway, so more posts to come soon on this one, but here are a few images of the final design.

 
My wife really wanted a large tanning ledge.  It's a good idea for our two year old to have a great place to play, but make no mistake - Branelle plans to plant her butt right there for extended periods of time.
                 

I wanted lots of lights and fire.  We have four different fire features and tons of all those cool new LED lights that are programmable (like red white and blue for July 4th or red and green for Christmas, etc.).  

The dry seating area was perhaps the biggest selling point.  I thought it was kind of cool, but everyone else thought it was awesome!  What it does is allow people who don't want to get in still interact with people in the pool.

If it turns out looking anything close to the design I'll be very happy. Landscaping may take a while to grow in, but we have some decent sized palms already.