Scarce inventory, high material prices, and shortage of workers have driven many people to hold their home remodeling projects. Although all these are facts, they aren't necessarily a bad thing!
I put a hold on my personal swimming pool project about a year ago, considering all the above. After nine months of digesting what was going on with the market and weighing on my priorities in life (small kids, less travel, etc.), I finally decided to move on. The building process is going amazingly well so far!
Open to New Ideas
My wife and I embraced the idea of doing it at a slower pace, sourcing readily available and less expensive materials, including pool waterline tiles and decking, and finally, finding the right builder.
What is Going on With the Market?
Raising prices due to costs and high demand is a no-brainer action for established businesses, especially pool builders that build 100+ pools per year. After all, they can do so many swimming pools and spas at a given time. However, for a small pool builder, today's market is an opportunity to show themselves and gain market share. The same is true for tile retailers. Although their cost is the same as the big guys - sometimes higher, they are willing to work at a lower margin. As the cherry on the cake, they surprisingly offer better service to earn your business.
Take the Stress Out and Enjoy the Process
Once you take the stress out of what could happen if the material you choose isn't available or its price is much higher, the labor cost is outrageous, and you have a deadline to finish the project, your mind becomes more creative! We started focusing on what was available and how they would play in the final results.
To our surprise, things are going unexpectedly smooth. If everything continues the way it is, we will have our pool ready no longer than six weeks from now.
Whenever we are forced to get out of our comfort zone, we can panic or get scared. However, once we overcome the fear, we open ourselves to learn so much, and after all, we conclude that the ride was quite enjoyable! That is happening to us right now.
Work with What is Available
As mentioned before, we had to work with what was available, changing our first choices and opening ourselves to the "new." Still, honestly, we wouldn't change a thing, and we are glad that we decided to move on!
Choosing the Builder and Tiles
I will leave this for our next post when I share our experience hiring the pool builder and our choices for the glass pool tile and decking. Also, I will make sure to go over the textures, finishes, and the color palette we decided to go with.
For now, here is a sneak peek of our pool and backyard after four months since we started the process. For the record, we waited three months for the permit approval by Palm Beach County in Florida, so the rest is just the building process. Since our builder isn't prominent but very reliable, they move fast without compromising the quality. Just a fantastic crew!
Please pardon our mess, but we are "under construction!"
