We are building a pool, and we have a large yard, but because of a flood easement, there is only a relatively small area we can use to get permits. I always had an idea in my mind of the pool I envisioned for my kids, and it would probably be bigger than this! Our designers did a great job designing within the area we have without it looking awkward, but because of our house’s additions and the fact that you can’t have the pool within 5 feet of the foundation, here is what we ended up with, roughly:

It’s a more modern looking pool with clean lines. Our pool will be a funky “L.” It is mostly in a courtyard area between two additions. There is a main rectangle that is roughly 14x23, and then, to give the ability to swim laps, the length of the pool (the 23 ft length) goes an extra 12 ft to bring the total length to 35ft. But the additional length only has a width of 8 ft.

So in in other words, it’s a 14x35 rectangle, but it has a huge rectangular chunk taken out of one corner. The width is 14 or 8, depending on where you are.

It definitely feels smaller than some of my neighbor’s pools, but some of those are freeform so it’s hard to tell how it’s going to feel once it’s built. 14x23 alone would definitely be too small for what we want (4 kids!), but with the extra 8 foot wide section, it gives the illusion, and reality, that there is still more pool there. It’s just that to me, that section feels so non-usable for the kids.....it’s a swim lane!

I know I should take what we can get. But I am tempted to just say “I’m not paying for this” and wait three years and see if the city will just get lazy and not check the flood lines when they permit. Right now, per our conversations with the city and county, that is not going to happen, because this year there wwre a bunch of issues so they are hype-vilgilant.

I just want your thoughts on if this is too small, should we just wait or move if it’s not what we want, or am I blowing it out proportion and it’s actually not such a bad pool for 4 kids? Thank you!

Wanted to add that we could possibly stretch the width to 15x23 before it becomes skinny...but I don’t know at that point if it’s just strange. The 23 can’t be changed at all, and apparently the 8 ft can’t be widened even to 9 without spending a lot of extra money because of a large slope.