This is my first Reddit post so hopefully this is the right place…
I am sure this has been asked before but this is a general highlight of what I am working with. I bought my house 5 years ago as a live and flip property, I ended up staying in it. It had a non operating in-ground liner pool, that was ripped up, yet equipment that for the most part was still operating. I used a pool company that ended up being difficult to deal with but they replaced the liner, and fixed up the plumbing. 1 year in, they changed out the pool pump to a variable speed Hayward pump for efficiency.
I travel for work so unfortunately the last 2 winters it was not cared for the way it should have been, left to turn green and has just been sitting there. This year I told myself that I was going to try to salvage it and dedicate time to opening it. I found someone to quote me for fixing all the chemical balances and to put in a salt water converter. He ran into electrical concerns about a week ago so I redid all the electrical connections on the equipment pad, and then when he came back to turn it on he found that pool pump is dead too.
I am not here to complain about the price of pools but I am here to get practical / real advice based on the situation. I am not sure if this is my “forever home” but I do know I will keep the house for forever. I have read that it’s a terrible idea to fill in pools bc of house value and price of that alone but I am legitimately thinking about it being a smarter option economically. The pool liner is already over 4 years old, two years of which it has been holding nasty water. The equipment pad is uncovered. I know as of right now I will have to pay to check plumbing, replace the pump, possibly the sand filter (it’s very old now) and a salt water converter. I know the concrete is breaking and at some point that will need to be ripped out and redone. I will need to enclose the equipment to protect it from future issues I can control from weather. I am just having a hard time justifying spending thousands of dollars when all of these things are all going, around the same time. I mean at this point, it’s like the entire pool other than the hole dug. Maybe this is more normal than it feels but I’m feeling stumped.
This is where advice comes in. What would you do? I am fairly strong and able bodied to DIY within reason for context… but would you fill it in? Would you invest in replacing things as they break and keep it? Is there another solution you would go with that I’m not aware of? I thought maybe a koi pond conversion? I am very open minded to suggestions and I have a bit of money to throw at it (not in need of impractical free solutions) but if it’s not obvious yet, I am not interested in pouring all of my savings/earnings into just this one project and it seems like that’s the road I’m headed down. Thank you in advance for any advice!! I will include pictures for reference to size and for the condition the concrete is in.