A backyard oasis where everyday is a vacation.

As the weather warms and summer is on the horizon, long desired apparitions of relaxing in your own backyard sanctuary might come to mind. Rick Vaughan of Vaughan Pools & Spas shares his insights on a featured pool his company designed and installed. He also shares tips to consider before installing a pool of your own.

“It’s important to have a vision of what you want to achieve and how you want to live with your particular outdoor living space,” Vaughan says. “We help customers visualize and achieve those goals. Budget, space needs and time-frame are all important, but I’d say budget and outlining your true wants top the list. Next most important is defining how you want to live with the space, so you can get optimal enjoyment both visually and spatially.”

With the featured pool, Vaughan helped the owners develop a new living area with multiple places for gathering, enjoying and relaxing. Its unique, organic shape has varying water depth levels to accommodate the needs of a family and is positioned in such a way that it can be enjoyed from the upper deck and in the house as well.

Vaughan admits the design process came with its own set of challenges as the historic home was also under renovation, and there were space limitations to consider between a free-standing garage, a new retaining wall and a side street.

“The owners wanted a more natural look, yet with modern updates, to enhance the historic nature of their home,” Vaughan says. “During installation we run into code restrictions that had to be worked around due to the historic nature of the home. Additionally, everything had to be finely coordinated so that construction on both the pool and house happened in proper sequence.“

More challenges included installing a sump system to draw away runoff water from the main street due to the position of the watershed. And as the project progressed, the owners decided to add a custom spa, which called for additional plumbing and wiring. The end result is more than satisfying to both owner and designer.

“This new area creates an amazing living space in the owner’s city backyard,” Vaughan says. “They are happy and proud, and it’s a place that invites them to relax and enjoy the outdoor living. It’s like having a vacation every day.”

Richard Vaughan, who founded the company, always said, ‘When you have a swimming pool you not only know where your kids are, but you also know where your kids’ friends are.’”

Unique pool features include:

• Large tanning ledge with a shallow water area where adults can relax and toddlers and young swimmers can play with supervision

• Freeform shape offers several areas for people to congregate and enjoy

• Custom spa adjacent to the pool presents yet another area for relaxation

• Antique hand pump, found in the basement of the home, was modernized and then designed to resemble a watering trough, which gives the relaxing look and sound of running water

• Diving well deep enough to accommodate both young swimmers and active adults

• Large set of steps that lead into the pool with extra built-in bench seating

Trending:

• LED lighting options create ambiance for an enhanced evening experience.

• Customized interiors allow for tanning ledges, enhanced steps, extra bench seating for both vinyl and concrete pools

• Controller systems are able to be activated by a smart phone for the pool and many landscape lighting features

• Variable speed pumps revolutionize water circulation and other features with major energy savings

Vaughan Pools is located at 1909 South Country Club Dr.
www.vaughanpools.com