For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

[KG]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

It is actually based on the square footage of the house and square footage used.

The home office is much more beneficial to somebody who is filing a Schedule C rather than somebody who is working for somebody else and receiving a W-2 since they will have to meet the 2% Employee Business Expense floor before deductions are allowed.

Typically, as Stu said, it will mainly be mortgage interest, plus real estate taxes, and (if applicable) mortgage insurance premiums to put a taxpayer over the standard deduction and allow them to itemize. Once there you can throw in any charitable contributions, property taxes, state income taxes (or state sales tax if you're in a no income tax state), and medical expenses if you reach the 10% floor. There are some credits available for energy efficiency additions and modifications, too.

Fellow Wiz fan...is it possible to do both in terms of having your own company AND working for someone else (ie getting a W-2)?

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

Fellow Wiz fan...is it possible to do both in terms of having your own company AND working for someone else (ie getting a W-2)?

Its possible. You can file two Home Office forms and have one go to the Schedule C and the other go to the 2106. This is assuming you have two separate work spaces for the different jobs since the computation is based on the sq. footage used/house total.

I would wager most would throw it all on the Schedule C, though.

[23]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

Wow thats great info

[jeremym480]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

Spoiler

They got the pool laid out yesterday and they're digging today. Never mind my neighbors ugly *** camper in their driveway.

[Scott]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

That'll look great...So we're scheduled to close on our house on 1/29, very excited. Only 10 days away now, we're so ready to get out of the rental house.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

Spoiler

They got the pool laid out yesterday and they're digging today. Never mind my neighbors ugly *** camper in their driveway.

Looks good. We put in a pool two summers ago. Just a few ideas to share:

1) I wish we would have put more seating/ledges in the pool. The kids love to swim, but the adults mostly just want to hang out and sit around, so an extra ledge or two would have been nice.
2) When the poured both the pool and the decking we had them include some slots for umbrellas, which I would recommend as well. Understand where the sun sets and place them strategically to provide the best shade in the late afternoon. We didn't do the bes job here and I wish I would have placed them better. The same goes for basketball hoops, etc. You can have the slots placed in advance which is nice.
3) Where the new patio/decking comes off of your existing patio, you might want to consider taking that section all the way over against the garage / storage. Unless you have plans for that section, it seems like that would be dead space that would be usable if it were concrete. Also you won't have to mow/edge that section.
4) Do you have young kids? If so, we threw a couple of bubblers on the tanning ledge. The kids enjoy them and they also contribute to a constant sound of running water when the pool is running during the day/evening.

Other than that, congrats. I like the shape of your pool and the natural rock. It will be awesome when you get to use it in a few months.

How long is it from end to end?

[jeremym480]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

Looks good. We put in a pool two summers ago. Just a few ideas to share:

1) I wish we would have put more seating/ledges in the pool. The kids love to swim, but the adults mostly just want to hang out and sit around, so an extra ledge or two would have been nice.

We just have a ledge close to the spa that you can see on the plan. Other than that we just have the steps and the sun shelf for place to sit.

2) When the poured both the pool and the decking we had them include some slots for umbrellas, which I would recommend as well. Understand where the sun sets and place them strategically to provide the best shade in the late afternoon. We didn't do the bes job here and I wish I would have placed them better. The same goes for basketball hoops, etc. You can have the slots placed in advance which is nice.

I definitely want to get some pool basketball and volleyball going. We haven't really discussed anything with our pool builder about it, but I guess I need to.

3) Where the new patio/decking comes off of your existing patio, you might want to consider taking that section all the way over against the garage / storage. Unless you have plans for that section, it seems like that would be dead space that would be usable if it were concrete. Also you won't have to mow/edge that section.

Our original plans has that and a lot more concrete around the pool. However, our original plans was also about 6-7 grand over budget. We asked the to cut that down without losing any pool and their only way was to lose some decking and automation... which we can get automation later, but for now I'm have to turn some handles by the pool equipment when we get in the spa. By doing that we got only went 1500 over budget. For the area by the storage we'll put rocks down for now and eventually get it professionally landscaped. I suppose I can live with that for now, but I don't necessarily love it.



4) Do you have young kids? If so, we threw a couple of bubblers on the tanning ledge. The kids enjoy them and they also contribute to a constant sound of running water when the pool is running during the day/evening.


No kids. We just wanted a nice pool with an outdoor living area. For now we're going to have to settle for a TV under our existing patio area. However, in the future we would like to build an outdoor kitchen with a fireplace. We had plans for that, but I was unaware that those nearly cost the same amount as the pool itself.


Other than that, congrats. I like the shape of your pool and the natural rock. It will be awesome when you get to use it in a few months.

How long is it from end to end?


Thanks. We batted around all kinds of ideas, but my wife kept going back to her original idea of the natural lagoon look. They said hopefully the pool will be finished in 4-5 weeks, so hopefully we will be swimming in March.

I don't have the total length... I guess we just never really asked and I don't see it on the plans that we have. The sun shelf area is going to be 9 ft so I'm guessing the pool is probably 3 times that. I can measure when we get home if it isn't too muddy.

Answers in red... and thanks for your input. Neither me or my wife have had a pool so we're excited to get through the build to see what being a pool owner is like.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

Answers in red... and thanks for your input. Neither me or my wife have had a pool so we're excited to get through the build to see what being a pool owner is like.

Right on. With the slots for umbrellas and basketball nets, you can bring that up with the builder before they pour the concrete. I think they just set them in pour around it. Then they have caps that screw in as well, so when they are not in use, you don't have empty holes just sitting there.

If your builder hasn't told you:
1) When they poured the gunite for our pool, we had to spray it twice a day for a week or two to help it cure correctly. Not a big deal, but took like 10 - 15 minutes in the morning and in the evening.
2) When they plaster the pool, they immediately fill it up and then we had to brush it twice a day for about two weeks. This was a little more labor intensive than just hosing it down and probably took 20 - 30 minutes each time to go around and run the brush around the edges (easy part) and the base (harder to reach and fight the water)
3) You can save yourself a lot of money by doing the pool maintenance yourself. It's not too complicated, but does require some knowledge and a little bit of research to get the chemistry correct and to maintain it.
- We didn't have any issues the first summer (our pool was finished in August). The winter, it stays cold enough that the algae can't bloom and grow. However within a two day period in early April of this year, we went from perfectly clean to green algae everywhere. It freaked me out because scrubbing didn't work, but chlorine/shock took care of it right away. I battled for about 3 months trying to get everything in balance and never got it right, so I ended up hiring someone who comes out weekly. Personally, for the investment we put into it, I didn't want to screw it up. Once I get some more free time, I may attempt to take it back over. It's not rocket science by any means, but just not my cup of tea.

[jeremym480]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

Right on. With the slots for umbrellas and basketball nets, you can bring that up with the builder before they pour the concrete. I think they just set them in pour around it. Then they have caps that screw in as well, so when they are not in use, you don't have empty holes just sitting there.

If your builder hasn't told you:
1) When they poured the gunite for our pool, we had to spray it twice a day for a week or two to help it cure correctly. Not a big deal, but took like 10 - 15 minutes in the morning and in the evening.
2) When they plaster the pool, they immediately fill it up and then we had to brush it twice a day for about two weeks. This was a little more labor intensive than just hosing it down and probably took 20 - 30 minutes each time to go around and run the brush around the edges (easy part) and the base (harder to reach and fight the water)
3) You can save yourself a lot of money by doing the pool maintenance yourself. It's not too complicated, but does require some knowledge and a little bit of research to get the chemistry correct and to maintain it.
- We didn't have any issues the first summer (our pool was finished in August). The winter, it stays cold enough that the algae can't bloom and grow. However within a two day period in early April of this year, we went from perfectly clean to green algae everywhere. It freaked me out because scrubbing didn't work, but chlorine/shock took care of it right away. I battled for about 3 months trying to get everything in balance and never got it right, so I ended up hiring someone who comes out weekly. Personally, for the investment we put into it, I didn't want to screw it up. Once I get some more free time, I may attempt to take it back over. It's not rocket science by any means, but just not my cup of tea.

We got one of these umbrellas last spring which we plan to use over our table area.

Spoiler

But we definitely need to talk to them about getting a hole we're were playing on putting the pool chairs.

For a basketball goal I was just thinking we would get something like this:

Spoiler

But maybe the ones that go in the ground would be better... and would probably take up less storage room since we don't have a ton of storage space.

The pool builder told us that they're playing on pouring gunite Friday or Saturday. They never mentioned anything about us having to do anything, but a little work wouldn't bother me too much. I suppose that would just get me used to becoming a pool owner.

Our pool builder is going to give us a pool school before we pay our final draw. I'm hoping that it isn't too complicated and I'm going to give it the old college try... However, I'm like you and if I start getting over my head I'm fine with paying someone to come in once a week and take care of it.

Right now everything is going super fast. When we had our final meeting on 1/7 the designer said he would give us a call this following week to go look at some some of their others pools to help us decide on colors and stuff. Well, we still haven't done that yet. Although we have scheduled to go pick our stone tomorrow, but we still haven't decided 100% on tile or the plaster color. We've got a idea of what we want, we would just like to see it first, if possible.

Really the only other thing we wavering on now is when the designer originally came out we chose a UV Ozone system. That seemed great for us at the time, but most people on pool forums don't seem to like them. The thing is it's hard to tell if someone is giving their review on actual experience or things that they're read online. We're considering changing to saltwater instead, but I'd love to read reviews from people who actually have Ozone... It's just tough to find.

[aukevin]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

I have no idea what a UV Ozone system is, but I am so happy I converted my system to a salt system. Once I got my salt level and stabilizer levels correct, everything stayed in check by itself. The number one thing for me to enjoy a pool is ease, so if you have to budget to get the extras to make your life easier, you'll enjoy the pool that much more. I have a solar powered skimmer that was $500 but it is worth every penny to not have to skim the pool before getting in. My Polaris does a pretty good job with the bottom of the pool, so I haven't upgraded it to one of the robot systems yet. I may if the Polaris ever breaks too much beyond repair, but I don't think that is possible since it isn't that complicated of a tool.

We just had to put a No-Dig metal fence around my pool to keep my dog who is going blind from falling in, also helps with the puppy, so you might want to go ahead and think about the pool guys doing something like that now in case you have old dog problems or eventually a kid. May also help with house insurance credits, never know.

[bigeastbumrush]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

jeremy- What material is your pool made out of? From the shape I'm guessing vinyl? I only ask because depending on the material, some pools require less chemical treatments.

I've also never heard of UV Ozone.

I have no idea what a UV Ozone system is, but I am so happy I converted my system to a salt system. Once I got my salt level and stabilizer levels correct, everything stayed in check by itself. The number one thing for me to enjoy a pool is ease, so if you have to budget to get the extras to make your life easier, you'll enjoy the pool that much more. I have a solar powered skimmer that was $500 but it is worth every penny to not have to skim the pool before getting in. My Polaris does a pretty good job with the bottom of the pool, so I haven't upgraded it to one of the robot systems yet. I may if the Polaris ever breaks too much beyond repair, but I don't think that is possible since it isn't that complicated of a tool.

We just had to put a No-Dig metal fence around my pool to keep my dog who is going blind from falling in, also helps with the puppy, so you might want to go ahead and think about the pool guys doing something like that now in case you have old dog problems or eventually a kid. May also help with house insurance credits, never know.

How high is your fence?

I don't have kids yet but the thoughts of what could happen frighten me. I never liked any of the fences I saw around pools. And I've never heard of this no dig fence. I'll have to look it up. May need to invest in one.

[aukevin]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

How high is your fence?

I don't have kids yet but the thoughts of what could happen frighten me. I never liked any of the fences I saw around pools. And I've never heard of this no dig fence. I'll have to look it up. May need to invest in one.

I'm not the biggest fan of fences around pools either, but the safety of them makes it worth it. So I went with what can be temporary since there's no cemented in posts, so you could just pull it out whenever your kids are grown. But as it turns out I think the fence looks pretty good.

Not the greatest photo because it is so messy outside this morning, but you can see the fence is about 3 feet tall and each panel is a little over 3 feet wide. My fence has small bars to keep small dogs out and was about $20 per panel, they had some that the bars were spaced out more for about $13 a panel but my dogs, especially the puppy, could slip right through them. I got mine from Lowes, and there were some more that were a little longer and a little taller but I wanted something that I could easily step right over. You also have to buy the post that goes in between each panel, it is just a post with a spike on the end that you push into the ground, it is easier with a rubber mallet, but putting up the whole thing took about a day. I have a really big pool area, so I didn't think that was too bad. All the material for the fence ended up costing me about $1,300. So it wasn't a cheap project but it was a lot cheaper than a safety cover.

[jeremym480]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

jeremy- What material is your pool made out of? From the shape I'm guessing vinyl? I only ask because depending on the material, some pools require less chemical treatments.

I've also never heard of UV Ozone.

Our pool will be gunite. They were supposed to pour tomorrow, but we had some pretty nasty thunderstorms last night, so that may get pushed back.

UV Ozone is Ultraviolet and Ozone which is a relatively new form of water sanitation. It's an alternative to saltwater or chlorine pools, although some chlorine is required... It's just 80-90% less than what's in a normal chlorine pool. One of the downsides is that you have to buy expensive bulbs every two years or so.

I haven't read the best reviews online, but it's hard to tell if the reviews are from people who've actually had one or just people giving their opinion without any experience. Either way we have been nervous about it. I talked to my pool builder yesterday and they say that everyone of their clients love who have it love it. I don't see any reason for them to lie because a salt water system was actually a little more expensive. Also, he said that if we end up not liking it that we can always convert over, so that made me feel a little less apprehensive.

I'm not the biggest fan of fences around pools either, but the safety of them makes it worth it. So I went with what can be temporary since there's no cemented in posts, so you could just pull it out whenever your kids are grown. But as it turns out I think the fence looks pretty good.

Not the greatest photo because it is so messy outside this morning, but you can see the fence is about 3 feet tall and each panel is a little over 3 feet wide. My fence has small bars to keep small dogs out and was about $20 per panel, they had some that the bars were spaced out more for about $13 a panel but my dogs, especially the puppy, could slip right through them. I got mine from Lowes, and there were some more that were a little longer and a little taller but I wanted something that I could easily step right over. You also have to buy the post that goes in between each panel, it is just a post with a spike on the end that you push into the ground, it is easier with a rubber mallet, but putting up the whole thing took about a day. I have a really big pool area, so I didn't think that was too bad. All the material for the fence ended up costing me about $1,300. So it wasn't a cheap project but it was a lot cheaper than a safety cover.

That looks great, Kevin. All of our dogs are young right now, but we may have to do something like that once they get older. It's too late now, but when two of our dogs were puppies they could slip through our fence, so we bought puppy bumpers for them.

Spoiler

[bigeastbumrush]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

I'm not the biggest fan of fences around pools either, but the safety of them makes it worth it. So I went with what can be temporary since there's no cemented in posts, so you could just pull it out whenever your kids are grown. But as it turns out I think the fence looks pretty good.

Not the greatest photo because it is so messy outside this morning, but you can see the fence is about 3 feet tall and each panel is a little over 3 feet wide. My fence has small bars to keep small dogs out and was about $20 per panel, they had some that the bars were spaced out more for about $13 a panel but my dogs, especially the puppy, could slip right through them. I got mine from Lowes, and there were some more that were a little longer and a little taller but I wanted something that I could easily step right over. You also have to buy the post that goes in between each panel, it is just a post with a spike on the end that you push into the ground, it is easier with a rubber mallet, but putting up the whole thing took about a day. I have a really big pool area, so I didn't think that was too bad. All the material for the fence ended up costing me about $1,300. So it wasn't a cheap project but it was a lot cheaper than a safety cover.

That looks great.

And the price isn't bad at all especially for a DIY project.

About how it sets into the ground- are the posts going into grass or is there some sort of metal groove that they sort of lock into. Just wondering how it's set. Like a kid or dog can't just push it over/knock it down with force.

[aukevin]

Re: For all of you guys who are homeowners or newly owned

That looks great.

And the price isn't bad at all especially for a DIY project.

About how it sets into the ground- are the posts going into grass or is there some sort of metal groove that they sort of lock into. Just wondering how it's set. Like a kid or dog can't just push it over/knock it down with force.

There is a 12" spike you hammer into the ground, the you line up holes on the end of each fence panel with the hole in top of the spike, and then slide you post through the panel holes into the spike. So if you need to take a panel out, just pull the post out leaving the spike in the ground and the panel comes right out.

This is the post. Spike comes off and you hammer it in, then put the post in through the fence panel holes: http://m.lowes.com/pd/No-Dig-Powder-...-56-in/3089851