Goddammit, you’re not screwed. You’re well can’t support a pool. Period. End of story. It CAN support a house without a pool. The amount of water you were using was crazy.
Spend the money to get rid of it and landscape it so it doesn’t need watering. I’ve got zoysia grass and it takes very little water to keep it going. There are certainly better grasses available on the market now and you don’t need 10 acres of open field to mow. Build mulch islands with decorative desert vegetation. I know people who do that now and my region is always in water surplus They just don’t want to water anything because they see it as a waste of a good day.
Magiver, the well is currently not producing at all. It finally dried up a few days ago (yes, we disclosed). It didn’t dry up because of the pool, it dried up because of the drought. When it rains (or possibly cools off a lot), the well will start functioning again. If we finally get a normal rain year, I’m pretty sure the well will not go dry the following summer.
I really don’t understand the argument here that using less water would have helped, or will help in the future, or make the house more salable. Would anyone put up with these seasonal well issues – a dry well in the summer months – under any circumstances? I’m really having a hard time believing that. Forgive me if I’m being too negative or obtuse.
I think some of the people commenting in here just hate the idea of a pool, squeegee. It’s pretty irrelevant, as you know. You are right that the issue is a well that goes dry. I hope you hit water. Good luck with that. Is it against the advice of the water experts to drill deeper in the well you have? If you think it will heal with normal rainfall then maybe it just needs to be deeper?
Back to your other issues: Did you have a good time on the trip you took to Yosemite? And have you looked into finding a different therapist? I hope so, and I also wonder why your insurance does not pay anything for therapy.
I hope things improve for you soon. Best wishes with all your issues!
Did it ever occur to you that all the prior high water usage drained the well? I’m not trying to bust your balls here but you can’t pull out a high volume of water during the wettest part of the year and wonder why it’s dry during the dry part of the year.
Water doesn’t evaporate from underground reservoirs. It just sits there. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
Oh bullshit. How in the hell can you have read through the thread and not understood the area in question is lean on water. It couldn’t be more relevant.
I live in an area that’s so ridiculously rich in water that the city pulls water from wells for massive fountains located IN the middle of the river.w It matters greatly that water usage coincides with water table replacement.
My only comment on digging further down is that it may be that there is no water to be found, because you’re in the middle of a drought.
You already put money into reservoirs to hold water, no? So you might consider doing something creative like putting the money you would have spent drilling further down towards water purchase for a new buyer? For instance, if the cost to buy water is $500/mo., then $3000 will buy 6 months of water. So you sell your house as $x with $3000 back to the buyer to put towards future water purchase (until the well fills up).
As for fire danger, most fire trucks are tankers and have enough water on board to put out a house fire if the house would not already be a total loss when they arrive. It takes long enough to hook up and run a hose from a hydrant that the truck has enough water on board to get started fighting the fire while that is happening.
And remember that swimming pool? Nice big reservoir of water for a pumper to draw from right there.
Even if the well is working well, few private wells have the capacity for any serious fire fighting. Agricultural or municipal wells are a different matter.
I lived in the Santa Cruz mountains (close by for those not familiar). We looked at several houses that regularly trucked in water in the Summer months. Not uncommon at all in this general area. Ain’t California grand. I think what you have to weigh is how extreme the drought is now (worse ever), versus how likely the well is to recover when it rains again. Sounds like reasonably likely. Could you write something into the contract that would cover the buyer somehow - water truck costs for 2 years? I still hear El Niño and it is starting to act a little hopeful. Anyway, put something in that would cover costs for the buyer. Get the house off your hands. You’d be making a bet the well recovers and you can stop paying out.
I’d still say get the cover on the pool to show you’re managing/conserving. I know your agent said there was a liability issue, but maybe explore that bit more? When I moved into this house the sellers took the cover and I was pissed. It was actually a selling point to me.
The kind of cover we’re discussing is a solar blanket, and they aren’t expensive at all, maybe $100. It’s basically a huge piece of bubble wrap that you cut to the shape of the pool. There’s already one in the garage on the property, waiting for whoever wants it.
There’s a different kind of pool cover, a hard cover, that is electrically retractable and lockable, and so stiff you can stand on when closed. These are very expensive, and can only be installed on rectangular pools. Our pool is the more classic ‘bean’ shape, so a solar blanket is the way to go.
So check it out: we’re back under contract again on the house! Yay! They know all about the well issues, and are apparently fine with them (!!). The offer is contingent on their selling their house in San Jose, but my agent checked it out and thinks they’ll have little problem unloading it. I’ll be crossing my fingers!
Thanks, guys. We’re still under the drip drip drip pace of the contract (waiting for the buyers to sell their property), but it’s nice to have hope we can unload this property. And the buyers seem super excited about our place, and I wish them well.
The house closed today. So, so relieved. In fact, it hasn’t even hit me yet, it’s been such a fiasco taking care of that property since the wife and I split. The buyers are thrilled - thrilled! - to have the place, and I’m glad for them.