Sometimes you look at many homes and can’t find the perfect luxury home. When that happens, you might have to get a home that meets every requirement except the one – and then add that feature yourself. Many luxury homes have plenty of room to add additional buildings and water features. When purchasing a luxury home that doesn’t have everything, make sure you have plenty of land to add what you need or that the house is situated on the property so that you can add onto it.
You found a house with the perfect floor plan in the perfect location and with plenty of property – but the house doesn’t have a spa area or a pool. Since the market is hot, it’s a good idea to put an offer on the house, but what if you don’t want it if you can’t fit a pool where you want it? When you submit the offer, make it contingent upon an engineer approving the pool and spa location and zoning allowing the pool. If the engineer approves of the location and zoning allows you to build a pool, you can continue with the purchase. If not, you’ll be able to withdraw your offer without any ramifications.
Before you add the pool, decide on whether you want a hot tub, and if the hot tub will be contained within the same decking as the pool. If so, the pool builder will be able to add the hot tub in before the company builds the decking. This is especially important if you have an in-ground pool with concrete decking around the pool.
If you want to add a steam room that is outside of the house, make sure there is room for it – don’t think of it as an afterthought, especially if the backyard is on the small side. Planning the location of all three pool and spa features is key to an area you’ll enjoy for many years to come.
If you want everything in a heated room, you could add on to the house or you could build a separate building that holds the pool, steam room and hot tub. Benefit of having a separate building including keeping it locked without having a fence and keeping the humidity from the steam and water out of your house.
Most cities and counties require you to fence the pool in for safety reasons. Make sure you know what zoning in your area requires for a safety fence. Hot tubs, unless covered and locked, usually have to have a fence around them to prevent children from getting in and drowning.
If you don’t like the idea of a high fence, put the lowest fence allowed by zoning around the area, then plant shrubs and trees along the fence for more privacy. Taller shrubs and trees still block your view, but will make you feel like you are in the middle of the woods if you choose the right plants. Put the plants inside the fence so that children cannot climb them from the outside.
I'm John Mahan, Sales Associate with William Raveis Real Estate, Harwich Port Office.
Throughout his childhood, John Mahan spent summers on Cape Cod at his parents’ home in Dennis Port. His intro to the Cape was, as he puts it, when his parents “carried me down the stairs at Sea Street Beach when I was a week old.” With a lifelong connection to Cape Cod, it seemed only natural for John and his wife, Mary, to move to Harwich – where they still reside – with their two young children in 1996.
Prior to moving to Cape Cod, John lived in the Worcester-Auburn area where he worked for Mass Electric for 10 years and was a member of the International Brotherhood of Utility Workers. When John and his family moved to the Cape, he worked at NSTAR for six years.
John began his career in real estate in 2002 when he joined Team Waystack Realty in Harwich Port. He has been a consistent top producing realtor in the Harwich area for the past 20 years. John’s approachable demeanor, combined with an integral understanding of the Cape Cod residential real estate market, have allowed him to build trusting, long-term relationships with his clients – both sellers and buyers.
