How COVID is creating opportunities in the suburbs

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

The satellite views of suburban Quebec and the circular above ground pools always blow me away.

I've posted this one before, but it's still the craziest example I've been able to find in all my google maps searching.



Apparently it's around the corner from Acajack as well.

What is the name of the main road there?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Handro

We've had more serious discussions about moving somewhere where we can afford a house with a yard and a garage, even if we're giving up some urban amenities, for these reasons.

the nice thing is that you're in chicago, so you have options. if you and your girlfriend both have half-decent jobs, then you can almost certainly afford a nice city bungalow with a yard and garage in a nabe like portage park.

it won't be as urban as a core city neighborhood, but it can get you enough of what you want on the house front (with some urban mixed-in as well), without having to go full schaumburg.

[suburbanite]

Originally Posted by Acajack

What is the name of the main road there?

Rue Nobert and Des Capages school.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Rue Nobert and Des Capages school.

Oh, yeah. That's really close!

[Acajack]

The swimming pool discussion piqued my interest so I went snooping around on Google Earth, well beyond southern Quebec.

This is La Baie, a suburb of Saguenay in central Quebec.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/La+...!4d-70.8825738

Here is Baie-Comeau, in northeastern Quebec:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ba...!4d-68.1503944

And here is Évain, a suburb of Rouyn-Noranda in northwestern Quebec:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/%C...2!4d-79.128396

All of these places have borderline subarctic climates, but they are at about the same latitude as Seattle.

They are extremely cold in the winter, but their summers are reasonably warm with average highs around 75F in July. Which is actually warmer than Seattle's averages.

[mrnyc]

^ so we narrowed you down from location: canada. ok!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

^ so we narrowed you down from location: canada. ok!

Somewhere in this general vicinity:

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Gat...!4d-75.7012723

Which is probably like 0.001% of Canada.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Yeah, that's kinda crazy. Looks like Southern CA. I guess it's a cultural difference.

The in-ground thing yeah but the north is littered with pools (above ground) more so than around here even where the climate is more conducive to swimming year around. When I fly into Syracuse, nearly every other house below has a pool. On my street which is upper middle class, there is may one or two pools.

Meanwhile, I am rocking the $30 rig like Steely....

[dave8721]

I have a pool and like most South Floridians would never consider going in the pool when its only 75 outside. Of course it is warmer than 75 about 330 days out of the year. Even then the pool only really gets used April-October. When it drops much below 80, the pool gets too cold. I do know quite a few people in Miami with heated pools, my wife wants me to put one in. My sons birthday is in late October and he always wants to have pool parties. It seems every year we get a cold snap (by our standards at least) right before where the temp drops to 60 for a day and the pool is always cold.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by dave8721

I have a pool and like most South Floridians would never consider going in the pool when its only 75 outside.

of course not. your kind has blood that is way too thin to do much of anything when its below 75 degrees.

but if you've got some good old fashioned thick-ass midwest motor oil blood, swimming in a heated pool in colder temps is a perfectly doable activity (hell, i've swam in heated oudoor pools in temps down into the teens, and it was a blast!)

the key is having a HEATED swimming pool. anyone in the midwest would be a damn fool to build an unheated pool.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

of course not. your kind has blood that is way too thin to do much of anything when its below 75 degrees.

but if you've got some good old fashioned thick-ass midwest motor oil blood, swimming in a heated pool in colder temps is a perfectly doable activity (hell, i've swam in heated oudoor pools in temps down into the teens, and it was a blast!)

the key is having a heated swimming pool. anyone in the midwest would be a damn fool not to build an unheated pool.

Go to Chena Hot Springs (in the Alaskan interior). Swimming outside in a hot pool at -10 F = awesome (especially the haircicles and beardcicles).

[suburbanite]

When we were kids we used to get out of our friend's hot tub and jump off the deck into the 3 foot pile of snow and the first one who ran back to the tub lost.

Somehow avoided hypothermia.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

of course not. your kind has blood that is way too thin to do much of anything when its below 75 degrees.

but if you've got some good old fashioned thick-ass midwest motor oil blood, swimming in a heated pool in colder temps is a perfectly doable activity (hell, i've swam in heated oudoor pools in temps down into the teens, and it was a blast!)

the key is having a HEATED swimming pool. anyone in the midwest would be a damn fool to build an unheated pool.

even above ground pools? My brother has an inground and of course it's heated but my parents and other brother have above ground pools and no heating. In fact, never heard of heated above ground. I am assuming midwest has high concentration of above ground like the northeast.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Go to Chena Hot Springs (in the Alaskan interior). Swimming outside in a hot pool at -10 F = awesome (especially the haircicles and beardcicles).

This is, of course, for the uninitiated. For the serious, there's:

The 300 Club is a small number of individuals who have endured a temperature difference of 300° Fahrenheit (166 °C) within a very short time. The group originated at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, and has since been established in North America.

Participants in the Antarctic 300 Club wait for a day when the temperature drops to −100 °F (-73 °C) for more than a few minutes, generally in the winter. They first warm up in a sauna heated to 200 °F (93 °C) for as long as 10 minutes. Then they run naked to the Geographic South Pole, circling it in the −100 °F weather. After this, they usually warm up in the sauna again, often with the aid of alcoholic beverages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club

[Crawford]

I don't see a lot of aboveground pools in the NY metro, though not always easy to tell from the street. Maybe it's more an Upstate thing?

I don't even know if it would meet zoning regulations in many suburbs, given the rampant NIMBYism.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by JManc

even above ground pools? My brother has an inground and of course it's heated but my parents and other brother have above ground pools and no heating. In fact, never heard of heated above ground. I am assuming midwest has high concentration of above ground like the northeast.

From my experience, backyard pools in general aren't terribly common in chicagoland, but of the ones I've been in, most have been in-ground.

But even with an above ground pool, I don't know why anyone in the Midwest would go through the expense of adding a swimming pool to their home and not spring for a water heater as well.

Unless you really enjoy swimming in 60 degree water, you'll have a VERY short pool season in this region relying on the air and sun alone to warm your pool water.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JManc

even above ground pools? My brother has an inground and of course it's heated but my parents and other brother have above ground pools and no heating. In fact, never heard of heated above ground. I am assuming midwest has high concentration of above ground like the northeast.

Above ground pools heat up very quickly in hot weather. But lose their heat very fast.

In ground pools take a lot longer to heat up, but retain the warmth for much longer.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I don't see a lot of aboveground pools in the NY metro, though not always easy to tell from the street. Maybe it's more an Upstate thing?

I don't even know if it would meet zoning regulations in many suburbs, given the rampant NIMBYism.

Not many above ground ones around here either and I am assuming that's due to HOA/ deed restrictions (ugly and they can leak) though you'll see them every-so often in the boonies. As for Upstate, it must be a regional thing if NYC and Chicago aren't big on them either.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

me being unemployed and living in the city, i didn't have $150K nor the backyard space to go all out like my BIL did, but this was still a pretty solid $150 solution for my two kiddos


)

My gf has that same pool for her small cousins when they come over. Its a great little pool, gets the job done, quick to set up and maintain. And yeah, cheap too, like 100-150ish.

Did you get the water guns? Those are even fun for adults too!

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by JManc

Not many above ground ones around here either and I am assuming that's due to HOA/ deed restrictions (ugly and they can leak) though you'll see them every-so often in the boonies. As for Upstate, it must be a regional thing if NYC and Chicago aren't big on them either.

I have to check the validity of it, but I heard portions of PA have local ordinances banning above ground pools due to topography/flood issues. Only requiring below-grade/below-ground pools.