Houses with pools, and rural living (Manchester, Concord: neighborhood, school, maintenance)

[maestramommy]

Dh was in Manchester for an interview and spent the better part of Saturday looking at houses in Bedford and Bow. One thing he noticed was that a lot of the houses have pools. In fact the first house he saw cracked him up because it also had a 12 ft. slide! The realtor said they aren't legal to make anymore.

Is it common for houses in towns like these to have pools? We really prefer not to have one because we have little ones. I saw a satellite view of the first house and I can't tell whether the pool is fenced in or not. I *think* out here it's the law to fence in your pool.

Also, we were a little shocked, I guess is the word, that these towns are really, as the realtor said, in the country. We have absolutely no experience with rural living. I grew up in Chicago, and Dh grew up in N. Brunswick. I never even lived in the burbs until I moved out here. It looks as though we'd have to drive to Manchester to do all of our shopping. Does anyone know what to do with little kids (as in 1yo and 2.5 yo) in towns like Bedford? Do they have a parks and rec, where you can take fun classes, or do activities?
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[nicolem]

Originally Posted by maestramommy

Dh was in Manchester for an interview and spent the better part of Saturday looking at houses in Bedford and Bow. One thing he noticed was that a lot of the houses have pools. In fact the first house he saw cracked him up because it also had a 12 ft. slide! The realtor said they aren't legal to make anymore.

Is it common for houses in towns like these to have pools? We really prefer not to have one because we have little ones. I saw a satellite view of the first house and I can't tell whether the pool is fenced in or not. I *think* out here it's the law to fence in your pool.

Also, we were a little shocked, I guess is the word, that these towns are really, as the realtor said, in the country. We have absolutely no experience with rural living. I grew up in Chicago, and Dh grew up in N. Brunswick. I never even lived in the burbs until I moved out here. It looks as though we'd have to drive to Manchester to do all of our shopping. Does anyone know what to do with little kids (as in 1yo and 2.5 yo) in towns like Bedford? Do they have a parks and rec, where you can take fun classes, or do activities?
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With recent development, I really would not consider Bedford rural-at least not by NH standards. While it will not be as built up as Chicago or New Brunswick- you will not be in the "boonies" so to speak. You will not have to drive to Manchester for all of your shopping. They have a fairly new Stop and Shop-which I go to often because I don't care for Shaw's, Hannaford or Market Basket. They have a Lowes, Target among many other stores. They have a few new chain resturants as well. There are a lot of stores that are proposed being built in Bedford as well. They also have a stand alone Macy's. The Manchester mall and other stores are not a huge drive to Manchester anyway.

Bow-parts of it are still "rural"-but it has been built up in recent years. If you live in Bow-most of your shopping could be done in Concord or Hooksett. Again-these will not have the development and population you may be used to-however they are towns that have grown. Just to show you the growth in these towns-in the past few years Bow has built it's own highschool and Bedford is building one-not sure when it is to be done.

I don't know about the pools-sorry. I also don't know about activities for kids-hopefully someone else will chime in.

Good luck,

Nicolem

[maestramommy]

Originally Posted by nicolem

Just to show you the growth in these towns-in the past few years Bow has built it's own highschool and Bedford is building one-not sure when it is to be done.

Nicolem

Actually Bedford has a new complex for the HS, only a year old. Dh saw it on his tour.

Hope I didn't offend you with the words "rural." It's just that the realtor said the towns are in the country. We are not looking for city living, we're moving to get away from that. But I guess even the suburb we live in now is much more densely packed than where we'll be going.

[NH2008]

Yes, the only area of NH that is densely populated is along the Seacoast. Bedford is pretty upscale and you'd have access to Gymboree, etc. It doesn't really have a town center which is why it wouldn't have been right for us.

I totally agree re. pools for the same reason. If it helps, someone where I live told me it costs about 10k to fill in a pool. They break up the cement and use it as filler, then dump on a bunch of dirt. Besides the additional expense, you're stuck with land that can't be built on - it will never be as stable as regular ground and you'd have to disclose it when you sold the house. But it's what we'd do without hesitation if we bought a house with a pool.

[nicolem]

Originally Posted by maestramommy

Actually Bedford has a new complex for the HS, only a year old. Dh saw it on his tour.

Hope I didn't offend you with the words "rural." It's just that the realtor said the towns are in the country. We are not looking for city living, we're moving to get away from that. But I guess even the suburb we live in now is much more densely packed than where we'll be going.

No you did not offend me at all. Just trying to let you know that even if you live in Bow or Bedford and you are living in an area not too built up-you will still be close to stores. Maybe not as many stores and as wide variety as in Chicago or NJ but enough I think. Boston and Burlington have a wide variety of dept stores for shopping trips too.

Good Luck,

Nicolem

[maestramommy]

Originally Posted by NH2008

Yes, the only area of NH that is densely populated is along the Seacoast. Bedford is pretty upscale and you'd have access to Gymboree, etc. It doesn't really have a town center which is why it wouldn't have been right for us.

I totally agree re. pools for the same reason. If it helps, someone where I live told me it costs about 10k to fill in a pool. They break up the cement and use it as filler, then dump on a bunch of dirt. Besides the additional expense, you're stuck with land that can't be built on - it will never be as stable as regular ground and you'd have to disclose it when you sold the house. But it's what we'd do without hesitation if we bought a house with a pool.

We have Gymboree out here too, but I couldn't swallow paying that much for a playclass when we access to perfectly good classes through the city for half the amount. Just for curiousity, are there any towns in in the area that do have a town center?

Thanks for the info on the pools. That was actually something I thought about (filling it up), but it doesn't seem worth it in the long run. Is there such a thing as filling it up (with gravel and dirt) temporarily?

[buck naked]

NH has the most pools of any state in the nation. The rate is 50% of all households have a pool. It makes sense to most people. The kids stay at home during the summer and less traveling to the coast or a park.

[maestramommy]

Originally Posted by buck naked

NH has the most pools of any state in the nation. The rate is 50% of all households have a pool. It makes sense to most people. The kids stay at home during the summer and less traveling to the coast or a park.

Now why is that? NH is such a small state, are people averse to traveling in general?

[buck naked]

I know I am....it costs money to go to state parks and forget about gas!

It's nice to keep the kids home, and if you have all the neighborhood kids over, that's not bad either. EZ to keep an eye on them.


I had a pool at my former home and when the kids were growing up. Good times! We also had a pond on the farm, but one of the girls nearly drowned when she was swimming underwater and came up under a snake!

I miss having one, but I don't miss the maintenance required.

[maestramommy]

Okay, maybe the culture in CA is different, or maybe it's the newer parent culture. I know growing up when I went to people's houses with pools they weren't fenced in. But where I am now every pool has a separate locked fence. So it freaks me out a little that the pools I see in house listings have no separate fence. If you have really little ones, do you just keep them indoors unless they're swimming or you can keep an eagle eye on them? I thought with a fenced in yard I could let them play freely without watching every second, but that's not possible with an unfenced pool.

DH refuses to let a pool be dealbreaker, or get totally paranoid about this, but when you see/hear how quickly a toddler can fall in and drown, it just makes you pause, y'know?