My biggest reno fail to date is 100% the plunge pools.
If you’d seen my Pinterest at the time, you’d think plunge pools were basically a casual add-on. Infinity edges. Minimal fencing. Cute little decks. Everyone looked like they just “popped one in” and carried on with their day.
I genuinely thought: small pool, small price tag. Easy bang for buck.
I was wrong. So wrong.
The part where my brain went “LOCK IT IN”
Later in life I realised I’ve got ADHD, and honestly it explains a lot. I’m a big picture thinker. I get a vision and I hyperfocus until it’s done. It’s been a huge part of what I’ve built. The downside is I can be so focused on forward motion that paperwork becomes background noise.
Dangerous combo when you’re building a pool.
And when I saw those plunge pools on Pinterest, my brain went: yep, we’re doing that. End of story.
“Have you got your DA approved?”
The pool company asked me this and I remember thinking: Yeah, that’ll be easy. I’ll just pop in some paperwork and be done with it, right?
At the time there was no handy online portal. It was old school. Paper forms, lodge it, hope for the best. So I did the thing, lodged the DA, ordered the pool, and kept the reno train moving because we had a deadline and a mortgage that wasn’t going to wait around for council paperwork.
The moment I thought I’d “won”
The pool turns up. It’s getting lifted in. I get the council email and I’m like… YES. APPROVED. Done.
Reader, I did not read the fine print.
I saw “approved” and my brain went straight back to the next task, the next deadline, the next decision. That email went into the inbox graveyard never to be seen again.
Fast forward and the penny drops
A year or so later we were doing the next cabin and suddenly everything had moved online. The portal wanted extra documentation. Certificates. Compliance. Forms I didn’t even know existed.
And that’s when I realised: I’d done the DA, but I hadn’t properly followed through on the rest of the pool approvals process for the first cabin.
I went back through my emails, found the approval, and right there underneath “approved” was the part I’d skipped straight past: approved, subject to…
I felt sick. Proper panic attack. World collapsing kind of moment.
Owning the stuff up (and fixing it)
This is where I got lucky.
A town planner friend stepped in and helped me backtrack calmly and properly. And I will also say this: Lithgow Council were actually professional and not horrible to deal with. Shout out to Jim and Kirin. I was very, very grateful.
The best thing you can do in those situations is own it. No excuses. Full responsibility. Apologise like you’ve never apologised before. Then ask what you need to do to fix it, and do exactly that.
It took time, it took money, and it took a few years off my life, but we got it sorted and approved properly in the end.
Pinterest didn’t mention this part
Here’s the thing with plunge pools. The pool shell might look like the “cost of the pool”.
But the pool is not the pool.
By the time you add:
excavation and crane days
plumbing and electrical
filters and pumps
heating
fencing and compliance
decking and landscaping
council paperwork and certifiers
the random things that pop up because nothing ever goes to plan
That “$19k plunge pool” starts quietly marching toward numbers that will make you want to lie down.
And yes, even small pools can end up around the $100k mark once you do the full setup properly.
What I’d do now, every time
Pools are not the place to wing it.
If I ever do them again, I’ll only do it one of two ways:
a pool company who handles the approvals, certifiers, and compliance properly, or
a team where I’ve got the right people from day one guiding the paperwork and the build
Because my biggest learning was this:
Plunge pools aren’t an “easy add-on”.
They’re a whole project.
And if you’re going to do it, do it properly.
And were they worth it? Hell yes. I would do it again and again. They were the selling point, the hero image, and a big reason we reached 100% occupancy.
