May 27, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode of the Luxury Outdoor Living Podcast by Farley Pool Designs, Mike and Trey Farley launch a new series aimed at helping homeowners transform their outdoor spaces into personal paradises. They discuss the importance of a clear step-by-step process for planning backyard projects, ranging from cozy escapes to resort-style oases. Emphasizing the value of good and bad experiences in the design industry, they introduce their weekly 'True Crime' segment, detailing real-life cases where outdoor projects went awry. They cover the vast range of possibilities for pool designs, water features, fire elements, outdoor structures, kitchens, and wellness amenities. Additionally, they delve into the critical topic of budgeting, explaining their 'shopping list' approach that helps homeowners prioritize features and align their dreams with financial reality. Full of expert tips and real-world examples, this episode is a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to create their ultimate outdoor retreat.
Discover more:
https://www.farleypooldesigns.com/
https://www.instagram.com/farleydesigns/
https://www.instagram.com/luxuryoutdoorlivingpodcast/
https://www.instagram.com/poolzila/
00:00 Welcome to Luxury Outdoor Living 01:12 Introduction to the Podcast 01:44 The Importance of a Clear Process 02:40 Avoiding Nightmares: True Crime Segment 03:56 The Value of Outdoor Investments 06:29 Inspiration and Dreaming Big 09:47 The Role of Media in Design 12:19 The Design Process: From Dream to Reality 20:02 Understanding Lot and Space 21:02 Outdoor Living: Barbecue Bits 21:33 Introduction to Warming Drawers 22:47 Exploring Pool Types and Features 25:45 Outdoor Kitchen Essentials 28:21 Fitness, Recreation, and Landscaping 31:48 Budgeting and Planning Your Dream Backyard 42:32 Conclusion and Future Episodes
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:02):
Welcome to Luxury Outdoor Living Podcast with Mike and Trey
Farley of Farley Pool Designs.
For over 40 years, we've helpedhomeowners turn their backyards
into personal retreats, spaces ofjoy, relaxation and unforgettable
memories, and whether it's a cozy as.
Scape or a resort style oasis.
We design it all.
(00:24):
We know how overwhelming a projectcan feel, and nothing feels worse than
a homeowner having a bad experience.
And that's why after decades ofdesigning and teaching in this
industry, we're here to share ourknowledge, helping you navigate.
The process with confidence.
Every week we break down designtrends and insider tips that
turn your vision into reality.
(00:45):
And since this is about creating somethingamazing together, drop a comment.
If you have any questions, ideas, orjust want to be part of the conversation,
if you find this helpful, a like helpsget this out to more people like you.
And if you want to keep upwith what's next, go ahead
and hit that subscribe button.
We'd love to have you along for the ride.
Let's build your paradise together.
Mike (01:12):
Hello, it's Mike Farley Luxury Outdoor Living Podcast
sponsored by Farley Pool Designs.
And we've got a good episode tonight.
So we're gonna take you on a journeythis is step one of the journey and
the process for you as a homeownerto try to figure out what's gonna be
best for you in your backyard or frontyard or side yard, could be anywhere.
Trey (01:34):
Anywhere.
Yeah.
Mike (01:35):
It could even evolve part of the house.
that does come into play on a lotof projects that we're looking at
these days it's a whole environmentsituation that we're creating.
And one of the things is we started thispodcast a year and a half ago, we kind
of started out and we just started anddoing that, one of the things that wasn't
really clear was, is there a clear.
(01:58):
Step-by-step process I can go throughto, create this reality that I want
in my backyard space, or, in is itjust are we working just on pools
or are we working on outdoor living?
Or can we do everything that'soutside so the process can
take care of all those things.
So, We wanted to lay it out andalso go into why we're doing this.
(02:20):
For some people that aren't realfamiliar with us and go from there.
Trey (02:24):
Yes.
Sounds good.
So I'm Trey Farley as well.
current listeners already know that.
But the reason we're doing this, we'veheard stories of people having a dream
and maybe they worked with someone else.
And unfortunately that dream might'veturned into a nightmare, We're trying to
push people not to have that experience.
Mike (02:40):
Yeah.
So we have an episode or a segment in thepodcast every week we call True Crime.
Trey (02:46):
Yes, we do.
Mike (02:47):
And I guess the reason we do this is the true crime is, somebody
goes through this process and investstheir time and money and they create
this environment in their space, andthen they find out later on, wait.
Nobody told me about this.
Trey (03:04):
Yeah.
Investing all that money and thattime and then getting through the
process and finding out somethingthat you wish you would've known
in the beginning is a letdown.
Mike (03:12):
Yeah.
for some people this is aonce in a lifetime situation.
Yeah.
That they're gonna go through.
Now there are.
People that we deal with, that,we're working with them on their
third or fourth or fifth project.
And as they go, they'veevolved and things like that.
But for some people that'snot gonna be the case.
And so what we wanna be isthe source of information to.
(03:34):
You to be able to go to and gothrough this process and also find
out the cool and the unusual and theunique and the different, and all
the things that you could consider.
And so those can be on the tablewhen you start the process.
And so whether you do it initially orit's something that's phased over a
period of time that can be incorporated.
Trey (03:55):
Yeah.
I listened to the, your firstepisode and you said that.
This could be the second biggestpurchase of someone's life.
Mike (04:03):
Oh, almost always is the second biggest purchase.
Yeah.
Other than the home investmentthemselves, an automobile people, some
people spend a lot on automobiles.
Trey (04:12):
I mean Cars and boats, but they don't power to an actual home itself.
Mike (04:16):
Yeah.
So usually this is more than a car ora boat from an investment standpoint
that's gonna be taking place.
Yeah.
And it is an investment.
So one of the things to realize thatif you do it well when you go to sell
your property there has been a lot ofresearch on how well that return has
been for people even spending up intoseven figures in their backyard that
(04:38):
investment's been returned when theygo to sell the property or their home
or they make money off of the property.
Trey (04:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Last night you told me of a,a job, what, 20 years ago?
And they bought a pool that was a hundredthousand dollars or something like
that, maybe even more than 20 years ago.
And then they sold the property eventuallyand they got all their money's worth.
'cause I've heard the stigma of,you build a pool, you're gonna
get, a quarter's worth of the cost.
Mike (05:01):
Yeah.
So that particular project, thatwas over 20 years ago and they spent
a hundred thousand dollars, whichwas a big number back in that day.
Trey (05:08):
Yeah.
Mike (05:08):
And what they did is, two years later, they sold the house and I
was talking to 'em and I was like Ijust can't believe y'all are moving.
And they're like we're moving undermore acreage and stuff like that.
And we just took the value of the house.
And we put our investment thatwe put in the backyard and
added that to the house price.
And the first person that walkedinto the house was like, oh, this is
amazing, the space and how everythingflows, and all this type of thing.
(05:33):
And they bought the house.
Yeah.
very first person that walked in.
Trey (05:35):
Well, It makes sense because like when you're buying a home.
You're already buyingsomething that's built.
You're not buying a flat land that you're,creating your own, doing a new build.
So with the backyard,it's the same concept.
You don't want a blank slate.
You want something that's alreadynice, un unless you do want to
create something that's blank slate.
But for the people that don't wantto deal with that process and don't
want to deal with the constructionand all that kind of stuff.
(05:57):
That is such a huge selling point.
Yeah.
Mike (05:59):
Some people it's, hard to envision, yeah.
What can take place.
And now that is part of whatwe're providing is the vision.
Trey (06:05):
Yes.
Mike (06:06):
And so the dream, there is the dream that's gonna be in the backyard.
And there are so many things.
That we've covered in a year anda half that, most people aren't
even aware of a quarter of it.
So it's really been funto provide those detail.
And we've got a whole lot of morestuff that's coming up over the next
several months that, it's gonna befun to cover all those things as well.
Trey (06:28):
Oh yeah.
So where does the dream start?
Mike (06:30):
I think people.
A lot of times have a dream thatthey have, and sometimes it comes
from, a lot of homes or a lot ofprojects have something to do with.
Your past.
Trey (06:43):
Okay.
Mike (06:43):
And it's really interesting how it works into it.
And there's something that youwant to do or replicate or create
that reminds you of something orsomething that you didn't like and
you want to, eradicate that memory.
And so it's interestinghow people come about.
(07:04):
The vision of what they wantin their backyard space.
And so dream comes from alot of different places.
We have people today thatthey're grandparents.
The dream is all about family.
Trey (07:17):
Yeah.
Mike (07:17):
And so they want to be the family's vacation spot.
Yeah.
They're competing with Disney World.
Okay.
Or the
Trey (07:25):
other
Mike (07:25):
grandparents.
Yeah.
Or the other grandparents.
Yes.
I did have that projecta number of years ago.
And so they want the kids to come totheir house and so they want to create
the environment that people will come,for a long period of time and enjoy
that because they want to enjoy familyand or they want to enjoy friends.
(07:46):
there's a lot of reasonspeople have dreams.
I mean, Some people, it'sabout creating a space that.
I'm not gonna have anybody come over here.
This is just my private retreat.
Yeah.
It's my
Trey (07:56):
private sanctuary.
Mike (07:57):
want a sanctuary that I can check out from the world and I
can go back here and I'm not inDallas-Fort Worth or wherever you live.
But I can feel like that I'mon vacation all the time.
Trey (08:10):
Yeah.
Mike (08:11):
And I want to create Maui here, or I want to create Alaska here, or
Greece or Thailand or wherever that.
Awesome event that you had or placeyou went, or you want to go or you
want to go, even, but I want to createthat space that I can walk out on
my back porch and enjoy every day.
Yeah.
(08:31):
I mean that for some people is the dream.
Trey (08:33):
It's funny 'cause you said in the beginning, the past in my mind immediately
went to grandpa and grandma's poolthe deck material, how it was so hot.
And I was like, oh, I don'twant that in my future pool.
But then the spa, obviously that's such a.
Big part of our family, hanging outwith grandma and the grandparents
and you and mom and my sisters.
And I think the past for peoplethat have experience with pools
(08:55):
for sure ties into it a lot.
But also there's a lot of newmodern stuff that you see on
Pinterest or Instagram or YouTube.
You see these resorts you visit orsomeone that in your neighborhood might
have, and you pull these ideas andyou wanna make your dream come true.
Mike (09:11):
Yeah.
there's a lot of things that.
Are on resorts Oh, yeah.
That people go to and they're comeback and they're like, yeah, I
want a lazy river in my backyard.
Or I want this big, huge, massive slide,or I want this cool whatever climbing
wall I can fall off into the pool in.
or even the one thatblew me away was when.
(09:33):
The cruise ship has surfing on the deck.
Trey (09:37):
Yeah.
The surfing simulator.
Yeah.
Mike (09:38):
You can come in and put that into your residential swimming pool.
Yeah.
It's wild that there's all kinds ofwild things that people have seen.
The other thing is what's reallychanged things in the last
20 years is, has been media.
Yeah, so the first thing was HGTV.
Trey (09:58):
Okay.
Mike (09:58):
So HGTV, you know, over 20 years ago, started putting out
these episodes of all these crazypools and people would be like, oh.
I never thought of doing somethinglike that in the backyard.
Trey (10:09):
Yeah.
Mike (10:09):
And so people then started coming in and, we were blessed
to be on there five times.
And so we get people that are callingup that are, that want something,
along those lines or just they seesomething that they've never seen
before and now they're inspired by that.
And so that was I wouldsay the beginning of it.
Trey (10:28):
And then you got a whole new wave with social media.
Oh, and yeah, especially when socialmedia went video based and picture
based, like Instagram and thereels and all that kind of stuff.
Mike (10:36):
Yeah.
Man it's amazing.
And the fun thing for me as a designeris now I'm exposed to people that
I've never heard of or seen theirwork before, because there's a lot
of people on social media that I.
Have been working their careersfor 20, 25 years and they've been
creating just phenomenal thingsand some things, it's kind of like,
(11:00):
wow, I've never even seen that.
Trey (11:01):
And you're very involved with the industry as a whole,
so you're going to like.
Shows all the time forpools and stuff like that.
So these might be the outsidersthat don't mingle with that crowd.
And with social media,you're exposed to 'em.
Mike (11:14):
And so we've had several on the episode and we have
several that are coming up.
Yep.
That, I was just, youknow, admired their works.
The first one that, when me and Reidwere, Reid was showing me something
and he's like, look at this guy's work.
And I was like.
What is this Instagram thing?
And he's like, well, it's a bunch ofpictures, you know, but just look at this.
And I was like.
Who's Danny Wang?
I've never even heard of this guy.
(11:35):
Yeah.
Now most people that look at poolstuff today know who Danny Wang is.
'cause I can't wait to see the Star Warspool that's fixing to come out, man.
The guy is, really creative.
But he was there in OrangeCounty and all these tiny lots,
and I always appreciate it.
I say the hardest.
Project to ever design isa small piece of property.
And he was doing all these little bittyyards and just amazing different things.
(11:59):
And he was on the podcast,a little over a year ago.
So one of the things we try to dohere is bring in different designers.
To expose you and your dream processto, people that have done really
phenomenal work and are really creative.
So anyway, oh yeah.
It's
Trey (12:15):
good to have a good range of perspectives, especially from the experts.
Mike (12:18):
Yeah.
But as that dream soyou have a dream, right?
Yeah.
So you come up with a dream, okay?
You, You have somethingthat you're thinking of.
in that process the first thingthat I think you need to do is I
think you need to go find picturesto support what that dream is.
Because it's really hard toexplain something with words.
(12:40):
Yeah.
So when somebody's sitting down withme in the design process, and this
is with every designer, so it doesn'tmatter who you are working with.
To explain something, something'sgonna get lost in translation.
Well,
Trey (12:52):
And there's so many different features and architectural elements
that people think is one word,but it might be another word.
Oh yeah.
So it just get, yeah, it just gets lost.
Oh, even the word
Mike (13:01):
modern.
I have people that, that are like,yeah, I want this modern situation.
And they describe modernto me and I'm like, okay.
And I used to just run with that.
Now I know I get apicture out and I'm like.
Like this, or like this?
Yeah.
And they're like, oh, like this.
Oh to me, that's not a modern design.
Trey (13:22):
No,
Mike (13:23):
that's perfectly symmetrical.
Okay.
That's a very traditional design style.
Trey (13:28):
Yeah.
Mike (13:28):
Okay.
It may have some modern elements in it.
Okay.
But it's a very traditional design style.
Trey (13:35):
But the pictures are easy.
They'll be like.
I like this picture andthis is why This right here?
Mike (13:40):
Yeah.
And so if somebody comes in andI tell people I don't need a
photo album of 250 pictures, no.
Okay.
What I need is six or 12 picturesof here's the things that
I'm thinking and it helps uscommunicate and be on the same page.
You may show me a picture of a lazy river.
(14:00):
And say well, I'm trying toexplain that I want a lazy river.
That lazy River is totallyorganic in appearance.
Okay.
But you may say, I like modern style.
Here's a different pictureof, this modern kitchen.
Yeah.
Okay.
I can take, oh, you want modern?
Style, but you want a Lazy River feature,and I can blend those two together and
(14:21):
come up with what works best for you.
Exactly.
So pictures are really, really helpful.
But the first thing that youhave to get through in the
picture phase is your partner.
Trey (14:33):
Yep.
Mike (14:33):
It's a big part because most projects aren't being
done by a single individual.
No, are.
There are.
Yeah, a few.
I've done some really coolstuff for single guys over the
years that, want, or women.
Yeah, some well, I've just, inparticular, I've done some bachelor pads.
Bachelor pads that are really wild.
but need to be able to communicateto your significant other,
(14:55):
this is what I'm thinking.
Trey (14:56):
Mm-hmm.
And
Mike (14:56):
they're gonna have a bunch of photos and they're gonna
say this is what I'm thinking.
And most of the timethose photos don't jive.
No.
Okay.
So it's really helpful for thedesigner to see both sets of photos.
Yes.
Because I can then start to pullpieces and understand things.
And sometimes people are like.
(15:17):
I could care less what it looks like.
I just need this one feature.
Yeah.
Okay.
You can design whatever styleyou want that one feature to
be, but I need that one feature.
And other people are like I need this andthis and this and this, and the other.
The other one wants this and this.
And that's the fun of it, is tryingto incorporate all those features
together and to create and as we dream.
(15:41):
Some people's dreams are very big.
Yes.
And some people's dreams are very simple.
Okay.
So some people may be like, Hey, here'sthe exact pool that we want to build.
And it's simple and it meetsour needs and that's it.
And that's great.
And then other people have a list, amile long of all the things that they
(16:04):
want on a very extravagant project.
Trey (16:07):
Yeah.
Mike (16:07):
My design process deals with both of those.
Okay.
You can have either simpleor you can have simply crazy.
Yeah.
Okay.
So yeah, in between and everythingin between, I've dealt with more
of the simple, crazy, over thelatter part of my career here.
But when I started out,I did lots of simple.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because, the goal here is to helpeverybody figure out what's best for them.
(16:31):
The challenge is I can onlydeal with so many projects.
Okay.
And as a company, Farley PoolDesigns, we can only do so many.
However, that's why we do the podcast.
Yep.
Because if we do the podcast, we canguide you on how to get through this
and have a successful situation.
Exactly.
the first thing.
(16:51):
Is, want to come up with what the dreamis and there's lots of different dreams.
Oh yeah.
And you sometimes
Trey (16:58):
get the compromise.
Mike (16:59):
Yeah.
Compromise is part of thatsituation and you compromise
for a couple different reasons.
One is we have a dream.
Then we have a budget, and sowe have to compromise so we can
fit into that particular budget.
Yeah.
But also sometimes it's compromisedbecause we have a limited amount
of space and all the things thatwe want won't fit in that space.
(17:23):
Yeah.
So along with understanding whatyou like, it's also very helpful
to talk about what's the priority.
Yeah.
Like we were talking to a couple Friday.
And that couple said, tanningledge in the sun is one of the
most important things that we want.
Now, what would be really coolis we'd like a swim up bar.
(17:44):
Okay.
But the swim up bar in thisparticular yard and the tanning ledge.
We're probably gonna bealmost in the same spot.
That's where they both needed to be.
And so my question to them is onemore important than the other?
So I understand you want both, butif you can't have both, which one's
the most important for you to have?
(18:05):
And she was like, hands down,I gotta have the tanning ledge.
Yep.
Okay.
so I understand that.
So if I can work in the barsomehow, then that's great.
I gotta have the tanning leg.
You need to understand theunnegotiable the priorities
of what you're going to have.
Yes.
The sacred things that, must bedone here to create your oasis.
(18:26):
Okay.
And that's different with everybody.
That's the fun I feel in my career,is and we've talked about this before.
I've only done one pool.
Ever twice.
And that's 'causesomebody saw a model home.
And this was way back before Instagramand HGTV and all those things.
And they saw a model home.
(18:46):
They bought the exact same house onsame lot, the exact same size lot.
Yep.
So they could put the exact same pool in.
'cause he was afraid if he changedanything, it would mess it up.
Trey (18:57):
He did, I think, change the materials a little bit.
He did change the materials.
It's not technically thesame, but structurally yes.
Mike (19:03):
From a designer standpoint it, it was just about the same.
But yes, he chose somedifferent materials.
So I got to say, Everypool I've done is unique,
Trey (19:11):
so, well, I mean that, comes with the territory.
We're designing something,brand new for these people.
There's people that buy and go throughthis process and then they'll sell their
home and then there's a lot of thosepeople that don't wanna mess anything
up and they'll buy the exact same home.
This guy just decided to.
Do like a hybrid of the two.
Mike (19:28):
The other thing that exists today that didn't exist then,
which is extremely helpful in thisprocess, is there's 3D modeling.
Trey (19:35):
Mm.
Mike (19:36):
So there was no 3D modeling then?
No.
So he had to go see actual versus, lookingat a 2D piece of paper or even a sketch.
it doesn't make any sense to me, butif that same guy exists today I can be
like well, I can put it in a 3D model.
We can get down to the exactmaterials so you can make
(19:56):
sure you don't make a mistake.
Yeah.
And that's again, part of thefun in that whole process.
Trey (20:02):
I think a big step as well is understanding.
What you have as a lot, so if youunderstand, if you have an empty lot,
you just bought a lot and you're doinga whole new custom home custom pool,
or if you have an existing home with ablank yard, or if it's an existing pool
remodel situation or a full tear out and.
Rebuild the pool situation.
(20:23):
That's
Mike (20:23):
Oh, blow it up and start over.
You've done a
Trey (20:24):
few of those.
Mike (20:25):
That's one of my favorites.
Trey (20:26):
Yeah.
Or if you haven't even bought the lot yetand you're just in the dream stage, making
sure that your dream works with that lot.
And I know we'll get to like toposand all that kind of stuff in a
different episode, but that is.
Significant part of the first step.
Mike (20:39):
Oh yeah.
So how it all fits togetheris definitely gonna be part of
the first step in your dream.
But people come from alldifferent directions there.
And again, I. Some of them we're workingwith, it's an empty lot and a brand new,
architecturally designed house and that'swhy we put everything in 3D including
(20:59):
the house so they can see it all.
So
Trey (21:01):
anyway.
Oh yeah.
BBQ Intro (21:04):
We are gonna take a break here for a second and get into outdoor living.
So with outdoor living, we like togo to barbecue bits here we're gonna
share some information of everythingthat you may want to consider in
your outdoor living space as far asfeatures, especially for the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy this.
Mike (21:24):
So after we we're cooking, a lot of times when we're cooking for a
big event, we need a warming drawer.
Sure.
So explain pros and consand how that might work
Bobby (21:33):
there.
We haven't seen really any cons.
It just is gonna support the volume offood that's been cooked, and we're seeing
these gain more popularity because I'mgonna touch on some things that'll help
you guys sell more warming drawers.
The first is a volume.
It's holding volume right for the party.
That's where it's value added.
(21:53):
The second thing is you don'thave to mount it downward.
Here at the bottom, you can mountit high so it's right underneath the
counter so you don't have to bend down.
We see a lot of people use warming drawersfor baked potatoes, so if you have a
baked potato bar, it's really easy to do.
After the meal is over with,though a lot of people don't know
is that you can take towels, roll'em up, set these down to low.
(22:14):
Put 'em in the warming drawerin the winter and when everybody
gets out of the hot tub, theyhave a nice, fresh warm towel.
Mike (22:19):
Sweet.
And that's
Bobby (22:20):
where you're gonna get your most cells outta warming drawers
with warm towels, but rememberto put it on low, not on high.
So
Mike (22:27):
that's awesome.
Okay.
Uh, well appreciate thattidbit of information.
Yeah, you bet.
BBQ End (22:33):
So I hope you enjoyed the barbecue bits that we just featured today,
and we'll have more coming up next week.
If there's something in particular thatyou're interested for, let us know and
we'll get back into the episode now.
Trey (22:47):
I made a little list that we pretty much goes over a lot of the big different
possibilities and people's dreams.
Do you want me to run through thatjust so people know what's possible?
Mike (22:58):
everything's possible.
But yeah, go ahead.
I'm sure that's not a short list.
Trey (23:02):
So we have pool types, obviously.
You have standard pool, you have yourspa, you have a coal plunge, recreational
pool, lap pool, diving pool, fast laneswim current to simulate the lap pool
lazy river spools splash pads, salt water.
Pool or a chlorine pool or ozone pool.
We've gone into detail on all thesedifferent things and different podcasts.
(23:25):
A heated pool.
If you have a spa that's built in,it's gonna have that or maybe a
always heated spa in ground pool kits.
The pool ends that we covered.
Then you have, different stylesof pool, like negative edge,
infinity, edge knife, edge pool.
You have acrylic walls, you havemovable floors, you have beach
entries and tanning ledges.
We have, zones where youcan jump into the pool.
(23:47):
It's, safely if it's elevatedor if it's at the pool level.
You have dive zones designatedfor angled entry or direct entry.
Sun benches, steps and benches, allthese things matter with the design.
And pool, bar stools and pooltables and stepping pads.
Those are very big now rock climbingwalls, like you mentioned, if you
(24:08):
wanna have a basketball hoop in thepool or a volleyball net in the pool,
or if you're gonna use a Polaris ora robotic cleaner or a floor system.
We have slides, whichthere's a lot of them.
There's, the simply straight slide thatis traditionally used back in the day.
And then you have the curveslides nowadays and multi
curves like a swim park.
And you have speed slides as well that area little higher up and you can go faster.
(24:31):
You have the artistic slideslike splinter works where that
chrome looked so beautiful.
Water features, you have grottos.
They could be naturally looking withthe, mosh rock or whatever kind of
boulder you want to use, or modern.
You've done plenty of those.
Sheer descents, scuppers waterfalls.
Water walls are huge fountains.
Tway, cannon jets, bubblers,LED, bubblers to get a little
(24:53):
bit more of a lighting aesthetic.
Laminas, those are lighted as well.
Vortex fountains, glass wall balls thatsit on the side of the pool or on on the
side of a wall or whatever they might do.
We have fire features like sunkenfire pits or just a normal fire pit.
You have fire bulls and fire pots,torches, they could be helix or
modern torches, line burners.
(25:14):
That could be a fire pit as well.
Or maybe you want it on a.Tabletop or something like that.
Fire sculptures.
We talked to a guy and he had a firebreathing dragon in one of the backyards.
Every time this guy pulled up to his home.
The dragon breathe fire.
It's crazy.
Then you have structures.
It's a huge thing.
They get out of the elements like cabanasand pergolas equinox a louver roof.
(25:36):
You have covered decks first orsecond floor walkouts relocating,
a covered area, detached pavilion.
A standalone patio cover,outdoor kitchen structure.
If you're talking an outdoor kitchen.
You are gonna want a grill.
Are you gonna want a griddle?
Are you gonna want a pizza oven?
Maybe a smoker, a green egg, like aKomodo Joe or something like that.
Are you gonna need a venthood because of ventilation in
(25:57):
that area Is not good enough.
Are you gonna need the outdoor fans?
'cause it's gonna be too hot?
Are you gonna have lighting in that area?
Is it gonna be on dimmers?
What color does, is the lighting gonnabe, are you gonna have a kitchen island?
Is that necessary?
you have a trash bin out there?
Do you have a fridge out there?
Is the fridge for wineor just typical drinks?
Do you have sealed storage?
Do you have storage in general?
(26:18):
Do you have pantries?
Do you have.
bar top, a counter space is thatgranite, Dante stone, et cetera.
There's so many differentmaterials you could use.
Furniture is a huge part of whatwe do, and so a lot of people
use loungers as that can be inthe water or out of the water.
What style?
Are you gonna have a daybed by any chance?
Are you gonna use hammocks,outside swings, any kind of
(26:40):
floating furniture in general?
Are you gonna have walkways?
Are you gonna use terracing?
Is everything gonna be flat?
Are you gonna have elevatedviews from the decks?
Are you gonna have atree house by any chance?
And that might sound weird, butthere's some really nice tree houses
that we covered in another episode.
Illuminated trees as well.
Lighting is key these days.
I'm gonna take a breath.
technology and entertainment.
(27:01):
Are you gonna have underwater speakers?
Maybe you don't need that and youjust want surround sound outdoors.
Are those speakers, arethey normal speakers?
They look, I. Like rocks or blendinto the environment itself.
Are you gonna have a TV outdoors?
Maybe you want actuallya theater outdoors.
So is that a projector setup?
Are you gonna have a roll down screenor a set screen or maybe a set wall to
(27:22):
project onto, or maybe you have a waterwall that you're gonna project onto.
Do you want to have, good security.
So do you want maybe an AI poweredcamera that can detect when someone's
in the water or falls in the water, ormaybe you want a fence around your pool,
maybe you want a cover for your pool.
Is that a catch a kid cover?
(27:43):
Or is that more of a automatic pool cover?
Is that pool cover gonna beutilized for heating the pool?
We have a whole episodeon pool covers as well.
And then there's wellnessand recovery, which is huge.
Are you imagining a sauna in yourbackyard or a cold plunge or a float tank?
Maybe a area for yoga, like ameditation deck or a prayer room?
(28:04):
I. Are you gonna do a sand or salt room?
Maybe a mud bath or a steam room or ahydro, a therapeutic jets in the spa.
Or maybe you don't want a built-in spaand you want a jacuzzi or a massage chair
somewhere underneath a covered area.
I.
Fitness and recreation.
Are you gonna have an outdoor gym?
(28:25):
Are you imagining, turfedareas for athletics sports or
playing catch with the kids?
A basketball court, pickleballcourt volleyball nets in the pool.
Maybe you want a volleyball pitwith the net next to the pool.
Or a trampoline pad.
Or a surfing simulator, like yousaid you've seen on the cruise ships.
Are you basing your pool to be morefamily friendly or pet friendly?
(28:48):
That's going to dictate a little bit ofthe design concepts, and you can be a
little bit more extreme with either or.
Landscaping and privacy, that'spart of this whole journey.
Are you gonna use privacy fencing?
Are you gonna be screeningwith trees or bushes?
How much privacy needs to becreated from the design itself?
Or are you borrowing thingsthat are already available?
(29:09):
Are you using shade and umbrellas?
Are you just doing one?
Are they gonna be permanent?
Are you gonna wanna move them around?
Retaining walls is huge.
Are you having a flat surface or is.
There is a if you're on a side ofa hill or a side of a cliff, if
we're retaining to create it flat,how flat of an area do you need?
Same thing with patios and flat zones.
(29:32):
A lot of people in Texashave mosquito issues.
So are you gonna want mosquito sprayerstations or mosquito control service come
by every three weeks or a misting system?
Are you gonna wantheaters under the patio?
Are you gonna want.
Misters depending on your locale,there could be other things that you
could add to enhance your environment.
And we'll go briefly into thislater, but like financing,
(29:54):
are you gonna pay with cash?
Are you gonna finance with someonelike Lion Financial we've talked to?
Are you gonna phase outthe project possibly.
There's different project types likeI mentioned earlier with the remodel,
new build full tear out and rebuild it.
There's different design conceptsto think about what your style is.
You're gonna match thehome with architecture.
Are you doing a smooth indoor outdoortransition, traditional biophilic
(30:17):
design where you're bringing a lot ofthe outside elements indoors, and you
can reverse that on its head and bringa lot of the indoor elements outside.
Are you doing a zen minimalist style,maybe a mid-century modern style or
rustic luxury style, a futuristichigh-tech highlighting style?
(30:39):
There's other trends.
Like outdoor ice baths andrecovery stations, floating fire
tables, outdoor game areas likeping pong, chess, and cornhole.
There's glow in the darkpool, tile and deck.
There's vertical gardenwalls, which I love.
There's smart yard, app control,lighting, music, water features, all
(30:59):
encompassed with the home as well.
There's outdoor chargingstations hidden or solar.
You know, Solar panels for off grid zones.
There's rainwater capture areas,eco pool, tech, interactive, LED
lighting for the decks and pathways.
There's so many things.
So
Mike (31:14):
that the end of the list?
Trey (31:16):
That's the end of the list.
And that's, the short list.
We could go way more in detail,but that's just rough points.
Mike (31:22):
Yeah.
Here's the thing.
We can take all that stuff and helpyou figure out what your paradise is.
and that's just some of thestuff we've covered so far.
There's more stuff coming butthere's a lot to dream about.
one of the things that we'll dohere shortly is come up with a.
Outline of things that you maywant to consider and some episodes
(31:42):
that tie into all that information.
Oh, yeah.
So you can get more details as you go.
But probably the big thing that youneed to work through after talking
about all that is what's our budget?
Trey (31:57):
Yeah.
What's realistic versus what's fantasy.
Mike (31:59):
So I've got an interesting process that I go through to
help people figure that out.
Because what I used to do along time ago is I used to ask
people what their budget was.
Yeah.
And most people wouldsay one of two things.
One, they would throw a number out.
Now the challenge is.
(32:20):
Most of the time when they threw a numberout, they were just throwing a number
out based on what somebody else had said.
Or maybe something thatthey did in the past.
But the number really wasn't relativeto what they just wished for.
But they threw a number out andthen I was frustrated because there
was no way in the world I couldget 'em all that they wanted to.
(32:40):
That number.
Yeah.
And so one of two things happened.
One is I ignored their number, whichwas a very good situation and I
went ahead and designed somethingand they loved it because it had
all the elements that they wanted.
But then when they finally gotthe number, they were ticked off.
Trey (32:56):
Yeah.
'Mike: cause I didn't design to their number actually.
I designed to their dream.
The other situation is some of 'em werelike, I don't know, just put it all
together and we'll see where it's at.
And again, I. I designed it alland then when they got the number,
generally they were ticked off.
Now there were some people that weren't.
Okay.
(33:16):
But what I found is a better process togo through to help people in this process.
What's that?
I call it the shopping list.
Okay.
Mike (33:24):
Okay.
So the shopping list, the way it worksis it's critical for me to understand
everything about their property.
' cause I can take the sameproject and call it South Lake.
And I can take the same exact projectdown the road and put it in Las Colinas.
Okay.
Okay.
(33:45):
And in South Lake it's on aflat lot and I got great access.
Yep.
And in Las Colinas it's on a hillsideand I've got horrible access.
Trey (33:54):
The dirt quality's a little different too.
Mike (33:56):
The soil is totally different.
Yeah.
Between South Lake and Las Colinas,south Lake has some of the best
soil in the state to build on.
Yep.
Os Colinas has the secondworst Clay in the world.
Not the United States.
The world.
Trey (34:10):
He's not o over exaggerating.
Okay.
Mike (34:12):
So the substructure that goes under the same exact pool, that
in Southlake is not needed at all.
Could be over a hundred thousand dollars.
Easily.
Easily.
and then I have bad access and thenI've gotta have retaining walls.
So the same exact project in oneneighborhood could be twice the
(34:33):
cost of the project in the badneighborhood, or even three times.
Trey (34:37):
Yeah,
Mike (34:37):
same exact pool size, same exact features.
The structure and the retaining walls andthe utility runs, and those are all things
that will make, so when I do my shoppinglist, we take all that into account, okay?
We're gonna take the soil intoaccount, we're gonna take your
utilities into account, we're gonnalook at your grades, your access.
(34:59):
And so when we run the tentative budgetnumbers, it's not just Well, we're
within a hundred thousand dollars.
Trey (35:05):
Also, you have eight different like HOAs and different setbacks by the city.
Mike (35:10):
Yeah.
So those are all things that, thatwe're gonna get into in the site
analysis that's important to talk about.
what I'm gonna then do is I'mgonna work up a real crude
concept that I can run numbers on.
So I'm gonna run numbers onthat particular concept with
all of your specific situations.
And then I'm gonna break it down.
(35:30):
Not gonna give you a lump sum'cause that doesn't help you.
But I'm gonna tell you, oh, the lazyriver that you wanted, that added,
$400,000 in cost to do the Lazy River.
And some people.
When they hear that in thefirst appointment, decide to
get rid of the lazy river.
But some people have to waituntil they see all the numbers.
Yep.
And then they start adding stuff up.
(35:51):
And the general comment is I don't wannaspend this much money on this project.
That's fine.
Trey (35:58):
Everybody wants a deal.
Mike (35:59):
So what?
What we have to understand is.
So this was the dream?
Yes.
This was the ultimate dream.
So now we have to understand priorities.
Okay.
We have to understand what are thethings that are most important to you
and what's the best value for you?
Because a lazy river may have beenthe top priority, but when you realize
if I take the lazy river away, Ican get everything else I want.
(36:20):
Maybe the lazy riveris not that important.
Yep.
But.
If you're like, I want to design thebackyard where all my grandkids come
all the time, and the family's realimportant and I've got a big business
that I'm going to entertain a lotof people from, then maybe let's
get rid of most of the other stuff.
But I want the lazy river and gee,make the pool big enough that I
(36:42):
can play water basketball in, but Idon't need a big pool with a diving
board and slide and all those things.
So those things go away.
Everybody's different.
Once you have the shopping list infront of you, now you can look through
it and be like automation for firefeatures sounded really cool, but I
don't wanna spend $15,000 on that.
So we can do manual fire features.
Trey (37:03):
It helps the customer realize they're putting a
price point to what they want.
Mike (37:07):
Now we can juggle things around.
And so before I design anything,I want you to come up with the I
items that we are going to keep.
The budget that works for you.
So this saves people time.
Trey (37:22):
Yep.
Mike (37:22):
Okay.
Because what happened earlierin my career, well scrap that.
I got a project that we'reworking on right now.
Okay.
I met with this guy four years ago.
And gave him a budget.
And said, this is what it's gonnabe for your particular project, and
this is what the design fees for are.
And so he looked around and hefound somebody online that charged
(37:47):
$2,500 for a design fee, flat fee.
Didn't matter what you putinto it, $2,500 to sign.
Okay?
So he spent the $2,500 on the design.
And he brought it to me four years later.
Okay.
Okay.
I rolled this thing out
and the first thing was the designhad no retaining walls on it.
Trey (38:07):
Okay.
Mike (38:08):
There was an eight foot elevation change in this backyard.
Oh boy.
So it was all drawn flat and to, his.
Thought processes.
I sent 'em a survey, whichhad elevations on it.
Trey (38:20):
Yeah.
Mike (38:20):
So you can actually look at it and see, you can't build this, what they drew.
But it was a $2,500 flat fee andI guess it's for a flat backyard.
Yeah.
So anyway, which he doesn't have,does not have, the other thing is he
had all kinds of really cool elementson the design way far beyond what
(38:42):
I initially had designed for him.
And the end result was, so I took thedesign and I said, the first thing
we're gonna do with this, so we'regonna make a shopping list of this so
we can decide out what's important.
Okay.
And it came to over $1.2 million.
Trey (38:59):
What was his initial budget?
Mike (39:00):
400.
Trey (39:01):
Oh boy.
Mike (39:02):
Yeah.
Now his comment was wecould possibly phase things.
Mm-hmm.
Which certainly can be done on a project.
Yeah.
Okay.
And there's some thingsthat yes, we could modify.
But he wanted to see allthese things incorporated.
My job is to give people information.
Once they have information,they can make good decisions.
(39:22):
Yep.
The thing is, if I go design somethingfor somebody and don't take in account
what their budget is, that's not a.Great process for the homeowners.
Trey (39:32):
No, what you just described is you taking a design that was over
budget and you are now retroactivelychopping it down to the shopping list
again, because you're gonna be tryingto, okay, we're gonna phase it, we
gotta figure out what's most important.
You So some doing thewhole process in reverse.
Pretty much.
Yeah.
Mike (39:51):
But that's where we're at today.
But.
If you don't do this on the frontside, then most cases that's what's
gonna happen on the backside.
And what happens, and earlierin my career is I would design
things and people would love them.
They were like, this is great.
And we worked weeks and weeks toget the design exactly perfect.
(40:12):
And once we got the design exactlyperfect, then we ran the numbers
on it and then they weren't happy.
' cause it wasn't what they wanted to spend,but initially they said, Hey, just design
something and knock it out of the park.
That was their comment from whenit came to, what's my budget?
Trey (40:28):
Yeah.
Mike (40:29):
Budgets are reality.
Okay.
And some people are like Mike, thattakes the creativity away, there are some
people that if you showed them something,they would expand their budget to meet
that particular needs, and that's fine.
but at least they know itgoing in, versus, somebody
(40:50):
that's totally taken offside.
'Cause if you design something that's1.2 million and you wanna spend 400,
there's no way you're gonna phase it ever.
this guy's, the value of hishome's about 1.2 million.
Trey (41:01):
Yeah.
You can't scrap togetherthat kind of money extra
Mike (41:04):
There's some people that would say, okay, over the next 25 years, I'm
gonna live in this house and I'm gonnainvest this stuff and I'm gonna do it.
But you're probably still not gonna do it.
Now, I'm not saying thatthere aren't people.
Trey (41:15):
Every situation's different.
Mike (41:17):
Every situation's different.
And I've had a couple clients in mycareer that have spent more in the
backyard than the house was worth.
Okay.
But they knew that going in,that's what they were going to do.
We had that conversation atthe beginning and they're
like, we like our neighborhood.
We could sell our house and gobuy a mega million dollar house.
We've got the money to do that.
(41:37):
But we like our neighborhood.
We like our friendshere, we like our house.
We like the.
The property and the privacy and allthe things that we've got with it.
We just want a, an ultimatebackyard back here.
Anyway the budget is key for youto have a successful project.
Yeah.
So you under need to understandgoing in what that might be so you
(41:57):
can come up with the best situation.
That way you get the dream.
Trey (42:01):
Oh yeah.
I think budget's such a dirtyword that people don't like, dream
cost or the cost of the dreamis probably a little better, but
Mike (42:08):
oh, we should call it the cost of the dream.
Cost
Trey (42:10):
of the dream.
Mike (42:11):
Okay.
That's more letters, butI could get around it.
Trey (42:14):
Yeah.
It is more words.
Mike (42:17):
So now that we've got the dream and now that we have the cost of the
dream, is that the correct wording?
Trey (42:23):
I think so, yeah.
Cost of the dream.
Y'all let us know what'sbetter on YouTube,
Mike (42:26):
okay.
So we have both of those established.
I think that's step one in the process.
Yeah.
Okay, so what we're gonna do is we'regonna jump to step two here in the
next episode, and we'll share thatwith you and so you can get step
by step on how to go through andcreate what's going to be your oasis.
Trey (42:49):
We hope your journey is as good as possible.
Mike (42:51):
Awesome.
Look forward to talking to y'all later.
Trey (42:53):
We'll see you.
Outro (42:54):
This show is all about helping you become a better buyer, a better pool
owner, and hopefully you're gonna findsome insights into how to enjoy your pool
even more so how to help your friends,your family, anybody looking to buy a
pool in the future or that want to remodeltheir backyard, add an outdoor fireplace,
fire pit, add an outdoor kitchen area, addsome shade cells, or whatever else it is.
(43:18):
We wanna be that resource for you and, andthat's the end goal here, and we promise.
That there's gonna bea ton of information.
We'll try to go through it, youknow, as relatively quickly, but
also slow so people can understand.
But the intent of the show, thereason Mike and I are doing this
is because we just got a lot inour heads and we wanna share it.
So we hope to see youhere every single week.
Thanks for listening.
(43:39):
I.
Welcome to Luxury Outdoor Living Podcast with Mike and Trey
Farley of Farley Pool Designs.
For over 40 years, we've helpedhomeowners turn their backyards
into personal retreats, spaces ofjoy, relaxation and unforgettable
memories, and whether it's a cozy as.
Scape or a resort style oasis.
We design it all.
(00:24):
We know how overwhelming a projectcan feel, and nothing feels worse than
a homeowner having a bad experience.
And that's why after decades ofdesigning and teaching in this
industry, we're here to share ourknowledge, helping you navigate.
The process with confidence.
Every week we break down designtrends and insider tips that
turn your vision into reality.
(00:45):
And since this is about creating somethingamazing together, drop a comment.
If you have any questions, ideas, orjust want to be part of the conversation,
if you find this helpful, a like helpsget this out to more people like you.
And if you want to keep upwith what's next, go ahead
and hit that subscribe button.
We'd love to have you along for the ride.
Let's build your paradise together.
Mike (01:12):
Hello, it's Mike Farley Luxury Outdoor Living Podcast
sponsored by Farley Pool Designs.
And we've got a good episode tonight.
So we're gonna take you on a journeythis is step one of the journey and
the process for you as a homeownerto try to figure out what's gonna be
best for you in your backyard or frontyard or side yard, could be anywhere.
Trey (01:34):
Anywhere.
Yeah.
Mike (01:35):
It could even evolve part of the house.
that does come into play on a lotof projects that we're looking at
these days it's a whole environmentsituation that we're creating.
And one of the things is we started thispodcast a year and a half ago, we kind
of started out and we just started anddoing that, one of the things that wasn't
really clear was, is there a clear.
(01:58):
Step-by-step process I can go throughto, create this reality that I want
in my backyard space, or, in is itjust are we working just on pools
or are we working on outdoor living?
Or can we do everything that'soutside so the process can
take care of all those things.
So, We wanted to lay it out andalso go into why we're doing this.
(02:20):
For some people that aren't realfamiliar with us and go from there.
Trey (02:24):
Yes.
Sounds good.
So I'm Trey Farley as well.
current listeners already know that.
But the reason we're doing this, we'veheard stories of people having a dream
and maybe they worked with someone else.
And unfortunately that dream might'veturned into a nightmare, We're trying to
push people not to have that experience.
Mike (02:40):
Yeah.
So we have an episode or a segment in thepodcast every week we call True Crime.
Trey (02:46):
Yes, we do.
Mike (02:47):
And I guess the reason we do this is the true crime is, somebody
goes through this process and investstheir time and money and they create
this environment in their space, andthen they find out later on, wait.
Nobody told me about this.
Trey (03:04):
Yeah.
Investing all that money and thattime and then getting through the
process and finding out somethingthat you wish you would've known
in the beginning is a letdown.
Mike (03:12):
Yeah.
for some people this is aonce in a lifetime situation.
Yeah.
That they're gonna go through.
Now there are.
People that we deal with, that,we're working with them on their
third or fourth or fifth project.
And as they go, they'veevolved and things like that.
But for some people that'snot gonna be the case.
And so what we wanna be isthe source of information to.
(03:34):
You to be able to go to and gothrough this process and also find
out the cool and the unusual and theunique and the different, and all
the things that you could consider.
And so those can be on the tablewhen you start the process.
And so whether you do it initially orit's something that's phased over a
period of time that can be incorporated.
Trey (03:55):
Yeah.
I listened to the, your firstepisode and you said that.
This could be the second biggestpurchase of someone's life.
Mike (04:03):
Oh, almost always is the second biggest purchase.
Yeah.
Other than the home investmentthemselves, an automobile people, some
people spend a lot on automobiles.
Trey (04:12):
I mean Cars and boats, but they don't power to an actual home itself.
Mike (04:16):
Yeah.
So usually this is more than a car ora boat from an investment standpoint
that's gonna be taking place.
Yeah.
And it is an investment.
So one of the things to realize thatif you do it well when you go to sell
your property there has been a lot ofresearch on how well that return has
been for people even spending up intoseven figures in their backyard that
(04:38):
investment's been returned when theygo to sell the property or their home
or they make money off of the property.
Trey (04:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Last night you told me of a,a job, what, 20 years ago?
And they bought a pool that was a hundredthousand dollars or something like
that, maybe even more than 20 years ago.
And then they sold the property eventuallyand they got all their money's worth.
'cause I've heard the stigma of,you build a pool, you're gonna
get, a quarter's worth of the cost.
Mike (05:01):
Yeah.
So that particular project, thatwas over 20 years ago and they spent
a hundred thousand dollars, whichwas a big number back in that day.
Trey (05:08):
Yeah.
Mike (05:08):
And what they did is, two years later, they sold the house and I
was talking to 'em and I was like Ijust can't believe y'all are moving.
And they're like we're moving undermore acreage and stuff like that.
And we just took the value of the house.
And we put our investment thatwe put in the backyard and
added that to the house price.
And the first person that walkedinto the house was like, oh, this is
amazing, the space and how everythingflows, and all this type of thing.
(05:33):
And they bought the house.
Yeah.
very first person that walked in.
Trey (05:35):
Well, It makes sense because like when you're buying a home.
You're already buyingsomething that's built.
You're not buying a flat land that you're,creating your own, doing a new build.
So with the backyard,it's the same concept.
You don't want a blank slate.
You want something that's alreadynice, un unless you do want to
create something that's blank slate.
But for the people that don't wantto deal with that process and don't
want to deal with the constructionand all that kind of stuff.
(05:57):
That is such a huge selling point.
Yeah.
Mike (05:59):
Some people it's, hard to envision, yeah.
What can take place.
And now that is part of whatwe're providing is the vision.
Trey (06:05):
Yes.
Mike (06:06):
And so the dream, there is the dream that's gonna be in the backyard.
And there are so many things.
That we've covered in a year anda half that, most people aren't
even aware of a quarter of it.
So it's really been funto provide those detail.
And we've got a whole lot of morestuff that's coming up over the next
several months that, it's gonna befun to cover all those things as well.
Trey (06:28):
Oh yeah.
So where does the dream start?
Mike (06:30):
I think people.
A lot of times have a dream thatthey have, and sometimes it comes
from, a lot of homes or a lot ofprojects have something to do with.
Your past.
Trey (06:43):
Okay.
Mike (06:43):
And it's really interesting how it works into it.
And there's something that youwant to do or replicate or create
that reminds you of something orsomething that you didn't like and
you want to, eradicate that memory.
And so it's interestinghow people come about.
(07:04):
The vision of what they wantin their backyard space.
And so dream comes from alot of different places.
We have people today thatthey're grandparents.
The dream is all about family.
Trey (07:17):
Yeah.
Mike (07:17):
And so they want to be the family's vacation spot.
Yeah.
They're competing with Disney World.
Okay.
Or the
Trey (07:25):
other
Mike (07:25):
grandparents.
Yeah.
Or the other grandparents.
Yes.
I did have that projecta number of years ago.
And so they want the kids to come totheir house and so they want to create
the environment that people will come,for a long period of time and enjoy
that because they want to enjoy familyand or they want to enjoy friends.
(07:46):
there's a lot of reasonspeople have dreams.
I mean, Some people, it'sabout creating a space that.
I'm not gonna have anybody come over here.
This is just my private retreat.
Yeah.
It's my
Trey (07:56):
private sanctuary.
Mike (07:57):
want a sanctuary that I can check out from the world and I
can go back here and I'm not inDallas-Fort Worth or wherever you live.
But I can feel like that I'mon vacation all the time.
Trey (08:10):
Yeah.
Mike (08:11):
And I want to create Maui here, or I want to create Alaska here, or
Greece or Thailand or wherever that.
Awesome event that you had or placeyou went, or you want to go or you
want to go, even, but I want to createthat space that I can walk out on
my back porch and enjoy every day.
Yeah.
(08:31):
I mean that for some people is the dream.
Trey (08:33):
It's funny 'cause you said in the beginning, the past in my mind immediately
went to grandpa and grandma's poolthe deck material, how it was so hot.
And I was like, oh, I don'twant that in my future pool.
But then the spa, obviously that's such a.
Big part of our family, hanging outwith grandma and the grandparents
and you and mom and my sisters.
And I think the past for peoplethat have experience with pools
(08:55):
for sure ties into it a lot.
But also there's a lot of newmodern stuff that you see on
Pinterest or Instagram or YouTube.
You see these resorts you visit orsomeone that in your neighborhood might
have, and you pull these ideas andyou wanna make your dream come true.
Mike (09:11):
Yeah.
there's a lot of things that.
Are on resorts Oh, yeah.
That people go to and they're comeback and they're like, yeah, I
want a lazy river in my backyard.
Or I want this big, huge, massive slide,or I want this cool whatever climbing
wall I can fall off into the pool in.
or even the one thatblew me away was when.
(09:33):
The cruise ship has surfing on the deck.
Trey (09:37):
Yeah.
The surfing simulator.
Yeah.
Mike (09:38):
You can come in and put that into your residential swimming pool.
Yeah.
It's wild that there's all kinds ofwild things that people have seen.
The other thing is what's reallychanged things in the last
20 years is, has been media.
Yeah, so the first thing was HGTV.
Trey (09:58):
Okay.
Mike (09:58):
So HGTV, you know, over 20 years ago, started putting out
these episodes of all these crazypools and people would be like, oh.
I never thought of doing somethinglike that in the backyard.
Trey (10:09):
Yeah.
Mike (10:09):
And so people then started coming in and, we were blessed
to be on there five times.
And so we get people that are callingup that are, that want something,
along those lines or just they seesomething that they've never seen
before and now they're inspired by that.
And so that was I wouldsay the beginning of it.
Trey (10:28):
And then you got a whole new wave with social media.
Oh, and yeah, especially when socialmedia went video based and picture
based, like Instagram and thereels and all that kind of stuff.
Mike (10:36):
Yeah.
Man it's amazing.
And the fun thing for me as a designeris now I'm exposed to people that
I've never heard of or seen theirwork before, because there's a lot
of people on social media that I.
Have been working their careersfor 20, 25 years and they've been
creating just phenomenal thingsand some things, it's kind of like,
(11:00):
wow, I've never even seen that.
Trey (11:01):
And you're very involved with the industry as a whole,
so you're going to like.
Shows all the time forpools and stuff like that.
So these might be the outsidersthat don't mingle with that crowd.
And with social media,you're exposed to 'em.
Mike (11:14):
And so we've had several on the episode and we have
several that are coming up.
Yep.
That, I was just, youknow, admired their works.
The first one that, when me and Reidwere, Reid was showing me something
and he's like, look at this guy's work.
And I was like.
What is this Instagram thing?
And he's like, well, it's a bunch ofpictures, you know, but just look at this.
And I was like.
Who's Danny Wang?
I've never even heard of this guy.
(11:35):
Yeah.
Now most people that look at poolstuff today know who Danny Wang is.
'cause I can't wait to see the Star Warspool that's fixing to come out, man.
The guy is, really creative.
But he was there in OrangeCounty and all these tiny lots,
and I always appreciate it.
I say the hardest.
Project to ever design isa small piece of property.
And he was doing all these little bittyyards and just amazing different things.
(11:59):
And he was on the podcast,a little over a year ago.
So one of the things we try to dohere is bring in different designers.
To expose you and your dream processto, people that have done really
phenomenal work and are really creative.
So anyway, oh yeah.
It's
Trey (12:15):
good to have a good range of perspectives, especially from the experts.
Mike (12:18):
Yeah.
But as that dream soyou have a dream, right?
Yeah.
So you come up with a dream, okay?
You, You have somethingthat you're thinking of.
in that process the first thingthat I think you need to do is I
think you need to go find picturesto support what that dream is.
Because it's really hard toexplain something with words.
(12:40):
Yeah.
So when somebody's sitting down withme in the design process, and this
is with every designer, so it doesn'tmatter who you are working with.
To explain something, something'sgonna get lost in translation.
Well,
Trey (12:52):
And there's so many different features and architectural elements
that people think is one word,but it might be another word.
Oh yeah.
So it just get, yeah, it just gets lost.
Oh, even the word
Mike (13:01):
modern.
I have people that, that are like,yeah, I want this modern situation.
And they describe modernto me and I'm like, okay.
And I used to just run with that.
Now I know I get apicture out and I'm like.
Like this, or like this?
Yeah.
And they're like, oh, like this.
Oh to me, that's not a modern design.
Trey (13:22):
No,
Mike (13:23):
that's perfectly symmetrical.
Okay.
That's a very traditional design style.
Trey (13:28):
Yeah.
Mike (13:28):
Okay.
It may have some modern elements in it.
Okay.
But it's a very traditional design style.
Trey (13:35):
But the pictures are easy.
They'll be like.
I like this picture andthis is why This right here?
Mike (13:40):
Yeah.
And so if somebody comes in andI tell people I don't need a
photo album of 250 pictures, no.
Okay.
What I need is six or 12 picturesof here's the things that
I'm thinking and it helps uscommunicate and be on the same page.
You may show me a picture of a lazy river.
(14:00):
And say well, I'm trying toexplain that I want a lazy river.
That lazy River is totallyorganic in appearance.
Okay.
But you may say, I like modern style.
Here's a different pictureof, this modern kitchen.
Yeah.
Okay.
I can take, oh, you want modern?
Style, but you want a Lazy River feature,and I can blend those two together and
(14:21):
come up with what works best for you.
Exactly.
So pictures are really, really helpful.
But the first thing that youhave to get through in the
picture phase is your partner.
Trey (14:33):
Yep.
Mike (14:33):
It's a big part because most projects aren't being
done by a single individual.
No, are.
There are.
Yeah, a few.
I've done some really coolstuff for single guys over the
years that, want, or women.
Yeah, some well, I've just, inparticular, I've done some bachelor pads.
Bachelor pads that are really wild.
but need to be able to communicateto your significant other,
(14:55):
this is what I'm thinking.
Trey (14:56):
Mm-hmm.
And
Mike (14:56):
they're gonna have a bunch of photos and they're gonna
say this is what I'm thinking.
And most of the timethose photos don't jive.
No.
Okay.
So it's really helpful for thedesigner to see both sets of photos.
Yes.
Because I can then start to pullpieces and understand things.
And sometimes people are like.
(15:17):
I could care less what it looks like.
I just need this one feature.
Yeah.
Okay.
You can design whatever styleyou want that one feature to
be, but I need that one feature.
And other people are like I need this andthis and this and this, and the other.
The other one wants this and this.
And that's the fun of it, is tryingto incorporate all those features
together and to create and as we dream.
(15:41):
Some people's dreams are very big.
Yes.
And some people's dreams are very simple.
Okay.
So some people may be like, Hey, here'sthe exact pool that we want to build.
And it's simple and it meetsour needs and that's it.
And that's great.
And then other people have a list, amile long of all the things that they
(16:04):
want on a very extravagant project.
Trey (16:07):
Yeah.
Mike (16:07):
My design process deals with both of those.
Okay.
You can have either simpleor you can have simply crazy.
Yeah.
Okay.
So yeah, in between and everythingin between, I've dealt with more
of the simple, crazy, over thelatter part of my career here.
But when I started out,I did lots of simple.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because, the goal here is to helpeverybody figure out what's best for them.
(16:31):
The challenge is I can onlydeal with so many projects.
Okay.
And as a company, Farley PoolDesigns, we can only do so many.
However, that's why we do the podcast.
Yep.
Because if we do the podcast, we canguide you on how to get through this
and have a successful situation.
Exactly.
the first thing.
(16:51):
Is, want to come up with what the dreamis and there's lots of different dreams.
Oh yeah.
And you sometimes
Trey (16:58):
get the compromise.
Mike (16:59):
Yeah.
Compromise is part of thatsituation and you compromise
for a couple different reasons.
One is we have a dream.
Then we have a budget, and sowe have to compromise so we can
fit into that particular budget.
Yeah.
But also sometimes it's compromisedbecause we have a limited amount
of space and all the things thatwe want won't fit in that space.
(17:23):
Yeah.
So along with understanding whatyou like, it's also very helpful
to talk about what's the priority.
Yeah.
Like we were talking to a couple Friday.
And that couple said, tanningledge in the sun is one of the
most important things that we want.
Now, what would be really coolis we'd like a swim up bar.
(17:44):
Okay.
But the swim up bar in thisparticular yard and the tanning ledge.
We're probably gonna bealmost in the same spot.
That's where they both needed to be.
And so my question to them is onemore important than the other?
So I understand you want both, butif you can't have both, which one's
the most important for you to have?
(18:05):
And she was like, hands down,I gotta have the tanning ledge.
Yep.
Okay.
so I understand that.
So if I can work in the barsomehow, then that's great.
I gotta have the tanning leg.
You need to understand theunnegotiable the priorities
of what you're going to have.
Yes.
The sacred things that, must bedone here to create your oasis.
(18:26):
Okay.
And that's different with everybody.
That's the fun I feel in my career,is and we've talked about this before.
I've only done one pool.
Ever twice.
And that's 'causesomebody saw a model home.
And this was way back before Instagramand HGTV and all those things.
And they saw a model home.
(18:46):
They bought the exact same house onsame lot, the exact same size lot.
Yep.
So they could put the exact same pool in.
'cause he was afraid if he changedanything, it would mess it up.
Trey (18:57):
He did, I think, change the materials a little bit.
He did change the materials.
It's not technically thesame, but structurally yes.
Mike (19:03):
From a designer standpoint it, it was just about the same.
But yes, he chose somedifferent materials.
So I got to say, Everypool I've done is unique,
Trey (19:11):
so, well, I mean that, comes with the territory.
We're designing something,brand new for these people.
There's people that buy and go throughthis process and then they'll sell their
home and then there's a lot of thosepeople that don't wanna mess anything
up and they'll buy the exact same home.
This guy just decided to.
Do like a hybrid of the two.
Mike (19:28):
The other thing that exists today that didn't exist then,
which is extremely helpful in thisprocess, is there's 3D modeling.
Trey (19:35):
Mm.
Mike (19:36):
So there was no 3D modeling then?
No.
So he had to go see actual versus, lookingat a 2D piece of paper or even a sketch.
it doesn't make any sense to me, butif that same guy exists today I can be
like well, I can put it in a 3D model.
We can get down to the exactmaterials so you can make
(19:56):
sure you don't make a mistake.
Yeah.
And that's again, part of thefun in that whole process.
Trey (20:02):
I think a big step as well is understanding.
What you have as a lot, so if youunderstand, if you have an empty lot,
you just bought a lot and you're doinga whole new custom home custom pool,
or if you have an existing home with ablank yard, or if it's an existing pool
remodel situation or a full tear out and.
Rebuild the pool situation.
(20:23):
That's
Mike (20:23):
Oh, blow it up and start over.
You've done a
Trey (20:24):
few of those.
Mike (20:25):
That's one of my favorites.
Trey (20:26):
Yeah.
Or if you haven't even bought the lot yetand you're just in the dream stage, making
sure that your dream works with that lot.
And I know we'll get to like toposand all that kind of stuff in a
different episode, but that is.
Significant part of the first step.
Mike (20:39):
Oh yeah.
So how it all fits togetheris definitely gonna be part of
the first step in your dream.
But people come from alldifferent directions there.
And again, I. Some of them we're workingwith, it's an empty lot and a brand new,
architecturally designed house and that'swhy we put everything in 3D including
(20:59):
the house so they can see it all.
So
Trey (21:01):
anyway.
Oh yeah.
BBQ Intro (21:04):
We are gonna take a break here for a second and get into outdoor living.
So with outdoor living, we like togo to barbecue bits here we're gonna
share some information of everythingthat you may want to consider in
your outdoor living space as far asfeatures, especially for the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy this.
Mike (21:24):
So after we we're cooking, a lot of times when we're cooking for a
big event, we need a warming drawer.
Sure.
So explain pros and consand how that might work
Bobby (21:33):
there.
We haven't seen really any cons.
It just is gonna support the volume offood that's been cooked, and we're seeing
these gain more popularity because I'mgonna touch on some things that'll help
you guys sell more warming drawers.
The first is a volume.
It's holding volume right for the party.
That's where it's value added.
(21:53):
The second thing is you don'thave to mount it downward.
Here at the bottom, you can mountit high so it's right underneath the
counter so you don't have to bend down.
We see a lot of people use warming drawersfor baked potatoes, so if you have a
baked potato bar, it's really easy to do.
After the meal is over with,though a lot of people don't know
is that you can take towels, roll'em up, set these down to low.
(22:14):
Put 'em in the warming drawerin the winter and when everybody
gets out of the hot tub, theyhave a nice, fresh warm towel.
Mike (22:19):
Sweet.
And that's
Bobby (22:20):
where you're gonna get your most cells outta warming drawers
with warm towels, but rememberto put it on low, not on high.
So
Mike (22:27):
that's awesome.
Okay.
Uh, well appreciate thattidbit of information.
Yeah, you bet.
BBQ End (22:33):
So I hope you enjoyed the barbecue bits that we just featured today,
and we'll have more coming up next week.
If there's something in particular thatyou're interested for, let us know and
we'll get back into the episode now.
Trey (22:47):
I made a little list that we pretty much goes over a lot of the big different
possibilities and people's dreams.
Do you want me to run through thatjust so people know what's possible?
Mike (22:58):
everything's possible.
But yeah, go ahead.
I'm sure that's not a short list.
Trey (23:02):
So we have pool types, obviously.
You have standard pool, you have yourspa, you have a coal plunge, recreational
pool, lap pool, diving pool, fast laneswim current to simulate the lap pool
lazy river spools splash pads, salt water.
Pool or a chlorine pool or ozone pool.
We've gone into detail on all thesedifferent things and different podcasts.
(23:25):
A heated pool.
If you have a spa that's built in,it's gonna have that or maybe a
always heated spa in ground pool kits.
The pool ends that we covered.
Then you have, different stylesof pool, like negative edge,
infinity, edge knife, edge pool.
You have acrylic walls, you havemovable floors, you have beach
entries and tanning ledges.
We have, zones where youcan jump into the pool.
(23:47):
It's, safely if it's elevatedor if it's at the pool level.
You have dive zones designatedfor angled entry or direct entry.
Sun benches, steps and benches, allthese things matter with the design.
And pool, bar stools and pooltables and stepping pads.
Those are very big now rock climbingwalls, like you mentioned, if you
(24:08):
wanna have a basketball hoop in thepool or a volleyball net in the pool,
or if you're gonna use a Polaris ora robotic cleaner or a floor system.
We have slides, whichthere's a lot of them.
There's, the simply straight slide thatis traditionally used back in the day.
And then you have the curveslides nowadays and multi
curves like a swim park.
And you have speed slides as well that area little higher up and you can go faster.
(24:31):
You have the artistic slideslike splinter works where that
chrome looked so beautiful.
Water features, you have grottos.
They could be naturally looking withthe, mosh rock or whatever kind of
boulder you want to use, or modern.
You've done plenty of those.
Sheer descents, scuppers waterfalls.
Water walls are huge fountains.
Tway, cannon jets, bubblers,LED, bubblers to get a little
(24:53):
bit more of a lighting aesthetic.
Laminas, those are lighted as well.
Vortex fountains, glass wall balls thatsit on the side of the pool or on on the
side of a wall or whatever they might do.
We have fire features like sunkenfire pits or just a normal fire pit.
You have fire bulls and fire pots,torches, they could be helix or
modern torches, line burners.
(25:14):
That could be a fire pit as well.
Or maybe you want it on a.Tabletop or something like that.
Fire sculptures.
We talked to a guy and he had a firebreathing dragon in one of the backyards.
Every time this guy pulled up to his home.
The dragon breathe fire.
It's crazy.
Then you have structures.
It's a huge thing.
They get out of the elements like cabanasand pergolas equinox a louver roof.
(25:36):
You have covered decks first orsecond floor walkouts relocating,
a covered area, detached pavilion.
A standalone patio cover,outdoor kitchen structure.
If you're talking an outdoor kitchen.
You are gonna want a grill.
Are you gonna want a griddle?
Are you gonna want a pizza oven?
Maybe a smoker, a green egg, like aKomodo Joe or something like that.
Are you gonna need a venthood because of ventilation in
(25:57):
that area Is not good enough.
Are you gonna need the outdoor fans?
'cause it's gonna be too hot?
Are you gonna have lighting in that area?
Is it gonna be on dimmers?
What color does, is the lighting gonnabe, are you gonna have a kitchen island?
Is that necessary?
you have a trash bin out there?
Do you have a fridge out there?
Is the fridge for wineor just typical drinks?
Do you have sealed storage?
Do you have storage in general?
(26:18):
Do you have pantries?
Do you have.
bar top, a counter space is thatgranite, Dante stone, et cetera.
There's so many differentmaterials you could use.
Furniture is a huge part of whatwe do, and so a lot of people
use loungers as that can be inthe water or out of the water.
What style?
Are you gonna have a daybed by any chance?
Are you gonna use hammocks,outside swings, any kind of
(26:40):
floating furniture in general?
Are you gonna have walkways?
Are you gonna use terracing?
Is everything gonna be flat?
Are you gonna have elevatedviews from the decks?
Are you gonna have atree house by any chance?
And that might sound weird, butthere's some really nice tree houses
that we covered in another episode.
Illuminated trees as well.
Lighting is key these days.
I'm gonna take a breath.
technology and entertainment.
(27:01):
Are you gonna have underwater speakers?
Maybe you don't need that and youjust want surround sound outdoors.
Are those speakers, arethey normal speakers?
They look, I. Like rocks or blendinto the environment itself.
Are you gonna have a TV outdoors?
Maybe you want actuallya theater outdoors.
So is that a projector setup?
Are you gonna have a roll down screenor a set screen or maybe a set wall to
(27:22):
project onto, or maybe you have a waterwall that you're gonna project onto.
Do you want to have, good security.
So do you want maybe an AI poweredcamera that can detect when someone's
in the water or falls in the water, ormaybe you want a fence around your pool,
maybe you want a cover for your pool.
Is that a catch a kid cover?
(27:43):
Or is that more of a automatic pool cover?
Is that pool cover gonna beutilized for heating the pool?
We have a whole episodeon pool covers as well.
And then there's wellnessand recovery, which is huge.
Are you imagining a sauna in yourbackyard or a cold plunge or a float tank?
Maybe a area for yoga, like ameditation deck or a prayer room?
(28:04):
I. Are you gonna do a sand or salt room?
Maybe a mud bath or a steam room or ahydro, a therapeutic jets in the spa.
Or maybe you don't want a built-in spaand you want a jacuzzi or a massage chair
somewhere underneath a covered area.
I.
Fitness and recreation.
Are you gonna have an outdoor gym?
(28:25):
Are you imagining, turfedareas for athletics sports or
playing catch with the kids?
A basketball court, pickleballcourt volleyball nets in the pool.
Maybe you want a volleyball pitwith the net next to the pool.
Or a trampoline pad.
Or a surfing simulator, like yousaid you've seen on the cruise ships.
Are you basing your pool to be morefamily friendly or pet friendly?
(28:48):
That's going to dictate a little bit ofthe design concepts, and you can be a
little bit more extreme with either or.
Landscaping and privacy, that'spart of this whole journey.
Are you gonna use privacy fencing?
Are you gonna be screeningwith trees or bushes?
How much privacy needs to becreated from the design itself?
Or are you borrowing thingsthat are already available?
(29:09):
Are you using shade and umbrellas?
Are you just doing one?
Are they gonna be permanent?
Are you gonna wanna move them around?
Retaining walls is huge.
Are you having a flat surface or is.
There is a if you're on a side ofa hill or a side of a cliff, if
we're retaining to create it flat,how flat of an area do you need?
Same thing with patios and flat zones.
(29:32):
A lot of people in Texashave mosquito issues.
So are you gonna want mosquito sprayerstations or mosquito control service come
by every three weeks or a misting system?
Are you gonna wantheaters under the patio?
Are you gonna want.
Misters depending on your locale,there could be other things that you
could add to enhance your environment.
And we'll go briefly into thislater, but like financing,
(29:54):
are you gonna pay with cash?
Are you gonna finance with someonelike Lion Financial we've talked to?
Are you gonna phase outthe project possibly.
There's different project types likeI mentioned earlier with the remodel,
new build full tear out and rebuild it.
There's different design conceptsto think about what your style is.
You're gonna match thehome with architecture.
Are you doing a smooth indoor outdoortransition, traditional biophilic
(30:17):
design where you're bringing a lot ofthe outside elements indoors, and you
can reverse that on its head and bringa lot of the indoor elements outside.
Are you doing a zen minimalist style,maybe a mid-century modern style or
rustic luxury style, a futuristichigh-tech highlighting style?
(30:39):
There's other trends.
Like outdoor ice baths andrecovery stations, floating fire
tables, outdoor game areas likeping pong, chess, and cornhole.
There's glow in the darkpool, tile and deck.
There's vertical gardenwalls, which I love.
There's smart yard, app control,lighting, music, water features, all
(30:59):
encompassed with the home as well.
There's outdoor chargingstations hidden or solar.
You know, Solar panels for off grid zones.
There's rainwater capture areas,eco pool, tech, interactive, LED
lighting for the decks and pathways.
There's so many things.
So
Mike (31:14):
that the end of the list?
Trey (31:16):
That's the end of the list.
And that's, the short list.
We could go way more in detail,but that's just rough points.
Mike (31:22):
Yeah.
Here's the thing.
We can take all that stuff and helpyou figure out what your paradise is.
and that's just some of thestuff we've covered so far.
There's more stuff coming butthere's a lot to dream about.
one of the things that we'll dohere shortly is come up with a.
Outline of things that you maywant to consider and some episodes
(31:42):
that tie into all that information.
Oh, yeah.
So you can get more details as you go.
But probably the big thing that youneed to work through after talking
about all that is what's our budget?
Trey (31:57):
Yeah.
What's realistic versus what's fantasy.
Mike (31:59):
So I've got an interesting process that I go through to
help people figure that out.
Because what I used to do along time ago is I used to ask
people what their budget was.
Yeah.
And most people wouldsay one of two things.
One, they would throw a number out.
Now the challenge is.
(32:20):
Most of the time when they threw a numberout, they were just throwing a number
out based on what somebody else had said.
Or maybe something thatthey did in the past.
But the number really wasn't relativeto what they just wished for.
But they threw a number out andthen I was frustrated because there
was no way in the world I couldget 'em all that they wanted to.
(32:40):
That number.
Yeah.
And so one of two things happened.
One is I ignored their number, whichwas a very good situation and I
went ahead and designed somethingand they loved it because it had
all the elements that they wanted.
But then when they finally gotthe number, they were ticked off.
Trey (32:56):
Yeah.
'Mike: cause I didn't design to their number actually.
I designed to their dream.
The other situation is some of 'em werelike, I don't know, just put it all
together and we'll see where it's at.
And again, I. I designed it alland then when they got the number,
generally they were ticked off.
Now there were some people that weren't.
Okay.
(33:16):
But what I found is a better process togo through to help people in this process.
What's that?
I call it the shopping list.
Okay.
Mike (33:24):
Okay.
So the shopping list, the way it worksis it's critical for me to understand
everything about their property.
' cause I can take the sameproject and call it South Lake.
And I can take the same exact projectdown the road and put it in Las Colinas.
Okay.
Okay.
(33:45):
And in South Lake it's on aflat lot and I got great access.
Yep.
And in Las Colinas it's on a hillsideand I've got horrible access.
Trey (33:54):
The dirt quality's a little different too.
Mike (33:56):
The soil is totally different.
Yeah.
Between South Lake and Las Colinas,south Lake has some of the best
soil in the state to build on.
Yep.
Os Colinas has the secondworst Clay in the world.
Not the United States.
The world.
Trey (34:10):
He's not o over exaggerating.
Okay.
Mike (34:12):
So the substructure that goes under the same exact pool, that
in Southlake is not needed at all.
Could be over a hundred thousand dollars.
Easily.
Easily.
and then I have bad access and thenI've gotta have retaining walls.
So the same exact project in oneneighborhood could be twice the
(34:33):
cost of the project in the badneighborhood, or even three times.
Trey (34:37):
Yeah,
Mike (34:37):
same exact pool size, same exact features.
The structure and the retaining walls andthe utility runs, and those are all things
that will make, so when I do my shoppinglist, we take all that into account, okay?
We're gonna take the soil intoaccount, we're gonna take your
utilities into account, we're gonnalook at your grades, your access.
(34:59):
And so when we run the tentative budgetnumbers, it's not just Well, we're
within a hundred thousand dollars.
Trey (35:05):
Also, you have eight different like HOAs and different setbacks by the city.
Mike (35:10):
Yeah.
So those are all things that, thatwe're gonna get into in the site
analysis that's important to talk about.
what I'm gonna then do is I'mgonna work up a real crude
concept that I can run numbers on.
So I'm gonna run numbers onthat particular concept with
all of your specific situations.
And then I'm gonna break it down.
(35:30):
Not gonna give you a lump sum'cause that doesn't help you.
But I'm gonna tell you, oh, the lazyriver that you wanted, that added,
$400,000 in cost to do the Lazy River.
And some people.
When they hear that in thefirst appointment, decide to
get rid of the lazy river.
But some people have to waituntil they see all the numbers.
Yep.
And then they start adding stuff up.
(35:51):
And the general comment is I don't wannaspend this much money on this project.
That's fine.
Trey (35:58):
Everybody wants a deal.
Mike (35:59):
So what?
What we have to understand is.
So this was the dream?
Yes.
This was the ultimate dream.
So now we have to understand priorities.
Okay.
We have to understand what are thethings that are most important to you
and what's the best value for you?
Because a lazy river may have beenthe top priority, but when you realize
if I take the lazy river away, Ican get everything else I want.
(36:20):
Maybe the lazy riveris not that important.
Yep.
But.
If you're like, I want to design thebackyard where all my grandkids come
all the time, and the family's realimportant and I've got a big business
that I'm going to entertain a lotof people from, then maybe let's
get rid of most of the other stuff.
But I want the lazy river and gee,make the pool big enough that I
(36:42):
can play water basketball in, but Idon't need a big pool with a diving
board and slide and all those things.
So those things go away.
Everybody's different.
Once you have the shopping list infront of you, now you can look through
it and be like automation for firefeatures sounded really cool, but I
don't wanna spend $15,000 on that.
So we can do manual fire features.
Trey (37:03):
It helps the customer realize they're putting a
price point to what they want.
Mike (37:07):
Now we can juggle things around.
And so before I design anything,I want you to come up with the I
items that we are going to keep.
The budget that works for you.
So this saves people time.
Trey (37:22):
Yep.
Mike (37:22):
Okay.
Because what happened earlierin my career, well scrap that.
I got a project that we'reworking on right now.
Okay.
I met with this guy four years ago.
And gave him a budget.
And said, this is what it's gonnabe for your particular project, and
this is what the design fees for are.
And so he looked around and hefound somebody online that charged
(37:47):
$2,500 for a design fee, flat fee.
Didn't matter what you putinto it, $2,500 to sign.
Okay?
So he spent the $2,500 on the design.
And he brought it to me four years later.
Okay.
Okay.
I rolled this thing out
and the first thing was the designhad no retaining walls on it.
Trey (38:07):
Okay.
Mike (38:08):
There was an eight foot elevation change in this backyard.
Oh boy.
So it was all drawn flat and to, his.
Thought processes.
I sent 'em a survey, whichhad elevations on it.
Trey (38:20):
Yeah.
Mike (38:20):
So you can actually look at it and see, you can't build this, what they drew.
But it was a $2,500 flat fee andI guess it's for a flat backyard.
Yeah.
So anyway, which he doesn't have,does not have, the other thing is he
had all kinds of really cool elementson the design way far beyond what
(38:42):
I initially had designed for him.
And the end result was, so I took thedesign and I said, the first thing
we're gonna do with this, so we'regonna make a shopping list of this so
we can decide out what's important.
Okay.
And it came to over $1.2 million.
Trey (38:59):
What was his initial budget?
Mike (39:00):
400.
Trey (39:01):
Oh boy.
Mike (39:02):
Yeah.
Now his comment was wecould possibly phase things.
Mm-hmm.
Which certainly can be done on a project.
Yeah.
Okay.
And there's some thingsthat yes, we could modify.
But he wanted to see allthese things incorporated.
My job is to give people information.
Once they have information,they can make good decisions.
(39:22):
Yep.
The thing is, if I go design somethingfor somebody and don't take in account
what their budget is, that's not a.Great process for the homeowners.
Trey (39:32):
No, what you just described is you taking a design that was over
budget and you are now retroactivelychopping it down to the shopping list
again, because you're gonna be tryingto, okay, we're gonna phase it, we
gotta figure out what's most important.
You So some doing thewhole process in reverse.
Pretty much.
Yeah.
Mike (39:51):
But that's where we're at today.
But.
If you don't do this on the frontside, then most cases that's what's
gonna happen on the backside.
And what happens, and earlierin my career is I would design
things and people would love them.
They were like, this is great.
And we worked weeks and weeks toget the design exactly perfect.
(40:12):
And once we got the design exactlyperfect, then we ran the numbers
on it and then they weren't happy.
' cause it wasn't what they wanted to spend,but initially they said, Hey, just design
something and knock it out of the park.
That was their comment from whenit came to, what's my budget?
Trey (40:28):
Yeah.
Mike (40:29):
Budgets are reality.
Okay.
And some people are like Mike, thattakes the creativity away, there are some
people that if you showed them something,they would expand their budget to meet
that particular needs, and that's fine.
but at least they know itgoing in, versus, somebody
(40:50):
that's totally taken offside.
'Cause if you design something that's1.2 million and you wanna spend 400,
there's no way you're gonna phase it ever.
this guy's, the value of hishome's about 1.2 million.
Trey (41:01):
Yeah.
You can't scrap togetherthat kind of money extra
Mike (41:04):
There's some people that would say, okay, over the next 25 years, I'm
gonna live in this house and I'm gonnainvest this stuff and I'm gonna do it.
But you're probably still not gonna do it.
Now, I'm not saying thatthere aren't people.
Trey (41:15):
Every situation's different.
Mike (41:17):
Every situation's different.
And I've had a couple clients in mycareer that have spent more in the
backyard than the house was worth.
Okay.
But they knew that going in,that's what they were going to do.
We had that conversation atthe beginning and they're
like, we like our neighborhood.
We could sell our house and gobuy a mega million dollar house.
We've got the money to do that.
(41:37):
But we like our neighborhood.
We like our friendshere, we like our house.
We like the.
The property and the privacy and allthe things that we've got with it.
We just want a, an ultimatebackyard back here.
Anyway the budget is key for youto have a successful project.
Yeah.
So you under need to understandgoing in what that might be so you
(41:57):
can come up with the best situation.
That way you get the dream.
Trey (42:01):
Oh yeah.
I think budget's such a dirtyword that people don't like, dream
cost or the cost of the dreamis probably a little better, but
Mike (42:08):
oh, we should call it the cost of the dream.
Cost
Trey (42:10):
of the dream.
Mike (42:11):
Okay.
That's more letters, butI could get around it.
Trey (42:14):
Yeah.
It is more words.
Mike (42:17):
So now that we've got the dream and now that we have the cost of the
dream, is that the correct wording?
Trey (42:23):
I think so, yeah.
Cost of the dream.
Y'all let us know what'sbetter on YouTube,
Mike (42:26):
okay.
So we have both of those established.
I think that's step one in the process.
Yeah.
Okay, so what we're gonna do is we'regonna jump to step two here in the
next episode, and we'll share thatwith you and so you can get step
by step on how to go through andcreate what's going to be your oasis.
Trey (42:49):
We hope your journey is as good as possible.
Mike (42:51):
Awesome.
Look forward to talking to y'all later.
Trey (42:53):
We'll see you.
Outro (42:54):
This show is all about helping you become a better buyer, a better pool
owner, and hopefully you're gonna findsome insights into how to enjoy your pool
even more so how to help your friends,your family, anybody looking to buy a
pool in the future or that want to remodeltheir backyard, add an outdoor fireplace,
fire pit, add an outdoor kitchen area, addsome shade cells, or whatever else it is.
(43:18):
We wanna be that resource for you and, andthat's the end goal here, and we promise.
That there's gonna bea ton of information.
We'll try to go through it, youknow, as relatively quickly, but
also slow so people can understand.
But the intent of the show, thereason Mike and I are doing this
is because we just got a lot inour heads and we wanna share it.
So we hope to see youhere every single week.
Thanks for listening.
(43:39):
I.
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