When New Yorkers Dream

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Nobody dreams as big as New Yorkers. I guess its because we live in a BIG town. So I was kind of interested when I found a post on my favorite Brooklyn blog called "Brownstoner" It has a forum on which people can ask general renovation advice, contractor recommendations and other questions of interest to brownstone dwellers.
This particular poster wondered about the feasability of putting a lap pool into his brownstone basement. The answers from others to his question are just funny and just soooo New York. Read on...

From Brownstoner March 27, 2007
Cellar Pool

I was daydreaming about what I would do in my house if I had unlimited money, and one of the things I always wanted in my home was a lap pool in the cellar - one of those small exercise pools, like the Endless Pool. Just as a matter of curiousity, as my bathtub is the only endless pool I'll be able to afford for the foressable future, are those legal in Bklyn row houses? Obviously it would have to be hand dug (mucho bucks there). How far below do the subway lines run? I don't think there is one under my house, but what about infrastructure pipes, electric cable, telephone lines, etc? Again, I'm not planning to do this, just curious.
Posted by anon at March 27, 2007 11:46 PM

Comments

-Dude, I already have a lap pool in my brownstone, and I don't care whether it's legal--it's hot! Dig it yourself--they make kits for this, available online. Hefner lives!

-When you see those puddles between the subway tracks, that's what it is, brownstoners' lap pools dripping into the subways. We even heard of someone doing the backstroke and due to incompetant construction workers, they found themselves, dripping wet, goggles and all on the uptown A train.

-The building I used to rent in had a disused pool in the basement which the landlord wanted to market as a "spa".
It was, in acutality, a mikvah. Ew.


-Great daydream. I would say the main problems would be:
• digging deep enough without undermining your existing party wall foundations, or other foundations (that is, underpinning, and insurance for the cracks in your neighbor's walls)
• controlling the humidty from all that water
• figuring out how the showering sequence would work
• figuring out where the sauna goes (I'm growing the project!)
• figuring out how to get some natural light in, (who wants to swim in a cave?)
• figuring out how to segregate your existing mechanicals and reroute pipes, vents and what not
I think for this day dream some of the rear cellar wall should be removed so that part of the lap pool goes into a glass-covered atrium in the rear yard. Could be patio glass blocks if the rear yard needs to be accessible.
Call me when you win the lottery so that we can figure the rest out.

-Let me know your closest subway stop.

-Dude, just dig a hole in the dirt floor and open a tap. Animals on the veldt swim in mud holes. Why don't we?

Link=http://brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2007/03/cellar_pool.php#comments