Pool Home in St. Johns Lake | Johns Island, SC

The useful part

There is a calculation that comes up constantly in Charleston right now, and almost nobody runs it before they start touring. So when a house comes up with one already finished, the pool is not a feature. Johns Lake, four bedrooms and three baths across 3,675 square feet, on nearly half an acre with a heated saltwater pool, a spa, and a tanning ledge already sitting behind a fully fenced yard.

How it works

• The gunite pool and spa sit behind a fully fenced yard, with the screened porch off the back of the house.
• The pool is gunite rather than vinyl or fiberglass, which is the durable and the expensive way to build one, with an integrated spa and a tanning ledge for the shallow end.
• The deck around it is wide enough for loungers on one side and a dining table on the other, and the whole yard is fenced.

Details worth keeping

It goes like this: a gunite pool with a spa, a heated system, and a proper deck costs real money and most of a year to put in the ground on Johns Island, between the permitting, the excavation, the equipment, and the fence the county will require. It is a line item that has already been paid. It is listed at $810,000, which comes to $220 per square foot.