The only thing better than finding a pot of gold in your backyard is stumbling upon a hidden swimming pool. When 35-year-old nurse John Reynolds bought a dilapidated 3-bedroom house for 20k dollars, he was planning to fix it up and sell it off for a bit of profit.
But the last thing that the Texan was expecting was to find a 40k-gallon swimming pool buried right underneath his nose. Now, John feels like he hit the jackpot. With a splash!
In fact, he’s so happy with the find that he no longer wants to sell the house despite its worth having increased more than he hoped for.
When John bought a rundown house, this is what his backyard looked like
Image credits: Mercury Press & Media Ltd
He had no idea that there was a swimming pool hidden there!
Image credits: Mercury Press & Media Ltd
Luckily, a torrential downpour washed away some dirt and he finally realized what he'd been sitting on
Image credits: Mercury Press & Media Ltd
John emptied all the debris, furniture, and other junk from the massive pool
Image credits: Mercury Press & Media Ltd
He spent 10k dollars and fixed up the pool over 18 months. Now, it looks absolutely stunning
Image credits: Mercury Press & Media Ltd
The worth of his property has increased because of his find, but John doesn't plan to sell the house
Image credits: Mercury Press & Media Ltd
John felt like a lottery winner
“It feels like I have stumbled across a winning lottery ticket,” he told Mercury Press. “Never in a million years when I bought the property did I think I would be swimming in my own pool. I bought it as a bit of an investment with the intention to do it up and sell it on, but it has yielded so many surprises I don’t know if I can let it go.”
The house in Mineral Wells, built back in 1955, was previously lived in by a hoarder for two decades. After the previous owner passed away, the property stood empty for a year: it was filled to the brim with junk, there were gangs of feral cats roaming about, and the garden was an overgrown jungle.
The local county authority was going to bulldoze the house down before John offered to buy it a couple of years ago.
He wouldn't have realized he had a pool if not for a storm and a friendly neighbor
John had no idea that he bought a house with a pool until some heavy rain shifted the dirt a few months after the property became his.
"I could see a bit of concrete edging but I just thought it was part of the patio or more flower beds. There was so much going on with the house, that little area was my last concern, but I did notice that it was always boggy despite the fact we hadn’t had any rainfall for weeks."
When the storm came, John’s neighbor called him and asked him if he’d seen the pool.
“I said ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t have a pool’ and she said ‘yes you do.’ "When I went out, you could just see the waterline tile and the water was standing right up next to it. I was in shock."
John spent the past 18 months renovating the 32x17 ft pool and now he and his friends get to enjoy it every single day. The pool had been filled with old furniture, car parts, and other items. John spent 10k dollars repairing, cleaning, repainting, and refilling the pool. Building a pool like this from scratch would cost around 16 times the amount of money he invested in the repairs, according to The Sun.
Here's what some internet users said about John's lucky find
