Vera & Bud Build their Dream Pool

The extraordinary Lazy River Acres is powered by Endless Pools®!

It started, like many modern stories, with an internet search. Vera and Bud Wilson were building their dream home in Vera’s hometown of Otter Lake. She found a pool builder online, and she and Bud watched videos of his best work. “I got the bug,” Bud says with a sly smile.

The bug was for a pool ... and not just any pool. They collaborated on bringing an Americana-themed waterpark-style ‘lazy river’ to their new home. In one corner, they installed three Endless Pools Fastlane® Pro current systems. They’re just small blue boxes that power the mighty river of the family’s recreation center.

New Home, New Pool

While visiting her widowed mother, Vera recalls, “Out of the blue, my mom said, ‘When are you guys coming out to the farm. I’m tired of being out there by myself.’

“Next thing I knew, we were purging our house,” she recalls. “Within a month, we had it on the market.” Their plan was to build a new home on her family’s farmland.

“The house was being built in an open field. It was a blank slate.” Then Vera did a Google search for pool builders in her area. After meeting with Al from Michigan’s Legendary Escapes, “It went from just a house to a house and a pool.”

As Bud remembers, “The project got more expansive every time we started talking about it.” “It just snowballed,” Vera says happily.

Collaborating with their Pool Builder

When the couple invited their pool builder to the property, “He saw the field which was not planted. Basically, we just said, ‘Come up with something,’” Vera says with a shrug.

“We gave him a list of what we wanted, like slides and stuff like that. We felt comfortable enough that he could take what we wanted – we knew he could do it, we saw videos – and give us something that we could run with.”

Bud adds, “We wanted something different, unique.” He told Al, their pool builder, “’Go with what you feel. We’ll give you some input, but ultimately, we don’t want cookie-cutter.’”

What they got is a massive lazy river retreat that’s rife with eye-popping details. There’s a slide, a basketball hoop, a grotto, and most importantly, a unique personal touch. This pool belongs to the Wilson family not just on paper, but in spirit!

The Lazy River, powered by Endless Pools

To move all that water around multiple bends and through shadowed underpasses, they installed three Endless Pools Fastlane Pro current systems.

The Fastlane Pro system delivers the same current as our Original pool. A custom-engineered propeller powers gallon upon gallon of water through a series of conditioning grills and vanes. The result is a smooth, fully adjustable current. Each Fastlane unit moves up to 5,000 gallons a minute!

Designed for swimming in place, the Fastlane current also provides added resistance to any aquatic workout. Crank it to its top speed, and the Fastlane systems move a river of water across the Wilson’s property.

Making it Their Own

As Bud sees it, “We’re blue-collar, down-to-earth businesspeople. We don’t like the real fancy type of décor. We wanted something livable and usable and fun and just comfortable.” The pool may be sizable, but it’s vibe is pure, downhome Americana.

The lazy river pool is accessorized with vintage road-stop signage, hand-carved wooden sea otters, and fantastical hand-painted fish cutouts. A giant wooden fisherman endlessly waits for a bite from the lazy river. Weathered, upturned rowboats serve as fence posts. The support wall features small, colorful shells interspersed with oversized stones.

And just so there’s no mistake about whose pool this is, hand-painted signs offer “Bud’s Lazy River Rides” and invite you onto “Vera’s Very Fast Slide”!

Thanks to Al from Legendary Escapes for the stellar photos and video and for his team’s amazing work. We’re honored to have the Fastlane current included in the Wilson family’s extraordinary home lazy river retreat.