Now that school’s out, pools are in. Pools are the best way to stay cool in the summer. When you have a pool in your backyard, there is so much more to explore. For extraverts – games, parties and backyard barbecues become weekly activities. For introverts – quiet time underwater is soothing, a way to prepare for your day, reset, or put your worries to rest. Pools provide a beautiful blue backdrop for life’s most memorable moments and, most importantly, an enduring family bond.
Tiffany Baird made sure her four sons were good swimmers before she designed her first pool. “Parker was born with chlorine in his blood,” she says. Now he is a pool repair technician, and her son, Conner, is a partner in Baird Pools. Her oldest son, Cameron, works for Pentair, a pool distribution company. And her son, Caden, is a computer engineer and designer who is starting his career in a different line of work.
The Bairds, who now have five grandchildren that love to splash around, have overcome a lot of challenges to create their family business, especially in the past year and a half.
When they began designing, renovating and repairing pools in 2021, the Bairds built their business up from scratch. In the process, they have decided to focus on quality, not quantity. Because they have a good relationship with the county permit department, they have decided to build pools exclusively in Hays County. They find that most clients want clean lines, with simple designs that are durable and easy to clean.
“We have built a lot of pools for our friends, and we know all of our customers on a personal level,” Tiffany says. “We want to be in our back yard and our customers back yards only.”
The decision to stay close to home came as a huge relief last January, when, in the midst of erecting their showroom in downtown Buda, Tiffany’s husband, Cris, was diagnosed with stage 3B colorectal cancer. The family was devastated, but they found incredible resources and turned inward to care for each other the best way they knew how. They kept their struggle with cancer private until recently. Without the support of their family, they could have never made it through Chris’ treatment and finished the building project. Now he is in remission.
Throughout it all, they learned to focus on what matters most. They have come to appreciate every moment and lean into the good times. When they reflect on their family history, they realize that many of their family memories were centered around their pool – graduations, weddings, gender reveal parties and of course, birthdays. Seeing their dogs and grandchildren paddle around in the pool keeps them lighthearted.
“A pool is the perfect staycation for a family,” Tiffany says. “When you come home and watch your kids jumping in the pool, that mama bear comes out and says, they are here.”
The luxury of having a pool is kind of like having a boat. Friends and neighbors say yes to your invitations. And there is always something to do. In addition to the upkeep, there are endless ways to upgrade, whether it’s with landscaping, gardening, furnishing your outdoor space with places to lounge and stay cool in the shade, or putting in a new pool feature.
Lately, Baird has been building a lot of tanning shelves in pools. Tanning shelves are shallow areas that make great play pads for toddlers and a wonderful space for parents to lounge in the water while their kids swim. Bubblers are the second most popular upgrade. They provide a fountain like feature without the expense of a fountain.
“Everybody wants a water feature of some sort because the sound of water is amazing,” Tiffany says. “A bubbler makes for a very soothing background.”
Tiffany never imagined she would own a pool company. In fact, she didn’t even learn to swim until she was older than most kids because she was traumatized by water as a 5-year-old child. That was when she fell in a muddy water tank at her grandparents East Texas cattle ranch.
Every birthday after that (her birthday is in July), her mother rented out the public pool for her party. “I was the little girl that would sit on the stairs and not move. When I was 10, I finally jumped off the diving board.”
The patience and persistence it took for her to get comfortable enough to dive into the water has helped guide Tiffany through this past year’s challenges. They took life day by day. And even though Chris has had to stay out of the water to get through his treatment, the pool business is thriving.
“You never know what you might go through in life,” she says. “You just have to persevere. No is never the answer.”
“A pool is the perfect staycation for a family.” - Tiffany Baird