I have a pool, which is expensive in the summer but I do enjoy it. I've gotten a lot of use out of it since I bought my house back in '09. I do push for visitors to help subsidize it though, since my friends often like to come over during summer to hang out, drink a couple beers and go swimming. It helps defray the cost of chemicals, though the power bill going up is definitely a pain.
Got a second quote today on a refinance, which is near enough to the previous one that I'm probably going to go with my original lender. His offer still hasn't been beaten. I actually started this whole process in November before getting discouraged. It turned out that even though I closed on my home in April of 09, it wasn't technically endorsed by FHA until June 10. Legislation since then has caused a very significant increase in PMI on FHA loans like mine that were endorsed after May 31, 2009. I missed the cut off by 10 days, through no fault of my own, because the lender and FHA took forever to get my paperwork straight. Right now my PMI is $66/month out of my mortgage payment. After refinancing, that's going to go up to about $166. I'm dropping 1.5% off my current mortgage rate, so in the end I'm still saving money month to month, but not nearly as much as I would. I'm lowering my payment about 10%, when it would be more like 18% if it weren't for my PMI missing the grandfathered cutoff date.
There's at least one small silver lining in that PMI is a tax write off, so a higher portion of my overall payment will be tax deductible. That will hopefully let me keep my refund about the same, while paying less overall. It also means that when I reach 20% LTV, my payment will make a more significant drop. Overall, there aren't many downsides, just a smaller advantage. All because some nameless clerk with Metlife somewhere took their sweet time filing my application.