Going for a dip in the pool can be a fantastically relaxing activity, but most of us have to at least traverse a few hallways to get there. The residents of this incredible five-story townhouse in Chelsea have only to go as far as their living room to enjoy the benefits of a swim.

You would never know it to look at the outside of this townhouse, but contained inside its conventional walls are some truly amazing features.

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The living room contains a massive 30,000 gallon, eight-feet-deep swimming pool equipped with a swing. Today, of course, the inclusion of an indoor pool in a living room would never be approved. But since this pool was built in 1975 it has been “grandfathered in” and allowed to stay.

The rest of the home is no less magnificent. With a massive library, a beautiful atrium filled with green plants and a small garden with a second, smaller pool for turtles, it is a memorable piece of New York property, to say the least.

The townhouse has been divided into three parts: the owner’s main living space on the lower levels and two smaller apartments upstairs. The quirky architecture and decadent decorating make this residence the kind of home most of us can only dream of.

From The Wall Street Journal:

“The pool level has a brick wall and is surrounded by granite flooring and living-room furnishings. Ms. McMurray Van-Zeller said the artwork, antiques, medieval weaponry and plantings in the adjoining atrium give the space a ‘cave-like, medieval, Moroccan look.'”

“But achieving the look was no easy task. In order to hang the artwork and weaponry on the brick wall, Ms. McMurray Van-Zeller had to get a 25-foot ladder and place it in the pool; in order to reach the ladder without getting wet, she employed a small pink raft, rowed it to the ladder, and climbed up to affix the decorations to the wall.”

“‘Improvisation is very important when you have a house like this,’ she said. “The good news is that if you fall off, you fall into the pool.'”

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