Roundup will work -- but spray on a calm day and make sure it doesn't drift to any neighboring plants you want to keep. [Some plants are horribly susceptible to Roundup: daylilies and tomatoes, for example. I got one small drop of Roundup on a daylily, wiped it off immediately, and soon after had a dead daylily.] If you have a place where you can use more grass, then before you spray, remove the best parts of the sod, either using a regular spade, manual sod-cutter, or rental sod-cutting equipment. Landscape fabric to prevent future weeds isn't recommended. As time goes on, weeds will grow on top of it. Roots will grow into the fabric -- either from weeds on top of the fabric or roots from below. I have a bed with the previous owners' landscape fabric. I don't know how old it is, but it's about 2-3" below ground level, riddled with roots from the maples 15-25' away. Now if you were asking about using plastic to kill the grass -- yes, that works; it's called solarization. I'm expanding two beds right now by that method. I do it during the winter, and it takes about two months. I buy 10' x 25' black plastic from Walmart's hardware section, cut or fold it to the right size and shape, then hold it in place with landscape staples or anything heavy (small pavers, large stones, bricks, etc.). [The landscape or garden staples are also called pins; I've bought them at Lowe's and from a garden catalog, and also made a few from old wire clothes hangers.] Once the grass is dead, remove the plastic, then either till the old sod or remove and compost it. Either before or after you plant, cover the dead sod (or dirt if you removed the sod) with several sheets of newspaper, wet them down, then cover that with mulch to prevent most future weeds. Good luck with the new plantings!

1. Removing Tree Stumps with Chemical Tree Stump Remover There are several chemical products available at home garden centers that will assist and hasten the rotting of a dead tree stump. Most products make use of potassium nitrate to expedite the decomposition process. Chemical fertilizers high in nitrogen will produce bacterial growth that will facilitate the gradual decay, which makes the stump easier to remove. In each case, holes are drilled into the stump with a large diameter drill bit. The holes are filled with the chemical mixed with water and left to do its work over time (usually weeks or months). After the chemical has taken effect and the stump has become soft and mulchy, use an axe and a pickaxe to break up and remove the stump. 2. Removing Tree Stumps Mechanically with a Tree Stump Grinder A mechanical tool known as a tree stump grinder can be used to remove larger tree stumps. It consists of a toothed circular cutting blade that grinds or chops away the stump by breaking it into small chips. Before using a tree stump grinder remove any rocks and debris from around the stump. Then use a chain saw to remove the bulk of the stump by cutting it as close to the ground as possible. The grinder is worked from side to side, removing 3 inch sections of the stump with each pass. 3. Removing the Tree Stump Manually If the tree stump is not too big and you intend to dig it out manually, do not attempt to remove the entire stump and all of its roots intact. This is time consuming and unnecessary. Begin by digging a trench around the perimeter of the stump and expose as many roots as possible. If you can do so without damaging the cutting blade, cut through the major roots with an axe or a circular saw. Use a pickaxe to loosen the soil around the stump. Work your way around the stump and pry it loose from all sides until it comes free. 4. Removing the Tree Stump Naturally There is another alternative method for tree stump removal  doing nothing at all. Once a tree is cut down the stump will begin to decompose. It can simply be left in the ground to rot. This is a viable option if the stump is not too large in diameter. Covering the stump with fertilizer, soil or mulch will help to generate the fungus and bacteria that causes decay. In time the stump will reach the point where it can easily be extracted from the ground with minimal effort.

My experience with growing well over 100 rhodie cultivars in an incredibly humid (though not particularly hot) east coast climate is ALL broad-leaved evergreens (and garden plants, generally) will eventually encounter one or more of the various cosmopolitan phytophthora species common to gardens in any settled parts of the western world. Whether or not they survive the encounter is the issue. This is why typical rhododendrons, even relatively fancy cultivars if you keep your eyes peeled for them, are ubiquitous in the suburbs of Philly, all the way up to Boston...but almost never seen in gardens much south of Richmond, VA. The root rot organisms are everywhere, they are just more virulent the further south you can go. Here they are able to eventually kill most yellows derived from R. wardii but not most other cultivars, assuming they are correctly planted. Proper care plays a role too, I hardly ever fertilize rhododendrons. I think rhodyman's advice is good - once every 5 years, very lightly. So a rhododendron here doesn't have or not have root rot. They all have it it's a matter of whether they are tolerating it and managing to outpace the infection. This variety or plant might not be worth saving but until it's completely dead, and it certainly doesn't look it, you could dig it up and replant it on a mound in a more ideal spot. (the heat possibly reflected from that wall could be a problem...though here along the upper Ches. Bay I know of a couple ironclads happily growing along the south wall of a house. Importantly: the soil is sloping away from these walls so they never get very wet feet.) I have saved far more sensitive cultivars, that looked much sicker, merely by replanting them much higher and giving a one-time treatment of Aliette. No, this always doesn't work. But they now appear to be flourishing and should be OK barring a summer like 2011, when almost 40 inches of rain fell in 40 days around the time of Hurricane Irene. The soil here drains just a bit better than the Virginia clay you'd get a mere 40 miles south along the I-95 corridor so that helps too. In New Jersey, such mucky red clay soils are incredibly rare so that is again in your favor.

My preference, mind you, just my opinion, the tile should compliment the plaster, coping and any hardscaping. Pulling in other colors from around the pool, "ties" it in. Trying to "match" the plaster will give a very monochrome look. Take the plaster sample and the hardscaping sample and lay them out in the pool area. Choose a few or more tile samples and lay them next to those. In the natural light, you will get a pretty good idea of the final look. Consider glass tile. There's an up charge for the material, but also there's a different method and materials for it's application, which translates into an added expense. The French Gray is a neutral color, so most material's colors go well together.