I'd feel reasonably certain that they got a bitter taste of just how bad it can be when you pick a pool builder who is struggling to stay in the game. See ya, Kelly

Tresw, thanks for the compliments. We absolutely LOVE the way the pool has come out. We now also have our SWG hooked up and I already love it, I was going through a lot of bleach to keep the chlorine levels up. I finally just turned the bubblers off to send more flow to the waterfall. If I hold my hand over two of the bubblers, the 3rd one will break the surface, but we really don't miss having them at all. They were a free add-on anyways for us. Womanowned, I passed your compliments onto our builder, thanks! A few comments about color. I now understand better why folks have trouble describing, and picking, colors, because it is a very dynamic thing. The color seems to change constantly with the lighting conditions. But we absolutely LOVE the Blue Granite. The majority of the time, the color is kind of an aqua-marine blue that is really neat. I can't say however that there aren't times where I can detect a touch of green (just a hint) if the clouds and sun are right. Other times it looks almost icy blue. It really changes a lot, but it looks very natural with what we have around the pool. The green you see in the fill photos above is all due to having green fill water (yum!). Within days of having chemicals and filtering, all of that green was gone. We saw several Aqua Blue pools, and they really did look wildly BLUE, and in the end with our natural looking pool, we felt teh blue granite was better, and we are very happy with it. As far as the Abalone shells, yes we did add them, and it was money WELL spent. They are really, really cool looking, especially when the sun is shining directly on the water. They look like diamonds on the floor. VERY cool effect. I just started building the shade structure, I'll some pictures as I go, but so far so good.

Back in the day, A&S, before the merger and for a significant period there after, built some of the best pools around. Things have been going down hill for the last several years. They have become a more of a retail site and pool sales shop with everything farmed out and less adherence to the standards that built them to begin with. They are a dying species, so to speak, IMHO. The store I have had the pleasure of dealing with still has several of the same fellas working there for a number of years and we lament about how things have changed. Maximizing profit on each project at the cost of customer satisfaction isn't maximizing anything and it's biting them in the butt. Will they be around in 5 years? I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't or if they downsized substantially if they don't take better control of their build processes. They might be served well if the looked as closely at their way and Pebble Tec's way. PT will cut off an applicator if they get sloppy. While there is price pressure in PT, there is still enough margin and business for the authorized applicator for this concern. Scott

Lily09, you will find good things about each of the 3 majors: Pentair, Jandy & Hayward. I prefer Pentair. You will find some PBs prefer a certain manufacturer based on their personal experience with failure of equipment, promptness of service, support they receive, etc. I used one of the other manufacturers originally, but changed because even though the service was excellent I had too many times when service was needed. Others I know in the business have never experienced those problems with the same manufacturer. All of them have some kind of promotional or give back to the PB opportunities, so that can sway a PB to a certain brand. If you are a high enough volume builder, there are some major perks with hooking up with a certain manufacturer. For the most part, follow the advice of your PB. They know best what works for them.