Docpops, we put our pool in primarily for our kids also. It has been really nice seeing them use it so much over the last year. There are a few different in-floor cleaning system makers, namely Paramount (various systems) and Polaris (Caretaker). After quite a bit of research, I liked Paramounts systems and approach better. Their web site is paramountpoolproducts.com. They have a lot of different systems and I tried to understand the pro and cons of each. Ultimately, I decided that there really is not much of a difference, they are more for marketing. I believe that Paramount only allows a few builders in each area to install each system. To allow more builders to put in their products, they have different lines. In our case, we went with the PCC2000. A friend of mine as the PV3 system and he loves it also. I would suggest going to their web site and watching some of their demo's of how the system works. Like I said before, all demo's make it seem like the system works great but you never know how it works in the real world. We've got a lot of trees around our pool and it does a remarkable job. I'm still actually surprised it works as well as it does. We also added their leaf catcher system. Basically, all debris in the pool either ends up in a skimmer basket or going down the main drain and in to the leaf catcher. Its really nice this time of year, when the water is cold and I can empty out the leaves from the pool deck. The nice part is that with the kids swimming, there is no polaris in the pool that either needs to be moved or just left in to swim around.

I figure this is a topic that I would like to chime in on. Salt pools in the US started becoming popular like Kelly said about 10 years ago. I as a pool builder am leary of any new technology that has not ben thouroghly tested. Even though I do install the systems when asked to I still give the pros and cons of using these systems. This all being said I have seen a trend over the past few years. For every salt system that I install I am removing 2 of the systems on other pools. Why is this you ask. In most cases it in the stone around the pool being washed away. And others are from equipment failures caused by the salt. Many will argue on here that salt is not corrosive and that bonding of a pool will solve these problems. I disagree. I build my pools properly and when I continue to have the same problems on salt pools that I do not have on Regular erosion feeder systems. I have to question what is the problem. And the common factor is the salt systems. Nothing else. As far as Ozone systems. this is another system that I do not believe in. I think it is a big waste of money. Just another gimic for you to buy to put on your pool. Now even though I do not see the problems with this system that you see with salt I do not see the benefit of using them. This all leads back to my personal opinion that they have been using chlorine for well over 100 years on pools and never have seen the service issues that we see today with all the different type of chorination and augmentations sytems that are installed now days. So if it ain't broke don't fix it. Good luck on the pool build.

I was told if you do real wood the embers will burn through the screen as it is a fiberglass screen. I was told natural gas or propane would not be a problem. We hope to install a screen enclosure in a few months and I plan on installing a propane fireplace with logs. The propane will be a lot less messy too in terms of ashes/debris. Good Luck..

Our porch addition also added roof to our view from our master bedroom. We were aware of this and felt the pros of the porch far outweighed the impact the roof would have on the upstairs view. My plan, eventually, is to get top/down bottom/up shades and simply have the lower half of the window covered so just the trees are showing. - sorry for the extremely dull picture, the master bedroom is at the bottom of our project list.