Nice looking pool to me! I don't think that's too much 'wetdeck' at all.

Only two comments:

1. You don't indicate where the house is. Just make sure that the lights don't point anywhere in the direction of the house - even 90 degrees to it without some sort of shielding by a wall, etc... If your house is either to the right or bottom of the drawing, you're fine, IMHO.

2. I'm hoping that there will be some type of barrier at least between the trampoline and the pool, or maybe one of those nets around the trampoline?

Looks really nice.

Small kids? Or sell house to someone with small kids? Maybe 3.5' deep for a few feet? Just a thought.

Looks very nice to me.

Looks really nice! The only thing I see is that if your house is to the right, then you won't really be able to see the spillway from there.

Thanks everyone.

Bubbapool - yes the house is in the bottom right. I didn't even think about the light direction but the pool designer must have thought about it.

We are going to put a net around the trampoline - it is a must with rambunctious kids.

Hmmm - 3'6" or 4' that is the question! I've thought about this long and hard. My youngest is 4 years old - she is 45" which means she would be about 1" under water right now in the shallow end (assuming water level is 3" below bond beam). I still have time to think this out - the rest of the kids will be well above the water in the shallow end.

Houseful - your right. We won't be able to see the spa spillway from the house. It was the best position for the spa since we have a little added room in that corner. We did try to compensate by adding the sheer decent in the upper left corner so we can see some water feature from the house.
Thanks again for all the comments. Please keep them coming.

I have really enjoyed seeing the OB posts on here (houseful's included) so I plan on starting a OB post on my pool progress when we start. I'm hoping that will be the beginning of July (just in time to miss swim season!).

Hmmm - just went over the dimensions of the plan and found a few things were off. I guess this is where it pays to be a detail freek. The spa is currently located within a foot of one of our patio pillars. I think there is a 3' minimum from any structural part of the house to the pool. Also, the slide is drawn about 2/3 of its actual size. We will need to modify the pool to allow more deck room for the slide. Glad I caught this one as the slide is a very important part of the plan and we would not have been able to fit it in the way the current pool is drawn. Lastly, the pool house is drawn a few feet off. When I draw it in the correct place the little curve out by the spa is only 2' away from the pool house (instead of 3' as code calls).

We are working with such tight clearances on all side that every 6" is critical.

In general I like the plan, looks like we will have to go back to the drawing board a bit before we can final. I'll post the revised when we get it.

Hey Kim, glad you are moving along ! I'll try to call you later, we are doing the Home Show at Cashman next weekend if you want free tix. Its a good one. Barb
PS I'll show your plan to Larry since he has seen your yard. He'll be at the show, but only late hours all three days, we're into 7 day workweeks now. Walt usually comes down, he's an earlybird tho, he's there when it opens !

Beautiful Layout! I'm jealous of the space you have! :)

Barb,

Do call - I would love to go the show. Is it the 9th and 10th? Thanks for faxing over driveway bid - we are looking into the possibility of hooking up to sewer in the garage which would allow us to leave the driveway in tact. This would be preferred as the project to tear out robs money from the pool budget. Also, due to Larry's good advice about problems with patio stability if we tear out back porch, we are probably just going to stay with what we have.

Walt is great. We are hoping to finalize plans with him this week and go to engineering. I can't thank you enough for the referal.

I feel your pain because I'm fresh off the plan phase and have just had shotcrete. Your pool is similar in shape and close to the same size as mine. I had issues about the narrowness too. I kept stretching and curving to get more width without having to move it to another part of the yard where I have more room, but we'd lose the asthetics of the view. I left it alone and I do still wonder about the narrowness but there's no going back and I'm sure it will all work out. I can tell you that I was just at a pool party where the pool was more narrow and smaller than yours and mine and it didn't seem to phase the kids at all. They seemed to have plenty of room. However, we are talking about ten to fifteen, ten year-olds.
On another note, we have a baja/ wetdeck as well. And something you may want to consider, (if you haven't already) are the placement, the size and amt. of steps into the pool which I hadn't even thought of with mine until today when I stepped down into my pool(granted there is no water yet)but our depth is 3.5' off the shelf and even with 3 steps to the bottom, it's still a good-sized step down... sort of a surprise drop, if you're not aware.
Now, because you're struggling with the depth thing...if yo choose a 3' to 3.5' depth instead of 4' this may allow you a little more peace of mind as far as the safety issues go for your small child/children. You don't know me from Adam, and I really am not a doomsdayer, but I'd like to share with you what happened to me and maybe it will help in your decission. My son (who is alive and well) was 4 and about 43" and in a 3.5' pool with me right next to him ... looking at him no less... I was not able to see that the water was just covering his nose. I couldn't see any line of demarkation that would indicate to me that he was sucking in the water. My clue that something was wrong was that I realized he was not talking or moving around. And even though he had been taught to hold his breath and had some lessons he just panicked. I finally realized what was happening and got him out in time, but it was a horrific scare. That just reminded me... better to be safe than sorry especially w/kids. Drowning is a such a silent killer and there's no going back. A friend of mine lost her 3 yr old little girl to a drowning accident in her own pool. I don't know if this is too much on a pool info site, but if this helps save you and anyone else from that kind of tragedy, then it's worth the possible discomfort of my opinion. Okay, that's all I'll say about that.
Anyway, it will all turn out; right??? Good Luck

qa4me,

Thank you for sharing. I'm glad your son in OK. Our 4 year old daughter took her life jacket off at my sisters pool to use the bathroom and when she came back her dad didn't realize she hadn't put it on until he saw her sinking to the bottom at the deep end. She in OK as well, but it is scary. I just signed all 3 of my youngest (ages 4,6 and 8) up for private swim lessons for the next 6 weeks. Hoping that by the time the pool is in, they are confident enough to be OK while we are watching. If not, life jackets.

I am thinking maybe 3'6" would be good - at least for a section. I am guessing we could alter slightly from the plan - right? Maybe let the excavators know we want the dig a little different?

qa4me,

Do you have pictures of your pool to share?? I would be interested to see it.

We have a 19 x 42 pool that is simular in depths from your design. We go from 3.6 to 6.8'. Definetly you want to consider 3.5 on the shallow end. Most time is spent in the shallow end (75%). 3.6 gives you a bit more flexibility versus 4'. Our one regret is that we went down to 6.8', which is a rather useless depth. Its too shallow for a diving board (we dont have) and too deep to allow for a large vollyball area. In hindsight we would have gone 3.5 - 5 - 4.5. This opens your pool up for more activity throughout.

The other thing to consider is the 2nd light. We have 3 sam lights. 1 would definetly not be enough.

Our pool water height is 3'6" in the shallow end. Its a good height for the kids to play in....I just measured it. You want them to be able to reach the bottom for many years.....nothing wrong with the "safe" area, the pool doesnt have to be over their heads to have fun. Kids love to dive down, get things, come up and stand with their head above the water....at least mine do. They spend more time playing in the shallow end than the deep end....we do not a have baja shelf, wish we did, I think it would have gotten a lot of use. The most fun they have is playing on the pyramid raft or other floating things and it doesnt matter which end they are floating in, but its easier to climb on when you can push off the bottom. 2nd most fun thing is diving, which you cant do in 3'6" or 4'. My son is 7, 4 ft tall, and loves to play with boats, water guns, basketball set, volleyball and he can stand in this area to play. 4 feet would be harder for him to move through the water. Your kids are still young and the youngest will be young for several more years. 4 to 6 inches sounds like nothing but it is to a little one, maybe my kids are slow growers but 4 ft would mean your littlest has several years to go before her NOSE has cleared the water line....build it for the present:)

Thank you to all for the comments. I have called the designer and asked to switch the shallow end to 3'6".

Jason - great list of comments - I appreciate you taking the time to give a professional second take. In response to some of the comments:

#1 - I am wondering - do you think if I design the pool bottom as a diving pool (the first 1/3 shallow, the 2nd 1/3 moderate decent and the last 1/3 a bowl) that the 3' differencial will be too much? My fear is that the big kids are going to hit the bottom if they dive off the 24" raised bond beem (which I know they will do). Is 6' or 6' 6" deep enough that you could jump/dive off this area without hitting the bottom?

#4 - Great comment. I actually saw a pool with steps that were curved somewhere on this sight. I will mention to my designer.

#6 - Can you tell me the average depth of a bench? I believe the designer mentioned 14" benches to me - I can see some of the benches in the picture look bigger than others. I will make sure he calls out the depth on the plan.

Again - thanks to all. With any luck we will be digging by the end of the month.

i am building a new pool and on the plans we have 18" depth benches and they are 20" below the waterline. 14" depth benchs i think would be uncomfortable for sitting but i guess it depends how big of a seat you need!