I think areas in the Westside of Los Angeles such as Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Brentwood are very tropical looking. Streets around these areas are covered in beautiful, tropical and large palms of all types, bougainvilleas, large-leaf plants like monsterras, alocasias, colocasias, giant bird of paradise, abyssinian bananas, pigmy date palms, large, broad leaf ever greens which help create a very lush look. San Diego's mission area is also extremely tropical looking and very beautiful as well. Even though we are not a true tropical climate, sometimes when I'm driving around town, I feel like I'm somewhere in Hawaii or Panama (I was born and raised in the tropics so I can truly relate)

We are going with Pineloch pool Construction. We got quotes from blue haven, laguna and pineloch. Blue havens design was pretty "plain" and cookie cutter, but the cheapest by far. Both Laguna and Pineloch had excellent designs. Part of the attraction to Pineloch was their long time in the business, and the fact that the designer also supervises all the major phases of construction. He stays involved to the end. Big Plus in my mind. Also, we are building on a steep waterfront lot and there are special design and engineering considerations. Pineloch has a lot of experience in that. Once I get back in town, I will start a thread about our build with pic's and spec's.

Isn't Sienna Plantation in the jurisdiction of Missouri City? If so, their permitting and inspections process is very long and somewhat arbitrary in nature. I just finished building one in Missouri City and it was problematic with the city at every step. They would make up requirements that were not published anywhere. I have built pools in a lot of places and never had so many silly requirements. They are nice folks at the city, but I doubt I would ever build there again. One thing these cities forget in their attempt to govern construction in their city is that it costs you the homeowner a lot more money to get a pool there than elsewhere. Pearland is fine...they have permitting and inspections but they publish their requirements and the inspectors do not stray from them. Anyway, if Sienna Plantation is in Missouri City, permits and inspections should have been obtained by your PB.

I see you have an upgrade for the fusion soft 40K Salt System. It is mineral based with a chlorine dispenser. It is not a salt water chlorine generator. Do you want this ? http://www.poolproducts4less.com/nature-2-fusion-soft-salt-water-sanitizer-mineral-pool-system-kit-40k.aspx You will have a Jandy PDA 8 remote. It would make more sense to me if you have a salt pool to use the Jandy aqua pure control center and a jandy salt chlorine generator which will handle all of your sanitizing needs, assuming you maintain the chemicals properly. At that point, with the control center I would ditch the standard white lights with covers and maximize the potential of your remote and control center by using LED lights that will let you run a fantastic light show in your pool and spa as well as control your Polaris cleaner and water features, spa etc. Ask your builder about this stuff, he/she should know. Personally, I would ditch the ozone. Cannot imagine why you need 3 levels of sanitization? Chlorine, mineral and ozone. 2 cents.