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.

Digging was completed on Friday evening about 5 minutes prior to a downpour. So we had about a foot of water in the pool and a nice mud pit in the front. The errosion of the walls was a little scary to see... The rebar team came in around 9 on Saturday morning. It was very impressive to watch them bend steel rods and shape the pool based on the drawing. Here are some pictures of the steel: Our PB is Anthony Sylvan. Yep, our home is a Trendmaker. Here are some of the details: 89' Perimter 499 sq ft 3' to 6' depth 10.5' sun shelf 1 skimmer 4 returns 2 color logic led lights 20' of 18" RBB of stacked flagstone with flagstone cap 2 3' sheer descents Riviera Slate coping Stonescapes Mini Tahoe Blue (maybe....) Suction side cleaner 32 sq ft spa 12" raised with flagstone coping 6 jets color logic led light

Susan-Great advice. We have had this land for 4 years now, and planned to build in the trees for the last year. Originally the deck of the home was going to go just to the beginning of the valley. If I want the pool there, the house will need moved to the North. If I don't put a pool on that side, then I want the deck 20 feet further to the South. We are removing trees now for the driveway. Hubby left a huge Cedar tree at the valley entrance which shifts our driveway naturally to the North. Not a big deal as the driveway is lengthy. But house would go great in either spot. Just wondering about putting the pool more hidden on master bedroom/garage side of home versus by main entertainment deck. Thinking it would get used more by deck area.

Just as a "want to waste some time option", you might start with a real map (real paper... I know, completely unheard of nowadays) and a simple school pencil compass. Use the compass to make several concentric circles with your home location at the center. This would give you a rough idea of how far you could or even want to drive in an average day. By using the mile indicator located on the map somewhere, you could set up the circles at perhaps 100 to 500 mile distances from one another. Secondly, make a list (even a mental one) of the cities, burgs, and attractions between two or more circles. While not perfect, this will give you an idea of a couple of things. First, we will know that I/we don't mind driving XXX miles per day and secondly, what might be available to see and do within that preferred mileage suggestion. Thirdly, reduce that defined area by picking a compass direction that seems most advantageous to what you want to see and do on your (pick some number of days and insert here) trip. Realistically, the compass direction may have to be determined more on available roadways than on actual compass points but then, what's a good trip without a few side trips. If you have even more spare time, start to look up commercial tours, where they go, what they include as sightseeing attractions, etc. You don't have to actually take the tours but rather, use their advertising $ and experience to plan your own trip. The internet is wonderful for these uses since it goes everywhere with no cost other than what you're already paying per month for the service. Every state and most of the mid to larger sized cities also now have a load of information on locations, attractions, and so on... all neatly arranged dated and free to you. I've probably stated the above concepts poorly but maybe you can glean a bit of information that will make planning a bit easier.