Start at your Christmas Break. You will be off for 15 days or so and they can do quite a bit while you are home. Setup a few web cams and you can watch the process from any where, its what I did.

This way, once its warm, you are ready to swim.

I am a teacher, and we just finished our pool. I highly recommend building your pool during the summer break. I not only wanted to be part of the process, but there were many things I was able to "catch in time" because I was there. As a matter of fact, my PB said it saved us money because had I not been there it would have been more expensive to make the changes at a later time. We started our pool late in the summer, but we are in TX so there is plenty of hot weather left for swimming in our new pool!

I'm a teacher too! (I live in the Clear Lake area.)

I would say sign with the PB in the winter time. A lot of PB offer "sale" prices at this time...or at least incentives to purchase during their slow season. (I waited a little late, but still caught the "sale".) Once you sign, it will take a couple weeks (1-4) to get homeowners ok and building permits. The PB will start doing this the day you sign, but can't begin the dig until everything is in order. The first thing you will see is spray paint on your grass to mark where the pool is going. You don't need to be home in order for this to happen. Just check to make sure it's right once you get home.

Meanwhile, you will be getting your financing in order. If you are taking out a loan, it's not like you sign the papers and immediately have the $$$. There are a couple of days before they can give you the money (legally) and then there's a hold-up of paperwork. If you know how long this will take, you can sign with the PB early enough and then the financing come a week or two later....buying you just the right amount of time to be there at the right time.

The day after I gave the $$$ over, the PB starting digging. For your size pool, this will be one day. I wasn't there, but got home at 3 to see them finishing up. Next step is rebar/plumbing (2 days). Again, I wasn't there until 3 when they were finishing up each day. The only thing that is important at this time is to talk with the PB each day if you see any concerns. (I had a cell phone number to call.)

The MOST important day to be there is gunite. Making sure you are there watching. Not necessarily to check to make sure technique is correct, but that the steps/benches/water features are in the correct place, etc. It wasn't on our drawing to make a step inside the spa, but I just watched and when the gunite crew got to that point I told them what I wanted. I even had them make one side of the spa benches lower than the other side so that the jets would hit your back at different spots when you were sitting down.

After that it's 2-3 weeks worth of waiting (to let gunite cure). While the gunite is curing, the PB is doing all the tile work, rocks (water features) and deck - including the drains. The only reason to be there is to make sure the correct pieces (color and quality) are used and that they are installing it correctly if you have special requests. For example, if you have a rock waterfall, there is a lot of artistic representation that goes into it. It might look "off balance" and you can have them fix that as they are going along. For the deck, I was there to make sure they placed umbrella sleeves into the deck at the correct places.

If you are not there each day, it's OK. If you choose a reputable PB, then there are "walk-throughs" at certain points along the way to make sure everything is right before moving onto the next chunk of work. (Typically at these walk-throughs is when the next chunk of $$$ is due.) They should fix everything to your satisfaction. Everything can be fixed if you aren't there to check along the way....except for gunite. The only negative to having to go back and "fix" before moving on is the wait in time (and possible added expense if they are changes that were not originally in the contract). To get that particular sub-contractor back out you usually need to wait a couple of days (or weeks)....which seems like an eternity!

One of the final steps is plastering. You don't need to be there that day, but it is important that you are there when they are finishing because the pool will need to be filled with water from your garden hose. This will take the rest of the day and through the night - even if you use two!

After the pool is filled with water, the PB will add "start-up chemicals" to your water and teach you about the equipment. This is called pool-school. It goes fast! Take notes and pay attention! If you miss something, you can always call them, or ask questions here.

Good Luck!

I'm a teacher and while we wanted them to begin at the beginning of summer, after some set backs due to rain, they finally started the beginning of July. I started back to work two weeks ago, so I hated not being here. My husband works from home, but has been out of town. I'm glad he can be my eyes while he's home and I'm at school! To me it's very important to be around during the dig, gunite, and stonework. They had to redo our weeping wall because it wasn't what I had envisioned. My husband wasn't here while it was being done so couldn't stop them midway.

Good luck with your build and the school year!!

lookingforapool and jsldh, thank you for the input : ) Good luck with yall's school year, as well! I love the pool pic. the water is such a refreshing shade of blue and it gave me a good vision for my own. Our budget is for white plaster, I am hoping by taking good care of it I can achieve a sparkling look.

Everytime I think I know when I will begin my pool, I read another post that makes me reconsider lol

I will have to see how my year goes and my ability to save in order to see when I will cross over into the wonderful world of pool ownership.

Thanks again everyone : )

I'm a teacher here as well...

We were supposed to have the pool in by now, but there's an easement situation that I'm going to have to go before the Planning Board in my Township in September.

Maybe we'll be able to ice skate by the time they get all the approvals lined up!!!

jerseypool, good luck. I hope you don't have to wait that long to get your pool. I have been planning to have my pool built right where the easement ends. I hope my HOA doesn't deny it. I can't afford for the width of the pool to be any smaller.

Lookingforapool, I love the refreshing blue water. Is that shade of blue from white plaster or did you get a special finish?

Not white plaster. We used an exposed aggregate finish called WetEdge (which I believe is a knock-off of Pebbletek). The color is Pearl.