I too have debated this issue. At original meeting w/PB, we had him quote the overall master plan. PB quoted with white plaster but gave us a price sheet with the upgrade-should we want to go with a differnt finish, SAM lights etc. When we got the quote back, we were surprised that the whole plan was in our budget to do as is. Now that sticker shock has worn off, what is another $1600 for quartz added to plaster, or $$3161 for sunstone colored plaster, or $4578 for aggregate finish? Unfortunately, we have other expenses, about 10k already not in the pool bid (fence, electric reroute, paver deck). Where does one stop spending when money is an object? Of coarse, my DH put it to me like this. If none of these other finishes existed, would I still love my pool? Both my neighbors have white plaster finishes (built by the PB I am using)and they are beautiful. My PB showed me photos of 14 different pools all with differnt "colors" to them. Come to find out, they were all white plaster. Depending on surrounding vegitation, cloud cover (or not) shadow/shade, sun location, can effect the color of a pool dramatically. We are going with white plaster afterall. If somewhere down the road I really hate it, I'll save up for it and get it re-done. If it is in your budget, go for it. If not, your pool will still be beautiful.

Day 4 Build (Day 6 calendar) - Gunite I'm a little behind with the progress updates. Going into gunite, we were worried if a few things were going to turn out right. And then inspecting the pool afterwards threw us into a wave of second guessing some of our decisions and designs. Gunite in process Gunite Completed So, here are the things that we fretted over. Tanning Ledge Step location - we moved the steps from far driveway end to the middle. I think it looks much better plus it didn't make sense to have steps going into the deep end. Tanning ledge edge - after moving the steps, we didn't think to extend the tanning ledge. Doh! Bubbler location - managed to get it in. Originally had it in the far flat area but then moved it to bottom of the beach entry. And what's with the return sticking up from the middle of the beach entry? We originally wanted a return that came back across the beach entry to keep it clean. I looked at this and thought they are giving me a bubbler return. But then they said they put an angled jet on the return so it sweeps across. Do you pool builders ever get annoyed with our questions? Beach entry angle - it seem too steep. I'm not sure what my options are. Maybe we can flatten the slope and angle it back into the deck? Would this comprise the pool beam integrity? Weeping wall and moss rock below water line - we wanted the rocks in the water and not above the tile line. I thought they were going to build a ledge into the beam to support the rocks. Instead they angled the beam down. I was told that this is preferred since it can accommodate bigger rocks. Reverse beam - In this area, they also transitioned from the angle too late. We should have more beam and less rock. I was told that they can address this with the rock guys. Deep end step out - We had a seat in the deep end. We thought it would be good to add some steps to make it a deep end step out. I think this turned out well. Spa Oh, where do I begin with the spa? Size - dang this thing looks huge. It seems more like a small wading pool! And it looks really high. I remember making sure it was 18" (vs 12") so that it would be a good seat height from the deck. It just looks like a castle turret now. Multi level spa seating - managed to get a section 21" deep as I wanted to be fully seated and submersed. Never did measure the length of my upper body... Seating - they did a horseshoe seating arrangement. Seems like the wall along the spillway is just wasted space. This was to prevent playing footsies with the person seated across from you. Spillway - we didn't spring for the fancy spillway. Nor did we cut it open as we were hoping the notches would give us a scupper effect. Now I wonder if that was a wise choice. Again, castle turret... Piping - What's the deal with the piping outside the gunite? I know it'll be covered up with the mortar and veneer. Should I be worried about this kind of stuff? In pool table We thought this was a cool idea. Being able to have a drink or a meal while sitting in the pool. Well... Pedestal placement - I posted before that the pedestal had to be a mere 9" from the pool wall to prevent the cleaner from getting in there. I thought that was too close. In actuality, there's no problems. The pedestal itself is very small and the corner seating is wide so it's not like having to shuffle into booth seating at a restaurant. We are planning on using one large oval piece of rock as a table top. Table height - now this is where we didn't think it through (or the PB didn't educate us). The table is going to be at water level. They did standard in-pool bench seating. So it appears that when I sit on the bench, the table is going to be up to my neck! At this point, they can't raise the seat with gunite. The only thing I can think of is adding a layer of flagstone to the bench seating to raise it up a few inches. Any other ideas? Of course we also changed our tile selection for the 3rd time and made some last minute changes to the light locations. All of which I hope were the right decisions. Anyways, enough of my rants. It's good to document this stuff as I'm sure my wife is tired of hearing me talk about these things. Sounds like I'm just a worry wart. We're still very excited and can't wait for the pool to be all done and the backyard mess all cleared up. Cheers! Here is a link that might be useful: Day 4 - Gunite

Paradigndawg.....if you truely beleive that the 55k bid you had and the 35k pool you bought were the exact same pool, then you did need 6 bids. I have seen many people this year with a pool half done because their pool builder went out of business. I know one person in particular that did get many bids and decided on one of these companies that went out of business. I am just saying that you should look a lot more at the company than a design and a bid. I am sure someone like Seahorse Pools can build a great pool. For that fact, you can get on the phone and call the right subs and build a great pool your self. There is much more to purchasing the second largest purchase in you life and a pretty picture, low quote, and a nice guy doesn't help much when there are problems. Good luck.

Vjrnts: thanks regarding the hood. I'm still trying to decide what to do on the mantel edge of it ~ leave it plain and prop a painting up on the mantel there; tile with the pewter listello tiles; have an artist do a stencil design in pewter paint. I'll wait until I get the kitchen totally done with the art work back in there before making a final decision. Dflood: sorry I didn't answer you sooner, but we're in Oklahoma now visiting our DS at grad school (OU)at the moment. We use only Ring Brick floor care on our floors and they (usually) look gorgeous. We get it at the True Value Hardware store in Bernalillo. I would never use anything else; it's that good. We do wash our floors with water & vinegar first, BTW, but never any detergent or polish. For our tile backsplashes, we're using Tile Specialties (owner Ken Louden) to do them. Got the best prices on tile at Interceramic, which is over next to Arizona Tile off the I-25 frontage road. We also looked at Lowes for cabs, before settling on Branch Cabinetry. Lowes people were alarming me because they seemed to miss so many things just in the planning stage. I was afraid what they'd miss in the ordering, fit or design. Plus, I was hearing about VERY negative experiences with their installers. Branch was a bit more money, but we liked their Brookhaven cab quality and got great reviews on their service and KD (Marc Coan) from good friends who had their entire new home done by Marc . . and it's gorgeous!Branch is with you through every stage of a reno, and it shows. Good luck with your own reno. I'll be anxious to see how it turns out.