I did this a few years back when we first moved into the new house. Soil dug needed amending which made planting take even longer so the first fall, I dug the holes, mixed the dug soil with amendments and put it in an empty plant pot back into the hole ready for spring. Worked really well for the one bed I was able to get done. The hardest work was done in cooler weather with no mosquitoes.

We have used a few different brands to create "spray deck", which is a generic term in our part of the country ( Southern Nevada). It is generally an overlay that is put on with a hopper gun or thrown on with a brush and lightly troweled down over existing concrete. Yes it is cooler than bare concrete and yes if it has enough texture, it is slip resistant. The installer can also add a bit of sand on top as it is applied for more slip protection. There are also opaque paints that can be applied as a sealer, over the texture product, that MAY be slippery when wet. Best advice is go look at some decks your installer has done and walk on them with wet feet : ) Techniques vary and so do products. Barb

Changed some of the equipment: 1. Going with the larger CCP-420 filter instead of the CCP-320. 2. Added a dedicated waterfall pump (AFP/AF-180) to augment the VS for the "drunk" mode. 3. Using the Nexxus X-Streams bubbler kit. Not sure how bright the fiber light will be, but I think it will be a cool accent since it will share the same controller as the waterfall lights. There's one more channel still on the 4-channel controller, so I'm thinking of adding fiber to light the trough and/or the sitting bench (underneath the cap). 4. Found a sealer that reflects UV. It's supposed to lower deck temperature (Life Deck Cool Life). Waiting to hear from the sub to see about using it without the acrylic layer to shave some of that $6,000 surcharge for the deck. Does anyone have experience with any of Life Paint's products? 5. Inter-Fab T-7 diving board with the water spill. Decided against the lighting option on it since the color will probably not match the other LED's in the pool and waterfall. 6. Adding the PC interface kit to the IntelliTouch setup to allow the e-z iPod interface for day-to-day usage. Not sure whether we should get rid of the Mobi-Touch that was originally spec'ed and just program everything on a PC? Is the Mobi-Touch remote worth it? Here's a photo of the waterline tile together with the pool surface and Three Rivers rock used on the waterfall: Planned on a very neutral tile on the waterline because of the very hard water in my area. I've seen lots of ugly calcium buildup in otherwise beautiful dark colored waterline tiles when we were going around looking at references. Also planning on bringing some of the granite we used in the house out to the pool, so I thought it would be nice to purchase 12' Blue Pearl and/or Blue Eyes granite, then cut them to 6'x6' tiles and use them on the waterline every seventh tile or so. Should be fairly inexpensive to do, but visually interesting. I mocked it up using the Pool Builder software:

We always had dark green/white striped ones on the kitchen windows of our 200-year old house growing up in Massachusetts and they looked nice. I don't remember them having to be replaced very often. The neighbors across the street from me here in Virginia have black and white striped ones and they look charming. I think it can be very suitable in New England for sure. I wish I could post a pic of my neighbors house because its so pretty with the awnings but I guess I shouldn't do that! ETA the only concern might be heavy snow sitting on them when you're not there in the winter.