I don't know anything about rehabbing an older pool. I'm not sure what the pros/cons are with concrete vs steel but at the time my husband wanted concrete. Most of the builders over here seem to be using or converting to concrete. We love the swim bench. I remember one friend telling us that he regrets not getting the swim bench because his wife is always complaining that they don't have one. It's a fun feature. Everyone loves it. It's nice for relaxing on (sort of like a tanning bench but not exactly the same). My daughter's friends love sitting on it. Ours is in the deep end and it gives you a nice in/out in the deep end. You can put it anywhere, however. You can even get more than one if you want. I sometimes think it would be nice to also have one in the shallow end. One thing that is in your advantage is that you already have the digging done. Depending on your budget you might be able to play around with what you want since excavation is part of the expense. One thing tha I forgot to mention is that different pool builders offer somewhat different free form shapes. He differences are slight but if you have your heart set on something specific then that is something to consider. If you are getting a geometric shape then the offerings are pretty standard and easy to play around with. Another consideration is depth. Arthur Edwards was offering a deeper shallow end. Theirs is 4 feet whereas Swim King's shallow end is 3' 6". Having a young child, that was an important consideration for us. I also prefer the more shallow shallow end. Our deep end is 8 feet which concerns me for diving it we don't dive. Our friend dived and he was ok but it still makes me nervous. The pool builder might be able to play around with those numbers but it could change the cost due to material and labor increases. I saw your thread about gunite. One of the biggest advantages with gunite is he ability to completely customize the shape. If you want a heart shaped pool, you can have it. With vinyl, you have to make sure your pool shape conforms with the forms or molds they use. Customization is possible but no where as you have with gunite. Gunite does need to be refinished every so many years...maybe 10 or 15 which is pretty much ow long a liner will last as long as nothing sharp rips it. Years ago when vinyl pools where only geometric, people who wanted a free form (lake shaped) pool either had to get a gunite pool or just deal with he lackof choices. This has really changed in the last 15 or so years. My daughter goes to a swim school that has a gunite pool and she dislikes the rough finish on it because she is used to vinyl. However, it's a commercial pool so there are probably a lot nicer finishes out there. I'd really love a pebble tec finish. I always admire those pictures on here. I spent 2 months picking a liner because I loved the teal water color available with pebble tec. After a lot of searching I found one that I love. Swim King has it but its not popular because they said that people get scared when they see how much brown and gray is in the liner. However, once the sun shines on it, the water is a gorgeous teal color. If you have their liner brochure, it's the liner with pebbles on the bottom, and limestone bricks on the boarder. They are always sending people to our house to look at the liner because people have a hard time believing that those colors create teal water but they do. The pool also photographs beautifully when the sun shines on it. There are so man choices available, I just wanted to throw that out there in case this is one of the reasons why you like gunite so much. You'd also probably love a salt water chlorine generator because you won't have that chlorine smell on you anymore. The generator creates chlorine but it doesn't contain the additive that is in chlorine that creates the chlorine smell. It also makes our skin so soft.

Socks -- We have library cards for Maui. However, the library there are stuck 'somewhere back in time'. LOL I found a more current collection of books at the Salvation Army store in Kihei! We are very spoiled with the collection of DVD's at our hometown library. Norar -- We've enjoyed all the "Touch of Frost" episodes -- along with most of the things I see on the Netfix 'menu'. What's new there is old to us. Maybe we'll try Redbox during January and February. All suggestions for our 'tropical teatimes' greatly appreciated!

I'm so glad that you watched and enjoyed it. I thought it to be pretty special. I watched another good one last night...Philomena with Judi Dench. This is based on a true story about a young Irish girl who is 'sent to the nuns' when she becomes pregnant. The girls have their babies, and are forced to work (toil) under poor conditions, only to have their babies sold to rich customers, often from America. Judi portrays the girl when she is elderly and has an opportunity to go to America to search for her lost son. As usual, Judi is riveting in this film. The range of emotions that move across her face......very remarkable. Look for it on Netflix.

I watched it this weekend, too. Thought it was pretty good. Not great, but enjoyable enough. Then I saw advertised an original Amazon series called Red Oaks, with the kid from the movie as the lead, so I watched that. It was fun because it was set in the 80's, so the music was from my era, but otherwise "meh.". (I'm watching while I sew, so I'm going through a lot of viewing material lately.)