I AM SPEECHLESS!!!!! Ditto everything everything everyone else said! I am in awe. I am a left brained design clod, but I do recognize genius. I am stuggling to dwsign 5 bathrooms and a kitchen with only two weeks to prepare for our newly constructed home in Irvine. Our two bedroom filled with mold was torn down to the concrete slab and has gone up faster than I expected. Any tips, help, suggestions, this peon will fall to her knees. I really know nothing about gardenweb protocol as I just joined and you are my first message. I am overwhelmed and don't want to go to a tile design showroom where I get the most recent 'in' Tuscan look ir white carrera marble design. How do you come you with such great ideas. I have sat in Barnes and NOble and looked through magazines...lthe saddest part is I'm married to a contractor and his design sense is more outdated than mine! We both just stared at yours and said...ooohhh.......aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!

What a great looking design! I can't believe you got so many great features included with your current plan. I have something in mind that is very similar, but I am trying to rework it myself to keep within 800 sq. ft.. It will be mainly for older kids and adults, but the trend here is for larger pools to fit with the lot sizes. The main considerations for going larger too are trying to keep a deep end for diving (but no board for us) and still transitioning to the steps/seats. What are you depths in the different areas of your pool? I also want to be sure the sun deck will be larger based on what others have said about putting a full lounge chair (or two) on it. I really like your 3 jets which is something I am not sure I could do as I am considering the shelf on the second 18" depth step. I think the comfort level with size is really subjective. My friends mostly have pools with only the basic set of steps or much simpler shapes (600 to 800 range) so it is hard to envision how much swim area you feel you will need with a freeform. I think the design is smart since it leaves a long swim lane in the center. I love the waterfall on the back. I know you already have a lot going on with design features, but I have a proposed smaller bench seat at that end too which might be nice (Just a thought). I do have another design someone shared with me that is a curvy freeform at just under 600 square feet if you'd like to compare it I'll e-mail it to you. Freeforms can look narrow if width is sacrificed for length, but then it depends on the depth of your pool area too. Is there a link you can send me to the program you used to render your sketch in 3-D, as I would like to try to re- envision mine that way as well. We did pay a sizable design fee but only got a 2-D purely architectural landscape conceptual plan and not really a true detailed pool design. Did you sign your contract with your PB before getting your design, or was it part of his/her proposal or was it yours? NJFolks4@gmail.com

Well as for dated, this place was built in 1980 in the Spanish Mission style popular in California. It's a historical look, done with typical 1980's lack of attention to detail. For example the light fixtures are hideous and not at all "spanish mission". But I think trying to stay consistent with the intended style would look best - and "real" Spanish Mission homes have usually natural very heavy wood doors with or without iron grates, often ornate. Even window bars are common as a decorative element not for security. So I'm not really trying to update or modernize the place! Obviously this would look too grandiose for our modest townhouse, but this is the style the builders were going for. This one is more similar in scale and feel Maybe all black would work I was afraid it would look too stark. Here is a mockup of all black - of course there would be features visible and shadows/reflections etc so this is not a great mockup. Here are some pictures I took just now from back near the gate- early evening sun was glaring in making the lighting difficult for pictures since I only know how to point and shoot, LOL! But it really illustrates how the door disappears as is. here is the same pic with the door black and green - it's hard to photoshop the correct green because it looks different in all lights. I just cloned the color from the trim. It's basically a forest green with blue undertones. You can see the other plants in the urns a bit better from this angle. Of course the plants are all brand new and will grow much bigger and fuller. I am looking for some wall mounted planters for the open spaces, too.

Taigen -- The one I posted is a .jpg and has a white background. I actually found the same one from your search link -- on the 13th page of the results! -- with a transparent background. Thanks! Now, if only it weren't so "grainy" looking... Jodi -- Thank you! I've saved them both, but I prefer the one without the drop shadow, for my purposes. But, when I insert it into what I'm working on, it always comes in on a black background. Can't figure that out, since in the folder (where I saved it), you don't see any background at all (so it could be a white background or it could be a transparent background). Weird.