I recently made a purchase at KRC in Lakeside. I know they have several colors of flagstone. Call ahead to check inventory and prices. It's a fun place to visit if you like rocks. Here is a link that might be useful: KRC Rock

There are a number of different sorts of dementia, so she may or may not have AD, or be in the early stages. How old is she? Just being unpleasant isnt the worst thing in the world, altho there is obviously a sliding scale of unpleasantness, ranging from just mildly annoying to horrid. My mother was depressed and negative about everything, and I realized that Dad, beforw he died, had always been the pleasant, social part of the equation, and he kept her from being too bad. AFter he died, she was miserable. And told me so every day. Sigh. OK, what to do with someone whom no one likes? You can check her into the AL home (will she recover from the broken bones enough to return to her home? What's THAT assessment?) and come out only for emergencies. As people get older, they tend to have more and more emergencies. At a certain stage, I figured that I had to be with Mother for every doctor visit she had, for every banking transaction, for more and more little things that she could no longer cope with. It would be a call to say that her TV was dead, and she needed to get a new one. She had merely hit the TV/VCR button (and there was no VCR) on the remote. I could not talk her thru it on the phone, and so I'd go over there and tell her that I needed to replace the battery in the remote, when all I really did was hit the TV button to make the remote work again. See what I mean? So you can leave her far away from family, by her own choice, but somewhere down the road, if she indeed does have dementia, AD or not, you'll find that family members will spend more and more time on a plane and in a hotel dealing with her problems. I understand all too well all the people in retirement homes or AL facilities or nursing homes who complain that their families are not visiting. Between you and me, many of these people have been unpleasant and actively driven off their families. Or their families just don't try to push thru just enough to make a compromise. As in, yeah, mother is a PITA but at least I can sleep at night because I see her for lunch once a week. Some people (and this is not a negative, IMHO) can sleep at night anyway, just knowing that Mother is housed, fed and safe. Families all deal with these things differently. Good luck. This isn't easy, nor are there any 'correct' answers.

Hi Chris, I very much like having a SWG...the saltwater is softer on the eyes/hair/bathing suits, etc. I got it as an upgrade to the original contract because everyone here seemed to like them quite well. Originally, the unit that was installed 2 years ago was a Watermaid. The Watermaid runs with a higher salt content than most other manufacturer's units (6,000-7,000 ppm compared to 3,200-3,500 ppm in most units). Prior to running into the problem with the salt water corroding the pool cover, I did not particularly like the Watermaid as it tended to develop air bubbles when i switched the solar heating on and off and the SWG would often stop working after the solar was running. The unit MV replaced the Watermaid with is an Intellichlor. So far, so good (although, truth be told, I actually preferred the feel of the water with the higher salt content). As to coverstar v. coverpools, I can't say that I can truly compare the two. MV pools uses Coverpools so CoverStar was not an option. Had I wanted to go with Coverstar, I probably would have had to have subcontracted that portion out. Because I wanted it to be an inground unit, it had to be designed and built together with the pool. The CoverStar cover I had on my last pool was a much simpler system -- it was an aftermarket, deckmounted unit. It was not connected with the sheer descents, so there were no sensors to break down, no SWG, etc. Therefore, I can't really compare the two units, as it's not an apples-to-apples kind of comparison. Customer service (Alternative Pool Systems for the CoverPool and PoolSafe for the Coverstar) for both companies is excellent, though...I'd probably say Eric from Alternative Pool Systems (the one Mission Valley Deals with) would get the nod, as he has been exceedingly responsive and was totally on top of things with the corrosion issues). As for the decking, I purchased the pavers from Ackerstone in Corona. I liked their selection much more than what I had seen at RCP and KRC. Except for Friday mornings when Ackerstone sells their overruns at a *tremendous* discount to the general public (I got pavers that normally sold for more than $5 sq. ft. for $ .80 a sq. ft (yes, 80 cents!)), they only sell to contractors. Since I was in the process of a home remodel at the time I was able to use my contractor to effect the purchase. Southwest Boulder in Fallbrook is a distributor for Ackerstone, and I also bought additional pavers from them when I purchased my flagstone (they have a great selection!) as the delivery costs were lower. The coping and most of my decking, seating and retaining walls were installed by MV's mason - Uriel Hurtado. Notwithstanding a couple of issues that arose with the retaining walls owing to an over-zealous building inspector, Uriel was a pleasure to work with. He had some very creative ideas, and was very fair with his pricing. After the remodel/addition was finished (which was nearly 4 months after the pool was done), I took on landscaping and needed to make some changes to the decking (we moved a couple of doors going out the the deck and added a door to the master bath and guest bath). These were done by my landscaper as the pool had been completed and we had since moved on project-wise.

arielitas_mom, Loved your pool with Pebblefina, had only considered plaster & 3M but will definitely look at that finish, and thanks so much for your response. One other thing, did Gardner do your complete pool build or only the tile/plastering? I am a bit concerned about the payment schedule in their contract: 50% day of prep, 30% day of tile, 20% day of plaster. Is this standard? I would really want to hold final payment until the pool is filled with water and systems working. This forum is terrific and full of inspirational designs and helpful information but it really underlines the need to find good people to do the work. I have been doing searches hoping to pick up recommendations for pool remodelers in SD but most seem to be new builds. However it has been terrific to see the progress of pool builds through everyones photos - particularly enjoyed following your PB progress Katherine (sdkath)  that is one amazing pool - hope you are enjoying it and thanks for all the detailed information in your threads. But Â.. IÂm still hopeful of a few more recommendations  if anyone in San Diego has had a good experience with their pool remodel recently IÂd really appreciate hearing about the company who did the work. Thanks in advance.