Charlene, I'm too cheap to go buy spice jars. I just peel the label off the empty store bought ones, and make my own label. I just pulled 8 half-pints of Cranberry Jalapeno Jelly out of the canner. I'm working on roasting, peeling and freezing the rest of the peppers. Sure wish I would have remembered to put the rubber gloves on this time ... and not touch my face! Does your recipe call for leaving pieces of pepper in the jelly, or straining them out? I'd be interested in the recipe. I kind of want to try the Habanero Gold recipe in the Ball canning book, but I'm a little scared of how hot it might turn out. Jalapeno peach sounds a little less intimidating : ) Finally starting to see the kitchen countertop again. Progress has been made! Bonnie

I have a Spraycrete Deck, but I think it's just a different name for the same thing. I was given one of the sheets with around 10 colors to pick from. I wanted a different color, and they told me that they don't often tell customers this, but they get the paint from Porter Paints and that I could choose any Porter Paint color and they could use it. Might be worth checking into. BTW, my deck is always cool, even in the Florida summers. Kristen

We're in Vegas and have done a lot of "try outs" at our own home, I made DH put in a separate slab on an unused side of the house for some tests. I wanted to finally put stone around our 16 year old pool, one passed the heat test and just this year it was d/c here, not selling due to bad economy. So after a few cocktails I agree to let him put the new Xcel deck IR (infra red?) over our old Mortex. He also had some Xcel deck coat, same color, that was not the new "IR". After yesterday in 105 full sun, I can say the IR is cooler than regular Xcel deck, and both were cooler than the old Mortex Kool Deck. I am happy with the color, tea and cream, a medium tan. Their website just says the color will determine how hot it gets and I didn't want a dark color. We have been using Xcel deck for about 4 years and haven't had any problems with cracking/peeling, either new pool decks or re-done decks. We now give homeowners the option with the IR upgrade, it is more expensive but looks exactly the same as the standard deck coat they sell. It is acrylic. We do at least 3 steps,bond coat, scratch coat and top coats. Hope this helps, Barb

I had a cool deck placed over concrete on my previous pool build in central Texas. It definitely was cooler than the concrete and was not slippery but I was not crazy about the aesthetics. The patio was ceramic tile, a very bad choice--it was horribly slippery. My current house in North Texas came with a stamped concrete patio, this was hot and I thought was ugly and looked like stamped concrete. I cannot remember if it was slippery or not. When I had the pool built this time I went with Travertine tile--love, love the look, it is cool in the summer heat and feels so good on bare feet. It is a bit more slippery when wet compared to the cool deck. I had the patio covered with the Travertine as well. My daughter had cool deck placed over their concrete pool surround and loves it. I do not have any experience with Belgrade pavers. I think your decision should be guided by your budget first then aesthetics vs practicality. Only you know which one trumps the other two. Previous pool with cool deck and ceramic tile patio Travertine over the old stamped concrete Current pool with travertine on pool deck and patio