Nice job awm!! Isn't it amazing how good it feels to drop a few pounds? Do I remember you from the kitchen forum too? I recognize you from somewhere. So sorry to hear about all the continuing knee problems. That has to be extremely frustrating especially when you're used to being so active. Hope you can recover soon! I don't know what triggers cravings for sweets for me - other than just the sight of them. Addiction I think. Yesterday someone brought these beautiful, gourmet cupcakes into the office for someone's birthday. For several hours I just admired the beauty of them but at the end of the day I could no longer control myself and snatched a lovely key lime one. I was practically drooling over it. I ate it, savored it, logged it and stayed within my daily limits and today dropped down a couple tenths of a pound to my lowest level since early 2010. I haven't actually maintained this weight for any period of time since 2009. One thing I'm finding kind of helpful is sometimes eating half the amount I normally would - small glass of juice vs. large, one piece of toast vs. two, etc. The thing I have to figure out is how to incorporate treats into my diet without going completely crazy and eating massive quantities of them.

Hi Dawn, I got my fiberglass pool last summer (installed right after Memorial Day). I also got quotes from Artistic but was turned off by them and some of their reviews. I ended up going with Swimmingpoolnow.com. The owner is John Buchler. The pool I got was from Leisure Pools. I was satisfied with the sales process, pricing and installation overall. My only criticism is that John seemed overwhelmed and could really use someone at an office to help manage the projects. For sales I didn't feel pressured into anything. John did a good job and brought samples of the various gel coatings we could pick from, rather than base our decision on swatches in a brochure. Pricing was good too. For installation we scheduled a time but it got pushed back because of weather one or two times. John did the excavation and they lifted the pool with the excavator (with straps of course) into place. They used a laser and lifted the pool in and out probably 5 times to ensure they got it perfect (was happy to see that!). On the plumbing I required rigid PVC rather than flex PVC as I read that termites can eat flex PVC. John brought the pipes but didn't bring enough fittings, so rather than hold up the job I said it was ok to use flex PVC in a few spots. With regard to equipment I opted for a variable speed pump, a pleated filter, a heat pump pool heater and a robotic vacuum. John brought all the wrong equipment (except the heater) on the day of installation. Once brought to his attention he made sure the truck brought the right stuff the next day. I didn't feel he was trying to scam me, but it was frustrating nonetheless. Again, he needs someone at an office to manage that sort of thing. After everything got sorted out we were up and running and I have no complaints. I would certainly recommend John/Swimmingpoolnow, but would also suggest that you check on these details and be there on the day of installation. Good luck!

This should be required reading for all pool owners. JasonLion at Trouble Free Pool dot com created it and everything you need to learn is there... BBB for Beginners BBB stands for Bleach, Baking Soda, and Borax, three common household chemicals which can replace expensive pool store chemicals. The BBB method of taking care of your pool focuses on using simple techniques that don't cost too much. Using the BBB method, you avoid putting anything in your water that you don't need and which may cause problems. This allows you to save money and spend your time swimming, instead of driving to the pool store to buy yet another expensive solution to a problem you didn't need to have in the first place. The BBB method of pool care was originally popularized by Ben Powell at his web site and on his forum, The PoolForum. The keys to a beautiful pool are consistency, testing, and chlorine. You need to be consistent. Spending just a couple of minutes every single day can save you hours and hours of work latter on. You need to test the water so you know what is going on and can figure out what to do to keep everything in balance. And you need to use chlorine. None of the alternatives to chlorine works reliably and consistently in outdoor pools. Almost every problem people have with chlorine comes from pools that are not properly maintained. If you keep a chlorine pool the right way, people will ask you what you are using instead of chlorine. Almost all of the problems people associate with chlorine are actually problems that come from bad pool maintenance. The best investment you can make in your pool is a top quality water test kit. Accurate water test results will save you time and money again and again. The TF Test Kits TF100, Taylor K-2006, and Leslie's Chlorine FAS-DPD Service Test Kit are the current stand-out choices on the market. All three include the FAS-DPD chlorine test, and are based on Taylor chemistry. Testing and Adjusting Every day you should measure your chlorine and PH, and adjust each as needed, based on your test results. Get into a routine of testing and adjusting the water at the same time every day. The best time to test and adjust is in the evening, but if another time works better for you, go ahead and do that. Once you get used to this simple routine, it will only take a couple of minutes a day. Once every week or two you should test and adjust total alkalinity (TA) and, if you don't have a vinyl pool, calcium hardness (CH). At the start of the season, and any time there has been significant water replacement, you should measure and adjust cyanuric acid (CYA). If you are using salt or borates in your pool, you should measure them at this time as well. To adjust a level, measure your current level and enter it into the Now column of The Pool Calculator. Enter your desired level into the Goal column. Assuming your pool volume has been entered correctly, The Pool Calculator will then should you how much chemical to add to adjust the level. In several cases, The Pool Calculator will offer more than one possible chemical. In those cases, follow the advice below under the individual water test factors for which chemical to use. When adjusting levels, it is usually best to work your way up towards your goal, instead of making the change all at once. First add perhaps 2/3rds of the amount indicated, allow that to mix into the water with the pump running for an hour for liquids, two to four hours for most powders, and a week for CYA. Then test the water again and continue adjusting from there. Chlorine is an exception to this rule: go ahead and add the full amount of chlorine all at once. Chlorine (FC and TC) Chlorine sanitizes your pool, killing bacteria, germs, and algae. Chlorine is used up in the process of keeping your pool safe, and is also consumed by sunlight. You need to add new chlorine regularly to maintain appropriate levels. Chlorine can be measured as free chlorine (FC) or total chlorine (TC). TC counts both FC and combined chlorine (CC). You always want CC to be zero, and usually it is, so normally the TC test can be used to measure FC. But when something goes wrong, CC can often be greater than zero, and then it becomes important to measure FC and CC separately. The FC level you are aiming for depends on your cyanuric acid (CYA) level. You can use The Pool Calculator to find the appropriate chlorine level to aim for, based on your current CYA level. Enter your CYA level in the Now column and then look at the blue Suggested FC Levels section towards the bottom for the normal range. Or, you can use Chem Geek's Chlorine/CYA Chart for the min and target numbers, or Ben's Best Guess chart. Each of those gives you a range of chlorine levels that may be appropriate for your pool. You never want the chlorine level to go below the lower number. Add chlorine to the pool with standard household bleach. Pour the bleach slowly into the water in front of a return jet. Look for unscented or "original scent" and note the percentage. Bleach is commonly sold at 6% strength but some discount brands are lower, occasionally much lower. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite, the exact same chemical that many commercial pools use to sanitize their pools. It is also fine to use a salt water chlorine generator (SWG) to add chlorine to the pool instead of using bleach. All of the other possible sources of chlorine have problems, they add things to the water that you don't usually want, simply cost too much to be practical, or are too dangerous to work with. Dichlor and trichlor add CYA. Cal-hypo adds CH. Chlorine gas is hazardous to work with. And lithium-hypo tends to be very expensive. There are cases where you want to add CYA or CH to the water and so use of dichlor, trichlor, or cal-hypo may be justified for a limited time, but this is rare. PH PH is a measure of how acidic or basic the water is. PH below 7.0 can damage the pool surface and many pool heaters as well as causing eye and skin irritation. PH above 8.0 can lead to metal stains, plaster scaling, as well as eye and skin irritation. PH should always be maintained between 7.2 and 7.8, ideally between 7.5 and 7.8. PH can be raised by adding borax. Pour the borax slowly into a skimmer or pre-mix it with water and pour that in front of a return. Borax is available at most grocery stores and places like WalMart and Target. Look for 20 Mule Team Borax, sold as a laundry booster, in a green box in the laundry aisle. PH can be lowered with muriatic acid. Pour the muriatic acid slowly into the water in front of a return jet. Muriatic acid is sold at places like Home Depot, Lowes, and local hardware stores. It is often out near the pool supplies but sometimes is in the paint section. It is also possible to use dry acid to lower the PH. Dry acid is easier to work with than muriatic acid but costs more and should not be used with a SWG. Dry acid is sold by pool stores as PH Down, Lo-n-Slo, and PH Reducer. Total Alkalinity (TA) TA is a buffer that helps you maintain your current PH. The higher your TA is, the more difficult it will be to change the PH. However, higher TA levels combined with aeration will tend to raise the PH. The ideal TA level depends on your source of chlorine, and in many cases doesn't need to be at all exact. The usual range is between 60 and 90, though slightly lower and noticeably higher numbers are acceptable in some situations. TA is raised with baking soda. Pour baking soda slowly into a skimmer. Look for Arm and Hammer baking soda, sold in grocery stores in the baking aisle. To lower TA, you bring the PH down to between 7.0 and 7.2 with acid and then aerate the pool to raise the PH back up. Aeration can come from from a waterfall, fountain, spa jets, kids splashing, SWG, rain, air compressor, or by pointing a return up to the surface so it breaks the surface. That cycle, acid and aeration, is then repeated as many times as is needed to lower TA to where you want it. Calcium Hardness (CH) CH is added to the water so that the water will not dissolve calcium out of your plaster or grout. CH can also help prevent foaming in spas. If you have plaster, pebble, stone, or tile in the water, CH should be kept around 200 to 400. Fiberglass pools and vinyl pools with a spa should keep CH around 220. Vinyl pools without a spa should keep CH anywhere under 300, which usually means you don't need to worry about it much at all. CH is increased with calcium chloride or calcium chloride dihydrate. Distribute either form across the surface of the deep end of the pool. Calcium chloride is sold as an ice melter. Calcium chloride dihydrate is sold at pool stores as calcium increaser, Hardness Plus, and various similar names. To lower CH, you need to replace water, or if replacement water is extrememly expensive use a reverse osmosis water treatment. Cyanuric Acid (CYA) CYA protects chlorine from the effects of sunlight. The more CYA you have the less chlorine you will lose to sunlight each day. CYA also reduces the effective strength of the chlorine. At higher CYA levels you need more chlorine to maintain the same active chlorine level. If you have a SWG or get extreme amounts of direct sunlight on the pool, adjust CYA to between 60 and 80. Otherwise adjust CYA to between 30 and 50. CYA can be increased by adding cyanuric acid, often sold as stabilizer or conditioner. CYA is just about the only chemical you need to go to a pool store to get. Check the label to be sure you are getting cyanuric acid since there are other products that use the words stabilizer and conditioner in their names. To lower CYA you must replace water, or if replacement water is extrememly expensive use a reverse osmosis water treatment. Salt Salt is required by a SWG and can also be used without a SWG to improve the feel of the water. Salt can be dumped directly into the pool as long as you brush it around into a thin layer and leave the pump running for several hours. Use solar salt, sold for water softeners, to raise the salt level. Water softener salt is sold by places like Home Depot and Lowes. Look for salt crystals in the blue bags. Avoid iron fighter, rust remover, or any similar additives. You can use potassium chloride but it costs more to begin with and you need to use 17% more to get the same salt level. Borates Borates can optionally be added to the pool to help control algae, reduce chlorine usage, buffer PH, and improve the look and feel of the water. The process of adding borates to your pool is beyond the scope of this article. Everything Else There are many other pool chemicals sold: clarifier, flock, phosphate removers, enzyme treatments, metal sequestrant, non-chlorine shock, and many others. Most of these do have some use in very specific situations, but none of them are required in most pools. You should not use any of these chemicals unless you know that you are in a situation where they are required. Conclusion The leading cause of pool problems is simply ignoring the pool. Your pool is like a pet: it requires constant attention. The number two cause of problems is adding chemicals you didn't need and don't want. Not only do these extra chemicals tend to cost a lot but they can also cause problems. Follow the BBB method, spend just a couple of minutes a day taking care of your pool, and you can have a truly trouble free pool.

Just like readyami, I am bucking the system here in Memphis. Although there are fiberglass installs here, they are thought to be cheap by alot of people for some reason. In reality, I believe the pool I am getting is more costly on the front end than a gunite pool the same size and shape would be, but I am looking down the road at maintenance costs & have decided this pool would be the best choice for me. I grew up with gunite, and although it was many years ago, I recall my parents constantly having to have it drained and resurfaced. I had a vinyl liner built in my last house and it served the purpose beautifully at the time, but I am looking forward to easier maintenance in the fiberglass pool I will be installing next week. I used to think they looked like nothing more than a large bathtub, but the things that you can do with them now will have them looking just as good as a gunite. I will be personally putting the waterline tile in my pool and am saving $1700 from the quote I was given to have the builder do it. Its a tough decision, but if you go with your instincts.... you will pick what's for you.