The deck is complete! Now just a coating with olimpic 3 year sealer and color in about 6 weeks and it will be complete.
They did a great job on the deck and was off in a flash. Not bad for raining 2+hrs straight.

Those deck guys were fast, huh. Your pool and deck look great!

Yes, and thank you. It would have taken me a couple weekends plus for me to do it, and it saved my back for other chores to be done that I can do pretty quick. Forgot I do have to get some steel edging and river rock for around the pool. Always something.
Also need some imput on how to keep the kiddies off of the deck. It took my 7 year old all of 30 seconds to figure out how to use the standard fence latch. For now I guess I'll just use a lock.
Anybody have any tips?

I have a 9 year old. I understand. There's no lock she can't get into at this point.

I hate to say it but here's where I'd use tough love...
I catch you on the deck and you'll lose xyz privilege for x hours, days, weeks, whatever. End of discussion.

I've always been a boundary setting parent with the pool and street, etc. When she was younger we did the security stuff. In the 5-8 range it was lines, boundaries...we called them butt kick lines. You go past and you get your butt kicked. Now, at 9 we move the boundaries a bit. If I have to grab ice or something in the house, she has to sit on the top step of the pool. If she moves lower and she's caught, she's out. It works for us.

We're consistent and are never wishy washy with respect to the pool. She loves it and doesn't want to risk having to sit in the chair when we were having fun.

Good luck!

Pool-creetin,

Awesome job!!
Would love to see pics from the deck. I am looking at building a deck extension but not sure what to do where deck meets pool...I've seen people overlap the deck rail with the deck boards, go under the rail and just butt up to it. What did you do?
Don't want to make a huge headache for myself when I need to cover the thing for the winter.

Thanks! I'll get a pic up later today on how the deck is around the pool. I know headaches when it comes to covers and decks. the deck guy wanted to build it under the ledge rails, I said no because people stubbing the toes and to have room for the cover to fit under the ledge didnt sit right with me because of the top caps where the uprights meet the ledge would need to be notched around. Plus i didnt want people sitting on the ledges and bending them up.
I wanted more than the 3/4" gap above the ledge than my old deck was above to get the cover under it easier and be able to secure it better. I went with 1.5 inch gap above the ledge rails and only covered about 1/3rd of them leaving most of it exposed. The pool guy said if he had that much access to the ledge rails it would not justify an extra charge or the decking being removed for liner replacement. Now i can get a liner replaced for about 1/3rd the cost (Labor) it would be if i covered the whole rail. Now its a slightly bigger first step to get in and out of the pool, But the trade offs are worth it. I can get the cover in and out much easier and know i didnt shoot myself in the foot later down the road when the liner needed to be repaced. Also the decking is not cantalevered as bad this was as well. My last deck was cantalevered the whole width of the ledge and it warped something awfull. I am expecting 0 to very little warping on the decking now.

Here is a shot that shows the edge of the deck where it meets the pool. I am happy with it. It does make it harder to sit on the edge and soak your feet, But i never did that anyways.

Excuse the rough edges, I have not sanded it yet. Hopefully this weekend it will be sanded and stained/sealed with the olympic 3 year sealer. I was told to stay away from the 7 year.