Maybe I will have a look at it this weekend. It's sounding worse by the day! The plumbing I am not worried about.
Pentair will give you a full three year warranty provided your pump is "professionally installed". So if you mail in the warranty card along with a receipt for install from an electrician, plumber or pool company you can get the full warranty. If you know someone who owes you a favor you might ask them to give you a hand (and a receipt) for a few cold ones and a few bucks.
I know this because at the time I bought my pump online, Pentair was offering an additional $150 rebate. To qualify for both the rebate and full warranty the pump had to be "professionally installed". I called and asked for a definition. I ended up having a local pool service company do the install for just about the $150 rebate. So that was a wash, but I did get the full three year warranty and it was still much cheaper to buy online and pay them to install than buy it locally. If you have any doubt about the warranty issue you can call Pentair before you purchase the pump. I have found them to be very helpful anytime I've had contact. You should also see if your power company will give you a rebate on a VS pump.
I would also suggest that you purchase and install the specialized couplings on each side of the pump. They run $25-35 and are designed to seal against the body of the pump with an O-ring. They make the install much easier and insure that the pump to plumbing seal is leakproof. Lastly you should purchase and install a whole house type surge protector to protect the delicate electronic controller in the pump.
Here is a source for the pump $850, couplings $27.50 and a surge protector $62.50, all with free shipping.
Pentair IntelliFlo VS+SVRS Variable Speed Swimming Pool Pump - Swimming Pool Supplies, Parts, and more - Backyard Pool Superstore
The surge protector I have at my pool sub panel only cost $25 and was a easy install. You can find that one on Amazon here.
Amazon.com: Square D by Schneider Electric SDSA1175 Panel Mounted Single Phase Type 1 Surge Protective Device: Home Improvement
Normally, first choice is wiring to an open (unused) breaker in the sub panel, alternately you can wire to the one that feeds the pump. Or what I did, shut down the feed to the sub panel, back at the main panel, then connect it to the feed coming into the sub panel from the main panel. That puts it before everything in the pool sub panel.
BUT, before you make that 220/240 volt sound easy one thing to always remember is that if you don't have a breaker or switch that's dual pole you can turn off the equipment but still have a "hot" leg that can bite you.
If you use a single pole switch you break the circuit but it's hot from both directions all the time even though the switch and equipment is off.
I could also tell you about the PO of my house who chose to use a green for hot in a 120 leg and turned my side cutters into a wire stripper with the arched out V in the jaw, but I digress. You can never be too careful.