Just bought an intex 16x32 ultra frame. Wife and I had done a general water level and thought we had a 9 inch dig. Budgeted accordingly. Only planned a 2x8 going along 3 sides part way with a little gravel backfill. Seemed reasonable since 9" down to nothing ain't much. She brought home a transit from her office night before dig. Set up before dig and looked like 15 inches instead of 9. Bobcat guy kept piling dirt on top/house side of pool saying it would help keep water from running into pool area--sounds reasonable but there's supposed to be a 10x20 wood deck there just above ground level. Checked by transit throughout the 4 hour dig (which took 10 hours). He didn't get it wide enough at first so he took off one entire side, breaking the above ground to ****--didn't cut his way through but lifted up till it broke, fracturing the remaining yard part. Had planned on putting a 4 foot deck at pool height around pool with lower/larger deck just above ground height. Now the 4 foot surround deck has no good footing and will need to be much larger, or figure out option. Can't afford to double deck size. I went ahead and drilled post holes for retaining wall inside hole, cleaned up all excess dirt (took 3 days after work and all day Sunday after Saturday dig). Just put the transit back up to check in/around/above and beside pool for other stuff. Found the pool is 6 inches unlevel--too deep in dug out end? Don't know how--just checked transit and found within tolerance (Bosch manual, not laser autolevel). Now I'm totally lost. I'll have to buy more crushed concrete and spread 6 inches to zero in a 20x36 foot area, I guess by hand this time. He spread the crushed concrete I had already, but didn't level it, so I was already screwed up. The post holes I dug now just confuse me--not sure how to fill with 6 inches to nothing and compact area with holes in place. Not sure how to put poles in first and be able to run compactor. Not sure posts and 2x8's are good enough now that the hole is so much deeper than original--It's 24 inches on the sides at the deepest part up to about 36 at the top end--guess I'll have to hand carve all the top off. What have we gotten into. Thought hiring a bobcat/driver/ and dumptruck was the smart method, but it's caused big problems. The budget only goes so far. Any good ideas on how to do retaining and best method of back fill/to what depth--walls are somewhat angled? I have included some pics of current situation--much cleaned up since the dig 6 days ago. I also included a pic of an Israel pool site--has tons of pictures of above ground pool surrounds. Please feel free to critique and suggest how to move forward. Thanks to all.