cword,
I'll be glad to pass on any tips I pick up along the way. The pool is not complete yet, right now it's as you see in the pics up to this point. My concrete guys have been slowing me down a little this last week. I do have plenty more pics I can send to you if you're interested. Just send me a PM with an email address and I'll get some together in the next day or two. There's also a really good link from the homepage called howibuiltmyownpool.
http://www.howibuiltmyownpool.com/
I actually read up quite a bit fom that site and then just scoured the internet and this TFP community really filled in alot of the blanks. I'm still asking questions as this build progresses.
As far as finding subs, I seriously doubt any of the PB's will give you their little black book. I ended up finding one of the local landscaping sand/gravel yards that does excavating work for most of the PB's in town. I spoke with them directly and they had a line on the rebar/gunite crews...and those guys know the good tile/coping guys...and those guys know the good plaster guys...and so on...
Most of those subcontractor crews already know what and how to do their jobs. You just have to know your basic pool construction and be very specific with them about how you want things done...and run around with a tape measure and 6" level in your pocket...and maybe nudge them along a little. Otherwise they'll just do it however is easiest. My gunite guys actually caught me on a couple mistakes I was making and pointed me in the right direction.
Sometimes communication can be a problem as most of the subs are hispanics, but there is usually at least one on the jobsite that speaks fair english. Just make sure you are getting your point across, even if it gets down to drawing pictures.
If I didn't have to head back offshore again for the month of April, I'm sure I'd be completed by May 1st, but as I'm working around my work schedule and insisting I am present during all phases of construction, I'm hoping for June right now.
Let me know if I can help you out!
Jim