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Any idea what it would cost to get rid of it? I'm guessing that's not cheap either, and may factor in to your decision. You said the previous owner had been negligent, but do you know when the last time was that it was running?

We have both a Pentair MasterTemp 400 and a Pentair UltraTemp 140 for our 30k gallon pool. We don't have natural gas, so the Mastertemp runs on propane, which was a big motivator to get both. In our area natural gas is much cheaper than propane, so I'm not sure we would have done both if gas...

Have you considered enclosing your whole patio space in the fence? That would tie your outdoor living into the pool area and maybe give more flexibility with usage of the space. For example, without the fence you could probably have a few western or southwestern facing loungers under the windows...

That is not as clear cut as "common knowledge" would indicate. See e.g., Prevention of spinal cord injuries that occur in swimming pools which found that 76.8% of spinal cord injuries had no diving device compared to 8.6% with a low diving board. Over 95% of injuries were in depth <= 8 ft, with...

It might be a reasonable first step to measure this depth. If you're off on your estimate and it's only, say, 8-8.5, then that will mean less of a difference across the depth profile to go to 6-7. Kids will jump / dive / do crazy stuff. In my opinion it's safer to have some good depth for them...

Alternate perspective: if you are NOT a die hard spa fan that includes use during the winter, it's an attractive feature and fun hang out spot. My kids (6 and 4) love playing in there even when it's not in spa mode. Not sure how costs break out for you, but for our gunite pool in 2020 it was...

Have you considered having a raised bond beam on that side of a shotcrete pool and using that as the retaining wall? If you're putting the pool as close as possible to the wall it might make everything look more planned out, and then it's one project.

Our yard has a similar amount of slope, maybe a little more. We built an in-ground pool that basically split the difference in elevation: built a short retaining wall on the high side and then graded dirt from the dig up to the low side. We put all pavers on the high side, with just stepping...

Insurance is a big one, many people recommend getting an umbrella policy. If you're adding a fence, there's additional effort trimming and/or weeding along the fence line. Extra sunscreen since the whole family will want to spend more time outside. Pool toys, etc.

What are the dimensions of your tanning ledge? Is it big enough for the way you plan to use it? What depth will it be at? The way it's drawn makes it look like more of a swim-out bench than what I would think of as a tanning ledge (that could fit chairs, etc.)

I'm pretty sure you have to have either a ladder or bench/swim-out in the deep end.

There are some celebrities who have guitar-shaped pools. If you did something like that where the neck is just wide/deep enough for a lap lane and the body of the guitar isn't too terribly big you could potentially achieve this with a reasonable volume of water. I shudder to think of the cost...

Maybe a dumb question - but have you considered changing insurance companies? Or another way of thinking about it, all things being equal would you rather have the shallower pool or diving?

Prices will vary a lot by location, but we put in our pool in 2020 (contract signed in 2019, so pre-COVID pricing) and without knowing details of your property this seems in line with the quotes we were getting here in PA. We have a little more square footage of both pool and pavers and some...

One thing that helped for us was cutting out scale tables/chairs and placing them on our drawing to make sure we had room for everything we wanted plus some walking space.

Have you considered something like the SlideAway? That's removable with no actual deck connection. Maybe a little shorter than other slide options, but probably good enough to entertain young kids. Disclaimer: we do not have a slide and I have no experience with them.

Welcome to TFP! Most folks here will recommend a robot rather than a pressure pool cleaner.

We have Cambridge bullnose coping on our freeform pool. They are 6" width. Ours are sandstone colored but they also have a bluestone color. Still lots of little cuts to get everything to line up on the curves. Took 2 people 2 full days to install.

We have a freeform pool with 6x6 tiles. Without going out to look, I'm pretty sure that the only place they were cut was for the curves in/out of the deep end swimout and the openings of the skimmers. It might depend on how tight the curves are in your pool. Most of ours are fairly gradual.

If you stick with the raised spa, I would consider 18" instead of 24" for easier getting in/out. 18" is about the seat height of most chairs. At 24" you're getting into the area where some people would need an extra step. Our sun shelf is 12" and we find it to be a good depth (so far - new pool...

We recently installed a Ubiquiti outdoor access point on one of our deck supports. Cost about $100 plus the cable and gives coverage to a surprisingly large portion of the yard. Something like that might be an option for you.

Greetings from a fellow Lincoln University (really New London Twp) resident! We completed (pending a couple punchlist items...) our gunite pool at the end of June. We have a saltwater pool and a diving board. Total length is approximately 47 feet. We were very concerned with having enough space...

Not a pool builder, so take this with a grain of salt. Also, I'm in PA and there may be different soil / geological concerns in Texas. Our backyard has a similar amount of slope. We ended up digging out the high side a little and then building up soil to coping level on the low side, but...

One other thought. Ours serves as the second step, but at 12" water depth (or less would work too) most people can take a big step in/out from anywhere around the tanning ledge. If you go much deeper that's not as feasible. Not a use case we had considered, but it seems to be happening more than...

Ours is about 12" (actual water depth, a few more to coping). We've only had water for about a month but so far it's a good depth. Great for our 3 year old and 1 year old. When you sit in a low chair on it you get plenty of water around your mid-section, which is what I want when I'm lounging in...

Curious to see what thoughts others have on this. We were in a similar position (pool was just built, lights aren't even fully wired yet). Our builder was really negative on LED lights because of upfront cost, longevity issues, and color quality. He also argued that most people use lights less...

Here's our 18" raised spa. Picture was taken from eye height when sitting in a lounge chair

What's your desired use case for the tanning ledge? Might just be angles, but the proportions in the picture make it look like you could have one lounge chair facing the spa or maybe two regular chairs facing the pool. Does that work for you?

We were between a diving board and a dive rock. Went with the board, but our contract included either a diving board or just the footer for a dive rock. On the other hand, we've got a paver patio and coping so it's a little different setup.

I'm a little unclear on what you're trying to accomplish with the drain. Is this for stormwater management? Or are you talking about for draining the pool?