I'm guessing if he told me it wasn't going to be done until October, I would've told him I'd wait until next year and he'd lose out on his sale. So, I'm hoping to be swimming by Labor Day and he said 6-8 weeks from permits coming back. They are supposed to submit the permits by EOW with a 5-10 turnaround from the city. So, middle of July I could be digging? And, not sure how long until Gunite, Coping, Tile, and Plaster from there.
Don't you concern yourself with bold comment above..... A little food for thought from someone who has been through this and also lives in Jersey where we have to close up our pools for the winter. Do with it what you'd like, but I think what I am about to write is sound advice....
Gunite/plaster pools take a long time to fully cure. Sometimes more than one season. The fresh plaster surface requires dedicated maintenance (brushing) and absolute pristine water balance those first few weeks/months... and an entire first season for that matter. The winter time will wreak havoc on your water balance while it is closed and stagnant. pH will rise, calcium will leach from the plaster, scale will form, etc. It is just not the ideal time for your plaster to properly cure during this delicate time.
If they plaster late in the season, and you close your pool shortly after, your very expensive investment is not going to get the proper love it deserves during this most important time of it's life. They are going to want to get in and out and get paid. My suggestion is to get the gunite shell done and completed. Put an orange safety fence around the pool for the winter. Let it rain, snow, freeze, collect leaves all winter long in the shell. It will cure awesome and gunite will be a rock solid base come next spring. Then have them tile, cope, plaster and fill before memorial day. Now you will have an entire season to maintain proper pH and water balance. You will be able to stay on top of things while the pool is running to avoid calcium leach, which leads to scaling. You can't do this in the winter.
I know this is a tough pill to swallow as I am sure you are excited to get it completed. But believe me when I say, if you plaster in August, you will be battling the inevitable pH rise still in September. So you stay open till October. Still adding acid every day. Now the bad weather starts to come. So you have no choice but to close it. You bring your pH down to 7.4 for the winter, your CH is reading a perfect 350, you shock, blow the lines out and toss the winter cover on. Come April you open to a God knows how high pH, scale so bad that it literally will cut your skin, and a pitted plaster that will never look the way it did when originally applied.
This is the unfortunate dilemma of owning a plaster pool in a climate where we have a winter. Where am I coming from you ask? Years ago in my old home I had a pool re-plastered and tiled in late August. I did exactly what I described above. Actually closed pool in early November to absolute perfect water balance. That spring the pool was what I described above. Shortly after I sold that home and moved.
Current pool was built in the fall up to the gunite stage and let sit for the winter. Yard was mess, had to build a temp area for my dogs to go outside. It was a real PITA that winter. Patio was installed in April and pool was tiled and plastered the week before Memorial Day. That was over 10 years ago. (Spring 2006). My plaster today looks almost as good as the day it was filled up. Most areas still as smooth as a baby's behind.