Bud4598, sorry for the tardy reply, I don't hang out here as much as I used to. I actually had to refer to some photos to answer your question because I had forgotten that detail. Yes, you are correct. There were pipe stubs that came through the gunite for the airflow, but the actual air grid is laid in after the gunite but before the pebble application. Aqua Man, I greatly enjoyed your comic books growing up in the 1960's. I read lots of Superman and Justice League comics, too. My brother had a fantastic collection. I don't think I have any other specific pictures of just the camphor tree, but so far I like it a lot. I also love the white birches back there. They're a little messy in the fall, but only for a couple of weeks and they haven't been that big of a deal. Cheers. Jeff

We are installing a pool and having a very difficult selecting stone facing for our spa, so difficult that all progress as stalled until we can get through this decision! Our spa is raised and attached to our free form gunite pool. The problem we are having is that we want to have a natural stone look to the facing of the spa but we live in New England and have been told to absolutely avoid and stone with a high iron content to avoid rusting issues, not only is the weather an issue but there is a "spill out" on the spa into the pool and the stone will constantly have water on it, we were told field stone and granite are out, and almost all New England stone is out. We have received conflicting advice about the effectiveness of sealing the stone. We have also been told manufactured stone product (concrete facing) will over time be adversely affected by the chemicals and salt in the pool, and would not be of adequate thickness, with the way we built the spa to support a natural stone facing, ideally it would be a stone facing of 3" thickness. I can't believe how difficult this has been. In the magazines and books we see beautiful stone facing and stone water features in the northeast and we can't get a good answer from dealers and masons we are working with on what we should use on our spa/pool. Please if anyone can help, we would appreciate it greatly!

Apparently in our area we only need the door alarms. The pb said they attach them with double stick tape so you can take them off if you want after your inspection. A bit surprising to hear that. They also require your yard gate to be self-closing and reversed so it opens outward instead of in. Thanks for your input on the sheer descents; and number of pool returns. I read somewhere on this forum that the returns also help to clean debris off of places the pool sweep doesn't go, like benches and baja shelf.

We're thinking about putting in a pool, and are torn between a freeform with a fence and a rectangle with an automatic cover. We have two small kids, so safety is the highest priority. But we'd also like to have a spa and baja entry. Easier to design with freeform/fence than rectangle/cover. I've found some photos of rectangles with auto covers, internal spas and baja entries. I'd appreciate seeing any pics/designs that you have. Thanks.