Welcome to pool ownership and to the forum! I took my first dip yesterday, too, but floated on a lounger so I didn't get too cold.

Can you post a photo of your equipment pad? Especially your filter and any handles on and around it.

The things in the floor are usually called drains or main drains, and returns are the small things in the wall of the pool. The drains (and skimmers) take water from the pool and send it through the pump and filter, then the returns "return" the filtered water back to the pool.

I will take some pictures tomorrow. Been working in the yard all day. I'm beat!!

A couple of things. First, you wouldn't necessarily be able to feel the suction in the main drains. The reason you have two is to minimize the amount of suction that you would have with one -- it's a safety feature to prevent people from getting "stuck" on the bottom. However, you probably should be able to feel some suction in your skimmer.

Second, if your returns are shooting water back into the pool, then your drains are working to some degree, since that's the source of the water.

Third, the pool company's comment about backwashing suggests that you don't have a sand or DE (diatomaceous earth) filter (both of which require backwashing). You may have a cartridge filter, which is cleaned by hand with a hose.

Finally, the red dirt comment is confusing. When you say you vacuum it up, does that mean that it does "go away" only to reappear after some amount of time? If so, that suggests a filtering problem. If you mean that it doesn't "go away" even while you are vacuuming, that suggests a vacuum/suction problem.

First here is a picture of our pool.....

Ok, the skimmer is the opening on the side of the pool with the basket correct? It is working, I can see stuff going in there.

Ok, about the two drains on the bottom, we have two on the side that look just like the drains on the bottom. Are these returns? I do not feel anything happening with them. There is water coming out of the jets.

We do have a filter that has to be cleaned by hand. We are suppose to clean it when it hits 30 its about to 20 right now. Maybe I should go a head and clean this and see if it helps. The equipment is Jandy. They have not turned our salt system on yet. They will be here tomorrow to do that. They put 14 bags of salt in it on Thursday.

When I vacuum the pool it looks clean but the next day has dirt in it again. I do live in a new neighborhood. Could this dirt just be new dirt coming in?

Here are a couple of pictures.

equipment

here is a picture of the dirt in the deep end around the drains.