Hi nosabe and thank you!!...I'm around here and there...busy busy. I bought the Oceanside glass tile (Coppertone color) and the travertine moldings separately myself from Materials Marketing here in Houston. Pricey but for me, it was worth it. I never get tired of looking at the materials we used. CastleRock Pools was very gracious about using these more difficult to install materials I absolutely wanted and required, and took good care of us. I'd use them again in a heartbeat. Our pool was much more of a pain to build, and they did an outstanding job.

The 3x6 quarry tile and double gazed ceramic waterline tile was from Master Tile, and the Durango 12x24 travertine coping came from Stone Ventures, Inc. in Houston. The stamped concrete deck was from InCrete Houston.

Given the very small size of our back yard, I wouldn't do anything different. I have a big 8x8 octagonal spa with 16 jets that we use all the time. The pool is small and shallow, but still fun (our friends have kids who come play). We still have things to finish, like the brick on the wood column, the fire bowls on top of the columns, and a small 3 1/2 inch brick "retaining" wall around deck edge where the 2 queen palms are to keep landscaping material in when it rains. Those are our own DIY projects.

Here's the pool build on TFP (2 links). Ist is linked below, the 2nd one you can copy and paste URL, or catch it at the end of the first pool build link. HTH everyone.

http://www.troublefreepool.com/pisces-pool-build-t9973.html

http://www.troublefreepool.com/pisces-pool-build-finished-pics-t10668.html

A pic of the materials. We used the 3x6 whiter looking quarry tile instead of the 4x4 you see here. It was a more interesting shape and looked good on the raised bond beam and spa. The Oceanside Glass Tile really flashes beautiful and different colors in the sun. I used an enhancer and a sealer on the travertine moldings, and then sealed all the stone with Dry Treat sealer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pisces pool build

piscespool, your pool look great. I call it a spool (social pool) I think we got you beat with total capacity. Our pool is about 10' x 20' and about 4' 10" deep with a sheer decent, sprayers for water statutes and in ground fountain and holds 5,775 gals. Look at out blog here titled Our New Pool Build in Jacksonville, FL.

Oh, I did look at it brentr! Awesome!! Yep, ours is a social pool, too. We're about 7000 gals depending on how much it's rained. ;-) We got really lucky with our pool build. Right place at the right time a year ago. (right after Hurricane Ike, ironically - it was a total mess in our area).

piscespool I showed the wife your pool and she too was excited to see it. She is interested in the fire bowls and thinks we could have one on top of our sheer decent. Also what light do you have in your pool???. We just have the standard pentair 300w light and because it faces the house it puts out a glare. We are considering up grading to an Intellibrite. If possible can you send up pics facing towards your light so that we can see how much glare it puts out. Our email is vat-19@juno.com

Thanks in advance

I'll have to take a night picture of that and send you. We have a standard 300 watt but it doesn't face the house, it's parallel to it, so we don't get glare from it much. We also have a light in the spa facing away from the house. The Intellibrites can be softer mood lighting. We didn't get it because we spent so much in other areas.

Nosabe, thanks for the compliments on the pool. We still are just loving it! My waterline tile and coping are both from Mastertile. The glass/stone tile I used on the spa was ordered online from glasstilestore.com (I think). I ordered a sample and got the okay from my builder on using it before I ordered the rest. He said that some glass tile from online stores is crap and not worth using (too thin is the reason why I think).
We are really enjoying the pool and I don't think we would change anything. Everybody that comes over remarks about how much they love the texture and water color (Blue Granite Pebblesheen). The kids (teens) love the deep end and like being able to jump, dive, flip, etc! Have had MANY friends with sport pools comment that they wish they would have done a deep end. The spa is wonderful and it gets used daily. The jets in the bottom are the best!!
Oh, can't forget one of our faves....our Colorlogic lights! LOVE THEM! We have two in the pool and one in the spa...they are great!
Hope this info helps. We are working on landscaping now that our South Texas weather is cooler and hope to have it all filled in and pretty for next swim season.

Appeciate all the info. I'd be delighted to have our pool turn out so well.

Lala (posted on your build thread, too.)--
Do you know the name of your mosaic tile?