Wodka and OleMissRebel, Wish I'd seen this thread earlier. I'm in Gulfport and we are about 2 weeks from moving into our new home, rebuilt on our original lot. This time we built all concrete - floors, walls, ceilings - went higher and added an elevator. Our pool is 12 feet off of the ground! We put in a spool. Its a fiberglass pool by Viking called a Hydrozone. Its about 8.5x18 and has a motor so that you can swim and exercise against the current. We couldn't even find a pool company who seemed to "get" what we wanted and we ended up with a nice guy from Navarre Beach, FL. I have to tell you though, that the price you've been quoted is very much in line with what we paid for the pool. Unfortunately by the time we built the pool off of the ground we've spent more like $75,000 all together. Nevertheless, we won't worry about flooding and we have almost complete privacy. If you would like some more info, or to see photos, send me your email. You can even come over and see the pool if you like. I'm still waiting on the water feature, but you can get a good idea. The reason that we went with the Hydrozone was because we wanted a pool that was 5' deep. It just didn't make sense to us to put in a 3 ft pool.

I built a huge koi pond at the house across the street. Rumour has it that house came in around $40mil. That guy is going to look like the poor cousin now, I guess. These guys tend to be #3's, referring to my earlier post. The money can be good but as Racket suggested, they expect a disproportionate amount of your time (meaning my time as the company face) when you have 15 or 20 other jobs going on. The value of our dollar may be nearly the same, but even with the strength of our dollar material and equipment prices haven't fallen much so I guess a pool here costs even more that a couple of years ago.

In addition to pricing out the specified cabinet construction, you NEED to go see the types of cabinets that you are considering. I looked at some "custom cabinetry" that came in less than 1/2 of the what I ended up buying but the construction, the finish and the quality of the work was not what I was willing to accept. They used baltic plywood, blah blah blah but the fact was they just did not look good nor have the high quality of workmanship that I wanted. I knew immediately that I would be sacrificing the quality of workmanship at the reduced price. Custom does not mean good quality! It simply means that they make it to order. There is a feel to how the cabinets look and handle when you open the doors and drawers..... It could be the little things like the type of hardware they use for their shelves, what type of finish they do on the interiors of the boxes, how tight the tolerances are, how nicely the drawers line up etc. 1/4 inch tolerance (gaps) versus 1/8 inch tolerance is a big difference in how the cabinets look. They can tell you that they do dovetailed hardwood drawers but I have seen plenty of badly done dovetailed drawers. Again, you need to see the quality of the work. It is better to see a home that has been used for a few weeks to months, rather than in the final stages of construction. It is better for you to see how it "wears". If the cabinets are not wearing well that quickly after construction, then you don't go with the company (a reason for one company I rejected) A reasonable cabinet maker should be able to find you to a happy customer that would be wiling to open their door as a reference. Good luck!

Sigh... after doing some research on dying/staining white oak, I'm realizing that there are pros and cons to both. It's all very confusing. I'll inquire with my cab maker and see if they are experienced with different techniques for finishing the oak to get the look I want. I can't find any images of rift white oak that has flecks in it, but here's a photo of QS oak that shows what I'm looking for in the finish: It's a midtone, the flecks show through very nicely, the wood's shimmer shines through the stain, and the grain doesn't stand out as sharply as it does in my sample. Here are photos of my sample again, so you don't have to scroll all the way back up: If my cabinet maker can't achieve the look I want, what do you all think of the of the sample door? It will be going on all the doors and drawers of a 16' wall in my galley kitchen. Will it look good applied over a whole wall of cabinets? Or will that heavy grain be too much?