Carl, your pool is georgeous!

We also liked the idea of sitting in the pool area so we attached one (long) side of the pool to the existing deck. Hubby did a pretty good job at deciding where to dig for the pool. (We'd bought it second hand and installed it ourselves). ALOT if work, but worth the $$ it saved us.

I like the idea of the solar heating through the pool decking. Ours is made of tongue and groove aluminum panels that get hot, hot, hot when you're walking on them with dry bare feet. (I don't notice the heat when I'm wet). Would be nice to channel that heat into the pool!