I promise I'll post a "complete" picture soon. The sod is all in and the new plants are even blooming/growing a little. We haven't had a real cold snap yet.

We had lots of family in for Thanksgiving and heated the pool and spa for the day. It was great! The kids had a blast and most importantly, my wife was happy because she was able to cook in peace without a herd of kids running through the house all day.

I cleaned the filter for the first time yesterday. It took me about an hour total to take it apart, clean all for cartridges and put it back together - should go a little faster next time. The pressure increase wasn't that high but the pool school guy said to do it about a week after the salt went in (I waited about two). I wanted to wait until after the holiday just in case I ran into any problems.

We have lots of construction going on around us still so there was LOTS of brown dirt (mud) washed out. The pressure didn't really drop much though when I put them back in so I'm sure they will last for quite a while before needing cleaning again. The directions said to just use the normal garden hose pressure, which I did and it got out a fair amount of dirt. The color was still pretty brown though, so I put on my pressure tip and hit them again. Wow! There was A LOT more dirt in there. You really do need to use some pressure to get the dirt out.

Final picture coming soon! BTW, I noticed how many views this thread has had. Thanks to everyone for your input and comments. I think I was much more content with the build because of what I had learned AND seen on this site and knew what to expect. I'm glad to be able to share our experience as well.

Sean