well, i read somewhere last year that why would someone sink 30,000 dollars (or more) into a pool and not use it? because of a decaying heater, too much maintenance, heater bill too high with no cover, we had used a bare minimum prior to last year..even though we didn't put the pool in, i took that statement to heart and decided let's make the best of it. 6000 dollars or so later and a bunch of work, it's done and i'm quite proud of it..(i love my big pool shed) almost 3,000 of that was the electrical and natural gas which i couldn't do much of myself. the rest was the autopilot, solar cover and reel, new pump, zeobrite, net cover and bags, timer, new ng jandy 2 heater. i decided to eat the pain all in one year and be done with it. it's paying off in spades this year. i've already said a number of times to my wife that i love having a heater that automatically turns on, no pilot to worry about..they should make them no other way..and the poolpilot of course is simply fabulous. the pool is basic in style, but remember, i'm in alberta canada where in my city, there are maybe 250 private pools, 81,000 residents and 8 months minimum of non swimming weather so it's quite a luxury. our deck is really nice and big and comes right up the back of our house and a covered deck. what you can't see in the background due to lighting is the privacy fence with a huge gorgeous park behind it and tons of beautiful trees as a background. we lock our back gate at night cause you never know if someone might want to take a late night dip, but only once in 5 years do we think that "may" have happened and they didn't cause any damage (my wife remembers a guy and girl's voice giggling and laughing and thought she heard splashing..i slept through it..she was too tired to worry about it..and oh yeah, we've had a family of ducks in our pool for 3 seasons..only in spring and fall after the chlorine level goes way down. funny to see them jump in for a swim then a mamma, papa and 5 babies sitting on the deck in the sun "tanning away"