This is the house I've lived in since I was a kid so the pool was originally put in in 1989. It was an Anthony pool and from 1989 to now, this was the only time we had to put any type of money into the pool for a substantial renovation, new coping or filtration, anything other than normal wear and tear. So doing the math on how old this pool is, we won't have to do anything else for the rest of our lives on it. The key to that is keeping up on the chemistry of the pool water. We have a chlorine pool. It's also a testament to the quality of an Anthony pool to have to do one major renovation in 30 years. If you get a liner pool, you're putting a new liner in every 10 years if you're lucky.

The pool was great for 20-something years but it needed some rehab work and some updating. Since Anthony & Sylvan was the one that installed it, why would I go with anyone else other than the people that installed the pool? I stuck with the best. We did a full renovation with new plaster, new tile and new coping in the spring of 2018.

They remodeled the whole surface of the pool, which was plaster or gunite. Along the top of the pool, the top waterline is tile and they redid all the tile work. They also redid the ledge, the coping, and put in a new Deck-O seal, which is the gap in between the concrete patio and the actual ledge of the pool. There is a couple of quarters of an inch gap that you fill in with a material that prevents water from seeping in and then freezing. The surface is white plaster and it's beautiful to the eye. The tiles are a really nice blue with a beige accent and the ledge is Travertine. So it is a brand-new pool with those renovations and it's very aesthetically pleasing. It's also very comfortable when you're in the pool on your feet.

From the sales team on my initial consultation to the renovation experts who came out and to the project manager, everyone was efficient and professional. They went above and beyond to ensure that I was satisfied, comfortable and knowledgeable about how the pool works and how to keep it the way it needs to be. Other than the initial salesman, there was the scheduling team for different aspects of the renovation or coming for measurements and they were all very professional as well. They were very good from the beginning.

Once Anthony & Sylvan started work, they had the different crews show up to do the demolition and to do the work. They were very professional and quick to do what they had to do. On one of the days, I wasn't even there. They just did what they had to do and when I came home, it was done. Joe, the project manager, was also always on the phone with me and always available if I had a question. He demonstrated to me what I needed to do for two weeks straight before the pool was ready to be swam in.

The job routine was smooth and they finished the pool right before Memorial Day. We were basically all set to have the pool swim-ready for Memorial Day. But that weekend, we had an incredible amount of rain, which caused a run-off situation from a neighboring property and flooded out our pool with mud and sediments. It turned my pool into a swamp so I called Joe. He lives not too far and he came over to my house on a Sunday, on Memorial Day weekend, to help me remedy the situation before it got worse. He coached me on what I needed to do, what chemicals I needed to buy and how to use them. He helped me fix the situation by lowering the water level and then he helped me clean it up with a flocking agent. He didn't have to do that on a Sunday. He just went above and beyond. He came over a couple of times to help out and that says a lot of Joe and the company. A week later, we were swimming in the pool.

It happened again towards the end of the summer with another storm. It was ridiculous. But I had that situation remedied with the property line and everything is great. With this type of pool, there's a lot of beginning maintenance that you have to do and you have to do it correctly. Owning a pool is not just turn on the filter and turn it off. You have to know what you're doing. You have to understand the chemicals, what things are doing and why they're doing it. There's definitely a level of customer education that is very important and these guys did that. Having gone through the summer that I did with those two events, I feel a lot more confident now in handling the pool by myself, which is important. And that was due not just to Joe but the guys in the store in Monmouth in New Jersey. They were very helpful as well.

When you have a brand-new 30,000 gallon white plaster pool that is filled with sediment and dirt from a torrential rain event, you would think that would cost thousands of dollars to clean up. But the folks in the store helped me troubleshoot what would be the best way to tackle the problem. With their help, it cost 20 bucks for one bottle of solution and then me just doing what I had to do to clean it up through the filter. So other than a week's worth of paying attention to the pool and $20, a nightmare was averted and that was due to their assistance. So far, the plaster looks good. Everything looks good. We love the pool. It is a great product and Anthony's guys were great. I couldn't be happier. We enjoy the $@!#% out of the pool. We've used it pool pretty much everyday. It's awesome. We have a lot of people over.