We seriously started considering having a pool about a year and a half ago. We met with somebody from Anthony & Sylvan's office. We had about five guys who submitted pool proposals and I really liked one. He did a good job and showed us exactly what we wanted and worked with stuff. He had the answers right away. He was able to come back and was persistent. So, when we didn't call back, he did. The scheduling team was phenomenal. One of them always went out of her way to make sure that she had communication with us when we needed to.

Unfortunately, we became very good friends because a lot of subs weren't showing up on time. We had a number of setbacks, lack of communication and some other things. At first, we started out with major rainstorms which were completely understandable. But in the end, everything got back on track and they absolutely made up for the sub-contractors not showing up by giving us an upgrade on the pool process. The pool took about five weeks longer than it should have. We started in June and the goal was to have it done by July and it wasn't done until August 19th, which was my birthday. But they came out and literally made sure that we could swim on my birthday party. Now that it's completed, I enjoy family time, parties, and having my kids have their friends at our house instead of them going to friends' houses.

My pool is all free-form, has an eight-person spa and a lot of custom touch. It's got a wet deck and two benches on either side of the pool. It has a fairly deep end and a shallow one for the grandkids. They really worked everything in what we wanted. I have five brothers so I needed everybody to fit. My favorite would be the hot tub being as big as it is. I also like the pool being just the right size - not too big and not too small. We can do some basic laps in it but we can't do a marathon.