OK. It sounds like you HAVE been thinking about this long and hard, and
when all of my writing was done, that is all I was really saying because an
inground pool is one of the few things that you buy that cannot be
"unbought". The only way to get rid of it is to sell the house.

You talked about your above ground pools, and I thought about mentioning
that and forgot it. For a couple of hundred dollars you get a clearer idea
if it was something that you wanted to pursue. If it turned out that you
decided against an inground you would have saved yourself thousands of
dollars. If you still wanted to pursue it then all you would have lost is a
little time, a little work, and a couple of hundred dollars. By the time
you get an inground, a couple of hundred dollars is a nit.

A friend of mine gave me a way to tell when you are ready to buy a boat. I
think the same thing holds true for buying an inground pool. Here is what
you do:
Every Monday morning, go into the bathroom and flush a $100 dollar bill down
the toilet. When you get to the point that doing this doesn't bother you
any more, then you are ready. :-)

It sounds like you will be very happy with your pool. The next thing you
may have to decide on is what shape and contour? If I had to do it over
again, I think I would have selected a rectangualr shaped pool. It would
have been something like 3' deep at both ends and 4' across the middle (
might massage the depths a little). This shape would make for a great game
pool where you can have lots of people playing pool games, and all of them
will have more or less equal footing. It would also be good for just
swimming laps and other exercises. There wouldn't be any diving, but a
great many serious accidents happen when diving into a small home sized
pool.

A rectangular pool would also allow you to take better advantage of
automated covers if you were so inclined. Just push a button and the pool
is covered. Sweet! Pool sweeps would not have to be going around any odd
contours and would probably be more efficient. In any case, automate as
much as you can. Or maybe automate as much as is practical.

The only other comment is to select your contractor well. Check references
and see if you can get to see some of their other pools that they have done.
If they have done a lot of pools, they would also be a great source of
information.

Enjoy,

Wayne

major snipping