Thanks for your comments so far. Adding to the posts is something another friend has also recommended so seems to be the general consensus and we'll most likely go with that. We are in a tropical area Brandi and I'd love some colour perhaps on the deck walls though unsure what colour and whether we'd need to extend that same colour out to the extension wall also (the white wall in photo) or leave that in Dune? Would that look a bit strange? also if we don't look at adding battens to the ceiling how would it look painted in Surfmist? I'm not to keen on a white ceiling as it can be quite bright out there during the day already.

Also, if you take a look under the "Find Pros" tab on Houzz you can search for tradespeople in your area - tilers, landscapers etc.

Wow!! Looks amazing! Those tiles completely change the whole area!!

You need to engage a lot of different trades that need to be co-ordinated. I would be looking for a builder who can project manage the plumber, the concretor, the tiler and the landscaper in the correct order that you need them, once you have your design professionally drawn up and detailed. By entering into a building contract with a professional builder then if anything does go wrong you have one party who is responsible for getting it fixed, rather than dealing with a whole lot of trades who will just point fingers. A good builder doesn't necessarily build, but project managers good sub-contractors, which is how they earn their money. This is a photo of a similar pool renovation which was poorly done on the cheap with a lack of co-ordination, properly resolved design and lots of finger pointing by the trades involved. It needs to be redone from scratch. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls