Have you talked to your local council about getting permits for a pool in the front, and the new door?

At my last home I had a similar arrangement to what you're describing and it was fantastic. The pool was a great way to make good use of the front yard. There was a gazebo over the timber decking and shade sails over the pool. The only problem to deal with was that Council didn't allow the big sliding door to open directly into the pool area so a fence had to be put in. This pic was taken before reno's were done to the house.

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I think you would be taking a huge chance in not hiring a Landscape Architect. They will be equipped to talk you through uses of space, local regulations, budgetary considerations, materials and much more. I would allocate perhaps $3-5000 for designs and $120K for the project (based on what you have described as the brief).

@EmileECLC... I think you're right. My ex-husband did all the work making the deck and gazebo. He used to be a design draftsman with an engineering cert. and had the skills to do it all. The small pool cost around $20K to have installed.

@Emma I,

What you're suggesting is a pretty bold move and irrespective of whether you are permitted to do it in the end by your respective shire and other authorities, I can't stree enough that for all the money you are thinking of spending on this project and the lengths to which you are intending to go with removing windows, dig a huge hole for the pool etc... that you use some of your finances to employ an architect as suggested by EmileECLC to make sure that this massive transformation becomes everything you dream it will be!!

You must be absolutely sure of regulations surrounding pools like mentioned by mazgardiner about not being able to directly enter a pool from the house for example.

Hubby and I are building our own home and we decided to have an indoor pool.

We were originally having a sliding door leading outside of the pool, only to find that we were not permitted to have this access from the pool outside and I expect it was the sliding door, as with mazgardiner that was the issue, as it would be far more difficult to make it a self closing and lockable door. Fortunately we had already decided to change the slider to an awning window instead and just as well.
The access into the pool from inside the home is a hinged door with a self closing mechanism and has the handle positioned at 1.5m from the floor.

Furthermore, we were told by the window manufacturers, that any glass near a pool area had to be safety glass by law, so your stacker doors or any other windows that form part of the new pool area, will need to be upgraded and be much more expensive just so you know, about double the cost of a standard window. Another safety feature with our awning windows was that the wind out chain could only open to a maximum of 100mm, again law, just like the bars in a safety fence. Our building inspector tried to tell us they would not be allowed and that we would have to have external bars fitted and have the windows permanently screwed shut but further contact with our state building commission deemed the 100mm gap to be safe and adequate. Don't just accept something that seems wrong, if need be, take it higher as we did and succeeded, so again another reason to have a professional helping you through the maze of regulations.