I'm not an expert, but we have renovated a pool and made 1 big mistake. We had similar coping that formed a big hob all the way around (unlike yours). We leveled it out with paving (and then coated the pebblecrete with an epoxy sandstone-look product). The mistake? Part of the yard sloped down to the pool. Every time it rained.....all the sand, dirt and debris from down the side of my house and around the pool went straight into the pool. If we had our time over- we'd leave a small hob around the side of the pool where the land sloped down. Yours looks like it is on the downside of your house with some garden. The hob might be there for a reason.....as we learned.

https://www.galvinhw.com.au/grace2/product.php?pid=4469 I found Galvins in Perth and Adelaide had the best range of pull, very well designed and so easy to use. No jammed fingers. I had 52 something similar to this. I could open with little finger when hand were dirty. Mine were rounder so looked like a full stop on the edge of the cabinet rather than overwhelming the line of the cabinets.

Thanks Dreamer and Kate! I hadn’t considered lining it up to the grout line. Good tip. I’ll have to work out if we can do this with the height of the basin under the taps. Thanks for the photo! Great to get a visual idea!

The tiles don’t support the shelf so no need to notch in