Definitely Glass! Fully frameless is the way to go. Visually it disappears allowing you to view your pool area uninterrupted, no posts or prison bar effect. If you can't afford to do the whole lot at least do the the part you directly look at from the house and do the aluminum pool fence on the sides. You don't have to clean a glass fence anymore than you do your windows outside. I have 25 mts of it... Hardly ever touch it. Best is just a soft broom and a hose! It also has the added benefit of being a wind break when you are in the pool. Just make sure it's ASA approved and installed by a reputable company to comply with code.

I feel like you'd all appreciate an opinion of someone on the other side of this conversation. As a 23 year old renter who owns a 5 year old Border Collie and a 7 month old German Shepherd, I have struggled and will always struggle to find rentals that'll even consider me. My current landlord gave me a chance, my partner and I have been here since September and have already poured $700 into improving the backyard just because we can and will be spending another $800 minimum just on the yard by the time our lease is up. We're about to suggest going "halves" in a discounted professional repaint by some friends in the industry. (The owner and landlord both have detailed descriptions and drawings of all our plans, and are beyond eager to see it done) We're saving up for a full scale professional clean when we leave, including a bug bomb, tile/grout clean and the roof, gutters and pavers which are stained with bore water and who knows what. The most damage I've seen in houses I've worked on is firstly by children, and then by cats. My ex-partner and his teenage brothers spent three weeks weaving a good square metre of carpet fibres back into place before an inspection, as well as damage caused by the teenagers burning things in their rooms, and the smell of cat urine and faeces was always all over the house. There's also the intense cat damage to the blinds, walls, curtains, windows, wooden fixtures and the urine INSIDE kitchen cabinets. My big dogs wouldn't even be able to attempt half of that damage, yet a cat owner will be selected over a dog owner 9 times out of 10. I ask you, don't blame the pet (especially dogs) for bad owners. Put it in the contract that there MUST be a full professional clean paid for by the tenants when they leave. Make it the norm, and you'll weed out the irresponsible owners. You'll then have the pet bond, a professional clean and can even include required damage payments. The threat of money loss will usually deter irresponsible people.

Yes - there are these amazing options to have an 'electric pool cover' with a slat arrangement that allows you to virtually walk on it. Do a google search...'pool covers electric'... I've no idea on how much they cost... Here's some pics. Not sure if irregular shapes make this too challenging... Our pool experience... We are needing to change a few things with our pool already - wish we had paid more attention to the pipes and filtration... (Having to potentially move them as they are too shallow and in 'awkward spot'... Extra $ and I'm so worried it may cause issues for us... Even the location of the concrete slab for the pump... Wish we had thought about overall picture... If I was buying a car for $70k, I would have done more research, but somehow we got carried away with idea that we could have a pool for summer, and yet reality is that it's ready for the 'next summer'... Budget plan (original) was around $30-40k, but I guess it's like building a house... Plus it's all a big learning experience...

When our building company architect had drawn up the plans and we'd gone on to the next stage of "add-ons", we requested a niche in the tiled shower area for shampoos etc, but were told it can't be done due to water-tight issues. Then, during the walk-through before signing off, we mentioned this to the building supervisor, and he was surprised about our request of a shelf being declined, and said that we should've asked them before they tiled. But, since we'd already made quite a few changes to the standard plan, we didn't want to cause any aggro. Now we have one of those metal extendable corner shelves. So, it pays to get a second opinion.