I did reach out to CK to help me and offered him a fair compensation to help code up something using his base code but he politely declined. This of course after KitKatz went rogue on me which wasn't as kind...
It's actually a good thing since at this point I'm deep into fully unique pool code which some assumed i wouldn't be able to do or figure out.
There's nothing better than proving someone wrong when they make assumptions about your skill level or determination.

It's great to hear that you got the pool code sorted out, if everything goes according to plan, you might start doing what CK refused to do, offer a service to those who want to run mining pools.
On a side but related note, the pool I talked about started not too long ago, so not sure why CK would do that pool but not yours, maybe he didn't like your offer?