Let me start this post by saying that, even as I write (or type, I suppose I should say), Danny is in the pool hole acting as John's assistant, as they square off, plumb and fix all the side panels of the pool! And here's proof...
Anyway, moving on, as the title of this post suggests, the new steps for the pool finally arrived last Thursday. With them due to be delivered at 8am that morning, I made sure I was up and about, dogs fed and organised. Just as well as the lorry turned up at 7.40am! This is almost unheard of here and indeed we had all been joking about what time they might eventually turn up. Just goes to show eh? And what a surprise I had when I saw the new steps as they could not look more different from the ones originally delivered if they tried! Look and see for yourselves...
And this is where we took a step backwards!
The depth and width of the steps were now correct BUT the arc of the new steps is considerably bigger. Basically, this meant that John had to change the concrete base he made a couple of weeks ago and would need more supporting blocks than originally planned plus more cement etc. And, it would cost us an extra one to two days of his labour! Oh great! Fortunately (and to cut a long story short) the pool supply company have agreed to pay half of the extra cost!
On Friday, the new steps were lowered into position and I think it is really starting to look like a pool now!
The kitchen doorway is progressing but John is giving the pool priority so the doorway will be left for a few days. I do have a door now but it is not yet in use! This is a collage showing the progress made last week...
This last week, having been one of steps going backwards as well as forwards, I should mention the slight problem we had when the plumber came! The central heating pipes ran along the wall where the kitchen window had been. We had arranged with our plumber (who, incidentally, is a lovely man for whom nothing ever seems to be too much trouble) to remove the radiator, sink the pipes below the new floor level that John is making and fit the new radiator that we bought some months ago. He had already removed the old radiator for us a couple of weeks ago and last week returned to do the rest of the job. Sinking the pipes was not too much of a problem but when he went to fit the new radiator he discovered that we had bought a radiator without any means of fixing it to the wall! Again, long story short? We decided to cut our losses and buy another radiator! This does mean that the plumber has to come back to finish the job (he'll be here later today!). Plus we ended up buying a heated towel rail which will fit better in the space on the wall but it cost about five times the amount we'd spent on the duff one!
Well so far in this post, I've told you only about the jobs that other people are doing for us.... what have WE been up to? Actually, we have both been pretty busy. We have been enjoying some fantastic weather - hot, sunny and DRY! So we have left the utility room for the time being so that we can get on with some jobs outdoors and enjoy the good weather at the same time.
First on the list, Danny hung some bird nesting "boxes" we had bought last year. We deliberately waited for the spring, not wanting to hang them in the winter because they are ceramic, which we thought might get frost-damaged. Here is Danny in the middle of fixing one up on the barn wall together with a picture of the two "boxes" in situ....
So far, we've seen no sign of birds even remotely interested in nesting in them! But nonetheless, they're a nice feature in the garden!
Over the course of a few days, we have been cutting down a very unruly hedge of pyracantha. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is a particularly thorny plant making it quite unpleasant to deal with, although of course it is very pretty when it flowers and, in winter, produces berries. We had trimmed it the first autumn that we were here but it had grown quite wild since then. As we have done gradually with the other hedges around the garden, we wanted to reduce the height to about my shoulder level as it makes future maintenance far easier. But it was a massive job! I finished it off on Sunday and I can now show you that we altered it from this...
(As an aside, you can see from this that the trailer is really proving its worth!)
Danny has also been very busy building two raised beds which I am going to use for my potager. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but we had a number of old oak beams in the barn which we had decided to use for the "walls" of the raised beds. But first, the beams had to be moved from the barn to the back garden! We have made various attempts at this, either by ourselves (hopeless with such a weakling as I) or with Danny's son Paul, who in fairness has been busy with motor repairs on his last two visits. Finally, Pete, a friend of ours who is unbelievably strong, came and moved them for us!
So, last Friday, Pete returned and spent pretty much the whole day, helping Danny to build the beds while Pete's wife and I looked on! All of us except Danny assumed the beams would be just piled up on top of each other, but our intrepid ex-engineer Danny had better ideas and it was a much more involved (but clearly sturdier) job! Here is the first bed being made...
And here are the finished articles...
I say 'finished' but for me, this is just the start. The next step in the process is to put a layer of compost at the bottom. I made a start on it yesterday and boy, was it hard work! Using a pitch fork, I loaded rotted compost from our "heap" into a wheelbarrow then tipped it into the first bed. I have calculated that it's going to take at least 24 wheelbarrow loads in total and so far I've managed four! Then, of course, they'll have to be filled with topsoil. And all this before I start planting in April!
Well, that's about it for this update. Bill the plumber has just arrived so it shouldn't be too long before I have the new radiator up in the kitchen.....or is that being a bit optimistic?
I'm going to leave you with this picture of FIVE happy dogs! Our friends who helped us on Friday have two dogs and they brought them over with them when they came to help Danny build the raised beds. Here they all are....
So, until next time, à bientôt!
Phew! Worn out and all I was doing was reading! Lol!
ReplyDeleteYeah...imagine how I feel!!!
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