Day 1

Today was soo exciting that we decided to collect the kids early from school just so they could watch!  They were interested for all of 5mins, their attention quickly moved to the bounty they collected from Trick or Treat!!

So, bright and early this morning a huge truck arrived along with a bobcat and some sort of digger.

  

They just managed to fit through the garage door.

First job of the day was to get the 1st soakwell in.

 Then the digging could begin.

 The Shallow end taking shape.

 Getting deeper.

I now realise why we had to have the pillars injected with concrete.  This pillar is at the shallow end which will be 1.2m deep, they had to inject concrete 1.4m below the pillar to support it.

 The roof is balancing on this pillar.  FREAKY

With the shallow end completed it was on too the 'deep' end, this presented a slight problem.  Normally, they dig the deep end first and use the shallow end level as a ramp to get out.  Due to the shape of our pool and the access they had,  they had to dig the shallow end first which mean't in order to get the bobcat out they had to do a run up the deep end edge to get back out.  This was taking about 3 or 4 attempts each time.  Was rather amusing to watch even more so tomorrow when they finally dig to the 2.2m they need to get too.

At the end of day 1 and after 3 truck loads of dirt taken away we are left with this huge crater in the back garden.

The kiddywinks in the dug out shallow end.

Lots more 'fun' and dirt coming tomorrow as they plan on finishing the digging and starting the formwork.

Stay tuned.

and the destruction begins!!

There has been a slight delay with the building licence, uh oh!  After being told it would be issued it still has not, there does seem to be a slight problem and we think that it might be to do with the boundry fence.  Easily fixed but the pool company needs to just sort it out and it will be fine.

In the meantime, Steve has been a VERY busy boy over the last two weeks.  *Drumroll please* my veggie boxes are finished!!  Yay, Yay..

BEFORE

Laying out the blocks

 ooooo First row done!

 2nd row in progress

 He is doing it!

Finished and filled with sand and lovely little seedlings, Steve finishing paving as I write.  Will upload an AFTER photo when finished.

So, another 'job' Steve had to overcome was THE TREE!  Not just any tree but THE TREE.
Quite a pretty tree and looks harmless enough.

 It was what lurked beneath was the problem!! De De Derrrrrr

 Roots, roots and more roots.

 We ended up having to bring in some heavy duty lifting machinery to get the job done.

Finally, after 3 evenings, 2 men and a gazillion litres of water it was out!

Here we are on Sunday night and tomorrow is the big day as tomorrow is DIG DAY!  Yipppeeee.  We have done everything we need to do to prepare and have ordered everything that needs to be ordered.

Skip - CHECK, Soakwells & Lids - CHECK, Wood - CHECK.  We are ready.

Back tomorrow with daily updates.
xx

WHEN???????????????????

Just a quick update!
Rang the pool company today just to see if they had heard anything from the council and I was told it would take another 3 weeks! WHAT?  Surely not!  It had already been into council for almost 3 weeks after being orginally told it would take 4.
I had a bit of a moan to them about the delay lots of apologising from them "but its out of their hands" yanno??  Hang up the phone and 5mins later the phone rings and it's the pool company saying that actually, the building permit will be issued on TUESDAY!  Yes, Tuesday, the Tuesday that is only in 5 days time!
Busy, busy weekend ahead for us.
x

Welcome and the journey begins!

G'day, Bonjour, Orright mate (Hello)
Considering our lovely family is spread out all over the place we decided (or rather I decided) to set up a blog so we can keep you updated on the process of our garden overhaul which will make way for our *drum roll* POOL!!!!
Yippppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Considering there are a few of you who are yet to take the Facebook step *cough Angie, Steve cough* we figured a blog was the next best thing!

So, the journey begins!

*yawn* will start properly tomoz.
Night all
x

A proper start

Late nights and insightful and amusing blog posts don't work so well.. So, I now post refreshed and with a drink in hand *chin, chin*.

From the begining...  Steve and I spent many months to-ing and fro-ing about whether we should move or not and actually got pretty darn close to making an offer on two house on seperate occasions.  The fear of a humungous mortgage (me) and the actual hassle of moving (me) made us review our plans.  We decided that we were actually pretty happy with the house we were in except for two things - it didn't have a pool and I hated the kitchen.
We spoke to the bank and did some sums and well... here we are in the paperwork process of a beautiful new pool (and I hope a new kitchen).

Due to the limited space we had available we decided to put in a concrete pool, if we had gone with a standard fibreglass pool we would of ended up with a lap pool which did not sit well with me..... All I could think about was children (correction Owen and Steve) jumping in and hitting body parts on the opposite side.  There are a whole bunch of legalities in how close the pool could be to the house and fence but as concrete pools have a steele structure there is a bit more flexibility.

A concrete pool enabled us to have the pool closer to the boundry fence and to the house and of course we could be a bit creative about it (we never argued once!!!...NOT) heeheehee
More before shots...

At this current moment the pool plans are in the council having the required 'stamp of approval', we are waiting with baited breath for all systems go!!

So, Steve has been lucky enough (beer bribes) to rope in a couple of mates to help with some prep work, removing of garden beds, water feature and tip runs to buy second hand soakwells (very heavy concrete buggers).

Steve also had to dig a big hole which he was pretty proud of and wanted me take a photo.

GO STEVE!!

Back to the mates.... There seemed to be alot of standing around and pointing..

 Steve making sure Damo is doing it right.

 

Finally, work gets underway.

My poor vegie patch!

Work has now stopped - Steve's 40th party was last weekend so we had to make sure there was some standing room left (for drunk people) but now that is over we are just waiting on Bob the Builder... sorry Steve returning from work  for the next phase.  I secretly hope that his first priority (unlikely) will be the re-positioning of my vegie patch now the warmer weather has started I am itching to get my summer crops started.
In the meantime Owen and Chloe are having a great time playing in the 'mine' (photo to come).
Stay tuned for the next part of the saga!
Night all
xx