Pool Build - Day 6

St Clotaire

The pool is STILL filling up. The tap has been on for days which means that the water pressure indoors is quite low and it takes ages to run water for the washing up. It's tempting to leave it until after dark when we turn the tap off for the night but we have had two evenings of visitors for supper and therefore two late nights with piles of washing up - Jon has yet to admit defeat and agree to our getting a dishwasher - he says that he is our dishwasher, although in truth we share the chore.

Stephane has had a not quite so busy day. Without J-J here he has taken advantage a little and disappeared from time to time, he was late, had a long lunch with his friends next door, and vanished at 5pm. We were then surprised when a small truck with a mini digger on board appeared at 6pm and drove across the field, unloaded the digger and ended up in our garden.

I went out to see what was going on and a very nice chap came and explained that Stephane had called him to come and move the soil back into the trench across the garden. Stephane, he said, was on his way back to supervise. Sure enough, he drove his little blue van up through the field and took over.

We have been slightly miffed with Stephane today as he hasn't told us what he is doing, where he is going or anything so we're looking forward to the return of J-J tomorrow morning to find out where they are up to. J-J has had a day by the sea over in the Vendée supervising the start of another pool - a drive of about 5 - 6 hours for one day. Tomorrow morning he is supervising the start of another pool but closer by this time. The company put in around 70 - 80 pools per year, and depending on the installer they can take up to 4 weeks. J-J has installed around 300 and is now very speedy so ours is only taking 2 weeks.

The water level is finally just 5 cm below full so hopefully we can turn the tap off tomorrow and put the washing machine on at last. I think it will be running for a couple of days as I haven't managed to get a load in since last Tuesday and have all the bedding and towels to do as well.

As it has been a lovely day, although very cold, Jon took advantage of the dry and sun to make some inroads into clearing up after the tree felling session on Saturday. We have too many piles of wood in the garden, the logs for cutting into log size for the woodburner (that we haven't got yet but will have by next winter), the kindling sized pieces which we will have to find another home for - heaven knows where as we can't keep it in the garage (I'll explain in a minute) and the rubbish which is for shredding or bonfires.

In France, and particularly in more southern regions, you never store wood indoors, logs for the burner are brought into the house only when they need to go straight into the fire - the reason? Termites. If termites get into the house they are a serious problem. They can eat through your beams, rafters and floors in a matter of days and the house would fall down. It's definitely worth remembering this as we recently heard a tale of a friend of a friend who stored their kindling in the house and didn't realise that there were termites in there - oops. We would rather not spend our money on a new roof (whatever money will be left after we've done the pool, the loft and suffered from the appalling pound/euro exchange rate prevailing) so as soon as we have cleaned up the loft we will be treating all the rafters and framework to prevent woodworm, termites and the other threat to our wood - capricorn beetle.

Good news today, youngest daughter has booked her flights to come over with her husband and three boys Jack, Leo and new baby boy (he hasn't been born yet so doesn't have a name) in August for just over a week. As we are already expecting number one daughter (sadly not her husband) and grand-daughter for a week in May, and number two daughter (by 20 minutes)* and her husband in September we are really happy that we can see them all over here this summer.

We are, of course, quite confident that unlike last year there will be a summer. It seems to have been the longest winter ever but surely the sun will come out and warm us all up before long.

* For those who aren't already aware number one daughter and number two daughter are twins

Hugging trees

St Marcellin

The pool is slowly filling up. J-J said he thought 2 cm per hour but I think it's more like one. We can't have the water on all night as our bedroom is right over the tap and it is very noisy water running through the pipes. We will have to ask Stephane to connect the water directly to the inlet again tomorrow and hopefully it will be full by tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, down on the ranch, we had friends over yesterday to help us clear some trees. They worked really hard but sadly couldn't take down my pet hate, the horse chestnut - it is too big, too close to the house and the pool and has to go. We will have to find a man with a proper tree harness to come and take it down slowly and carefully. First find your man!!

We did, however, manage to lose the remains of 8 pine trees that were next to the gate, all the old fruit trees which were only really suckers from some long defunct plums, the elderflower which was well over 6 metres high, and various other oaks and sycamores which had seeded themselves here and there. There is more work to do, especially coppicing clumps that have been grown for firewood and which are too high, but now that Jon has got confidence with the chainsaw we will be able to manage the rest ourselves.

All that remains is a hell of a lot of clearing up!

After the tree work we had a lovley relaxed evening meal here. All very convivial, now I wonder how they are feeling this morning with the aches and pains they no doubt gained from yesterday's work.

Pool Build - Day 5

St Isidore



I think I'll make this a silent Friday, well, sort of. J-J and Stephane cursed and swore as they tried to make the trim fit around the Roman End, but everything now fits and we have just to leave the water running all weekend to fill the pool, so that they can back fill and lay the edging tiles next week.






They have to fit the heater and the filtration system but say that this time next week they will be finished.

I should mention that J-J has another two builds to start next week so he can't be here full time.

Pool Build - Day 4

St Richard

[Edited 4 April to add photos ]

By midday today the steel framework was complete.


By 3pm the liner was put in place.

By 3.15 the tap was turned on and the pool started filling with water. Two vacuum cleaners suck out the air between the liner and the framework.

By 5pm the deep end 'well' of the pool is full of water but it will take around 3 days in total to fill the pool entirely.

Meanwhile, rather than stand round watching a hose spouting water, Jean-Jacques and Stephane are laying electricity cables for the pool, heater and the chalet. Tomorrow they will lay a water supply to a garden tap.

When the pool is 30cm deep, Jean-Jacques will cut the liner and neaten it around the Roman End (steps to you and me).

These guys don't hang around.

This means that Jon and I have to start thinking seriously about the pool paving and indeed the design of the rest of the garden.

Memo to self: Sharpen pencils and get the gardening books out.

PS: Jim's been quiet recently. HEY JIM @ FARNHAM, where are you?

Pool Build - Day 3

Ste Sandrine

Well, we're amazed at how quickly these two guys are working. Day 3 and already the pool's concrete base is setting, half of the steel frame is in place and so are the steps.

Figgy thinks that there must surely be some mice down there that need 'liberating' from their safe holes.



Meanwhile up in the attic, Jon has moved some of the old flooring and it looks as though it won't be going back down again. He's also moved a heap of rubble, concrete and other rubbish and found one beam with no centre. It seems there must have been a leak in the roof at some point, probably at least 25 years ago. A repair was made but the water rotted the centre of the beam in one place. The rest of the beam, including the outside seems very sound and it is still holding up the hanging ceiling so we will see if we can treat it and fill it before we re-lay the floor at that point.

We were out at friends for supper last night. It was a lovely evening, lots of chatter and banter and we left at 11.30pm. The drive home took an hour and during that time we saw:

• one hedgehog


• one mouse


• three ducks crossing the road in the middle of a village


• one toad


• several deer

and

• five vehicles

It's a mad, busy area we live in y'know!

Beginnings - Part 2

St Hugues

It was no April Fool's joke, that's for sure. We started the day bright and - no, wait a minute, forget the bright, but it was early. J-J and his helper Stephane arrived at 8.30 and off-loaded 34 bags of cement. They set to immediately down in the pool and worked hard all day to produce the base of the smaller circle.

Meanwhile, indoors, Jon was ready to make the hole in the lounge ceiling. We've been putting it off for so long waiting for the weather to improve, or at least warm up a bit and today was the designated day for the start of the work.

The ceilings are made of red bricks, cemented together and hung from the rafters by wire. A sort of hung ceiling. Lovely red dust filled the house and it will probably take a while to settle and be disposed of finally.

Jon carefully took the ceiling down in sections, with me underneath in hard hat, goggles and face mask to catch the sections as they fell. The first one came down easily, although it was a little heavier than I had expected. The second was just as simple, which is lucky since my hard hat fell off. The third fell just as I was taking it and landed with a thump on the floor having bounced off the wall, leaving its mark. The fourth was OK. The fifth hadn't been cut through properly but suddenly cracked and landed at my feet - luckily not on them and the sixth was another easy one. Unfortunately the floor was damaged on the fifth section dropping but the intended stairs will cover that bit of the floor.

Later, we 'rescued' a very old ladder that has obviously resided in the loft for many, many a year. It is very sturdy, no signs of woodworm or other damage and will serve as a temporary staircase until such time as we decide what staircase we want up there.

Next job? Cleaning the attic out. It has obviously not been cleaned, well, probably ever and there is all sorts of dust and debris up there to clear up before we even consider treating all the wood and repointing the end walls.

On hearing the first

... cuckoo of spring - today 1st April. Earlier than last year but it has taken two days to get over the hill from friends who heard it on Saturday!