We have built the pergola at the back of the house which will form a path way to the pool once the plants . . . → Read More: Garden and Pergola Update]]> It has been a while since our last update. We have been mainly busy doing work in the garden. The annual hedge trim is under way at the moment and nearly finished.

We have built the pergola at the back of the house which will form a path way to the pool once the plants are in and some gravel or stones are spread on the ground. It wasn’t too difficult to build, the hard work was in getting the footings for the posts in. Each one has about 20kg of concrete in each hole and then a foot bolted to the concrete and then the post sits in the foot like this:

The difficult bit I suppose was getting them all the right spacing from each other and also in line and at the right height out of the ground! But the finished result looks good.

We are in the process of raking out the stones from the ground and the stones are being ‘arranged’ on some matting around the trees as a sort of ornamental mulch. We have also managed to repair ground behind the house which was rutted when the digger came on site.

The pool is a big success it sits at about 28-30 degrees most days.

But compared to a year ago we are currently having weather that is a lot warmer and drier compared to this time last year. Our heating hasn’t come on at all for over 6 . . . → Read More: One year…]]> So Thursday 26 May was one year since we arrived. Time flies fast when you are having fun as they say….

But compared to a year ago we are currently having weather that is a lot warmer and drier compared to this time last year. Our heating hasn’t come on at all for over 6 weeks now I would think. And although they forecast rain we barely get enough to dampen the grass, or what grass there is left!!

We swim most days the pool temperature has stabilised at about 29 degrees which is very comfortable and the solar heated shower works very well we often need to add cold water to the hot because it is too hot.

We are now getting the garden sorted out gradually it’s been rotovated and Alison is clearing stones and weeds from the ground.

It started off at about 17 degrees, but gradually day by day it has been rising to a comfortable 27 degrees. The cover . . . → Read More: Swimming Pool is finished and we are swimming!]]> So after quite a long build and installation the pool is now finished. It took over 24 hours to fill it, I estimate there are 37000 litres of water in the pool!

It started off at about 17 degrees, but gradually day by day it has been rising to a comfortable 27 degrees. The cover helps to warm up the pool as well as keeping out the dirt and the muck out of the water.

At night we can turn on the lights around the edge and in the pool itself.

Then when we want to swim in the pool we undo the fixing bolts and the cover rolls back to the far end and in we get.

We also have a solar heated shower which given a good sunny day gives us enough hot water to shower before we both go in to the pool and to rinse off when we get out. It’s on the right just out of the above picture.

As you can see we still have some work to do around the pool itself in terms of gravel to the edges and the garden in general, but this will happen given time!  A big thank you to ‘Handy Andy‘ for his hard work with getting the slabs and fixtures just right.