{"id":175,"date":"2013-05-12T09:17:57","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T23:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swimming-ponds.theownerbuildernetwork.co\/?p=175"},"modified":"2017-03-09T11:19:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T01:19:39","slug":"sand-cement-water-and-one-very-irate-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/2013\/05\/12\/sand-cement-water-and-one-very-irate-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Natural Swimming Pond Build: Sand, Cement, Water and one very irate woman!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, well, well – three holes in the ground. (OK – so it’s an old and tired joke). \u00a0Actually, we just have one very big<\/em> hole in our yard, with a factory second\u00a0fibreglass\u00a0pool in it. \u00a0See?<\/p>\n

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that my dream is to give my girls a natural swimming pond. So far, everything imaginable has tried to turn that dream into a nightmare. Hubby’s got a lot to answer for and the big “D” word has crossed my mind more than a few times over the last few weeks. My patience and tolerance ran out at about\u00a0the\u00a0same time as our (very meagre) budget was blown! Things are\u00a0not<\/em> getting any better now that the pool shell is ‘in’ the ground…<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The latest problem with the project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let’s play ‘Spot the Fault’…<\/strong>
\nLet me explain. \u00a0Our \u201cfriend\u201d the expert, \u2018done lots of holes for pools<\/em>\u2019 earth-mover, (the one without<\/em> the \u2018mate\u2019s rates\u2019) made total hash of the hole. \u00a0The pool should fit snuggly in the hole with about a 150mm (six inch) gap all the way around that is to be back filled with a sand and cement mix. \u00a0It should stick out of the ground by about 100mm (four inches). We\u2019ve ordered \u2013 and budgeted, for this amount of sand and cement.<\/p>\n

Is that what we have? \u00a0Well, not exactly! What we have is the Rift Valley in our backyard! The pool shell is in and there’s still room for an adult to easily walk the entire way around the pool – and I don’t mean at ground level! To compound the problem, the hole has been dug without any allowance for the natural fall of the land, so it sticks up WAY more than 100mm at the shallow end of the pool. In fact, we estimate that it’s about five times that!<\/p>\n

I am one\u00a0furious\u00a0woman. \u00a0I suggest hubby rings excavator “friend” to come and see the mess he’s made. \u00a0Hubby and I have (another) serious argument. \u00a0We still owe ‘friend’ some money from the job and have the cash ready for him. \u00a0Surprisingly, I don’t want to pay him. \u00a0In fact, I am so angry, I want him to pay US<\/em> since it’s going to cost a lot to fix up his work and this is already a “no budget” project.<\/p>\n

He comes later that morning to collect some machinery he has left on our property. And of course, he’s looking for the balance of the money for the job. \u00a0I can’t bare to be near him. \u00a0He and hubby chat. \u00a0I’m waiting for hubby to go for\u00a0the\u00a0jugular. \u00a0Instead, he hands over OUR money on a promise that the excavator friend will “make good”. \u00a0Hubby reckons that since we live in a small town sometimes you have to suck things up rather than become the local gossip. \u00a0Mmmmm… do you think that improved my temperament or our bank balance?<\/p>\n

Nonetheless I go about organising more sand and cement. \u00a0Who knows how much we’re actually going to need, but there is simply no other way to solve this problem.<\/p>\n

It’s about the water…<\/strong>
\nI also have to organise a tanker of water. \u00a0It\u2019s the first load of water we have ever had to buy, despite living with no town water for nearly five years. \u00a0The lack of rain while we were digging a hole and getting things in place was awesome, but we now have a serious problem. \u00a0Our household has swelled from five to nine with other friends also coming and going. \u00a0Our house water has depleted rapidly but we need 30,000 litres of water to fill the pool \u2013 not to mention the reed bed. \u00a0No rain is forecast for the foreseeable future. I discover that water is not cheap\u2026 especially when it is delivered by tanker!<\/p>\n

But the pool has to be filled simultaneously as the hole is being back filled. \u00a0Basically the water pushing outwards and the sand and cement pushing inwards stops anything from collapsing. \u00a0The weight of the water will also make the pool sink slightly lower. \u00a0It is not a process to be rushed as you don’t want “air pockets” in the sand and cement.<\/p>\n

We start mixing and barrowing and shovelling and compacting. \u00a0The pool starts filling. Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow gets poured in around the pool. \u00a0We are literally watching money going down a hole.<\/p>\n

We run out of sand and cement very quickly. <\/em>The hole\u00a0is insatiable. We’ve used every grain and can’t see much difference. I order more sand and another 50 bags of cement. \u00a0Hubby rings the excavator “friend” and asks him to come and mix the sand and cement with his digger. \u00a0He ‘generously’ also decides he will help to back fill Rift Valley. \u00a0He’s obviously late \u00a0for lunch or something because it becomes a rushed job done without humility or grace for the mess he has caused.<\/p>\n

Every one of his buckets is at least three barrows and four of us are literally racing to try to compact the sand as he pours more in around and over us. This is not how it is meant to be done and I am – once again – at the point of tears.<\/p>\n

We then convince him to drag his bucket a few times across the area where we want the reed bed. He ensures we know he’s doing us a huge<\/em> favour\u00a0and then departs without a backwards glance. \u00a0I tell hubby that despite needing our driveway graded and some dams cleared, I will never give him ,another minutes’ work.<\/p>\n

But wait – there’s more!<\/strong>
\nWe’re not finished yet. The Rift Valley still isn’t full! \u00a0Another load of sand and cement has to be ordered. Everyone is suggesting we need another two trucks worth.\u00a0That’s another 25 tonnes of sand! Plus the cost of\u00a0the\u00a0cement to mix with it! \u00a0It is at this point that I do cry. \u00a0 \u00a0Our bank account can barely handle one.<\/p>\n

My best friend gives me a cuddle. \u00a0I suck it up and order ONE more load. \u00a0It is enough (if barely). \u00a0We literally rake every last grain of sand off the lawn, getting the kids involved with their little buckets and rakes designed for the beach.<\/p>\n

\"Like<\/a>
Like our safety fence?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve watched literally thousands of dollars go into this hole and despite the fact that there is water in the pool, we are a long way from the finish line. \u00a0There is a reed bed to construct, a retaining wall to be put in, paving and landscaping to be done, a pump to install, proper pool fencing to be erected and in amongst all that, three little girls to look after.<\/p>\n

I’m thinking this was a really dumb idea. \u00a0And is it ever going to rain?<\/p>\n

Have you got a shoulder for me to lean on? \u00a0Have you ever been in a predicament like this? Will my marriage survive the aptly named Rift Valley fiasco? \u00a0Share your thoughts in the comments box below.<\/p>\n

Part 6: \u00a0Boys and their toys<\/a>…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, well, well – three holes in the ground. (OK – so it’s an old and tired joke). \u00a0Actually, we just have one very big hole in our yard, with a factory second\u00a0fibreglass\u00a0pool in it. \u00a0See? If you’ve been following my blog, you know that my dream is to give my girls a natural swimming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"The making of a natural swimming pond.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sma_last_campaign_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[467],"tags":[466,468,469],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-swimming-pond","tag-natural-pool-natural-swimming-pond","tag-natural-swimming-pool","tag-swimming-pond"],"modified_by":"DW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}