Concreting the base for the swimming pool

The next step was to concrete the floor, the mix had to be very dry in order for us to form the rounded bottom of the deep end - this made it very hard to move it around and to smooth it down. In addition we had too much (for the walls we didn't have enough!) cement - so we ended up shovelling lots out and putting it around the base of the walls outside. Unfortunately you can't send concrete back and get a refund! Hey, ho!

First lorry of concrete was delivered - with this we filled up the wall structure - 5m3 of concrete. Tomorrow we will do the base of the swimming pool.

Ready for concrete

Yesterday we finished putting in the metal reinforcements for the concrete and connecting the pipes which will suck the liner into place.

Structure finished

This morning we started to put together the walls - a short storm came over and blew everything down!













This afternoon we finished putting all the panels together and reinforcing them with metal rods - all is square, level and in place - just the steps to do and we're ready to concrete it all in ....

Swimming pool arrives

The lorry arrived with all the pieces of the swimming pool, very exciting and very big - the lorry couldn't turn around in the courtyard, it was so big!

Building a concrete surround

The pool walls need a level, solid base to stand on, here are Jeff, Yves and Hugh putting this in place

We have a hole !

After waiting for three stressful days, the digger man finally arrived - and we now have a hole. The deep end of the pool slopes downward from the shallow end (furthest away).

Now awaiting delivery of the pool kit on Thursday...

Today, Yves cousin Pierrick (agricultural contractor) came to chop down the rest of the Walnut tree which was growing around the electricity cable carrying 400V to the house. Unfortunately my camera battery was flat so I had to take the photo with my mobile ... He was in a large cherry picker which he whizzed about ...with his left hand whilst brandishing a chain saw with his right hand - no harness, no safety helmet, no goggles and (only in France) a cigarette hanging out of his mouth ...!

The second shed has now come down - this was more difficult because I wanted to keep the wood - solid oak - for use in other projects, so it could not be bulldozed. Thanks to Yves, Hervé and Jeff for their help - we started at 10am and finished at 4.30 pm - payment was by means of coq au vin at lunchtime and a few beers at the end!

The first shed has now been demolished - this was the easy one as we decided that apart from the corrugated roofing sheets, there was nothing to be saved - the wood was rotting, so we decided to burn it ...