Sarah and Guy Build a Swimming Pool

So this is it.  After 17 complete weeks of hard labour, stress, worry, expense and fretting, the Grand Switch On.  Except first I have a teensy problem.  During Sunday night a 40’ tree has blown down. On to the new path by the shed.  It missed the shed by about a foot.  BLOODY HELL!  My nerves are, again, in shreds, and, just to help, I seem to be starting some sort of bug.  This means that when Sarah and Vincent arrive it is not ‘hello, how lovely to see you, how’s things?’ but more ‘You won’t believe what’s happened how are you with a chain saw?’  (My apologies again, Sarah and Vincent…) Guy arrives and, with four of us at it, the tree doesn’t take long to shift, although it is after lunch before we get to the Grand Switch On. Vincent and I fill the motor with hydraulic fluid, check all the lines and … we’re ready.  I flick the switch and BANG!  Not, in fact, the electrics exploding, but Vincent, such a wag, saying BANG! for a lau...

On Monday evening I screech home from work and set to work on the plumbing – I fix the pump, filter and heater in position and then start gluing all the plumbing bits together. It looks good!!  Guy arrives and makes suitable admiring noises, we tighten everything up (hand tight, like the DVD says, so as not to crack the fittings) and put more water in the pool.  All seems fine! Guy starts on his walk home, I go to do something else and then about half an hour later go back into the cabin to check.  DRIP, DRIP, DRIP.  In THREE PLACES!  One of them is not so much a drip as a torrent….  I phone Guy, who comes straight back and we both peer at the THREE offending joints.  Blunkett sits outside the cabin and points out to anyone who’ll listen that she Hasn’t Actually Had Any Dinner Yet.  By now it is getting dark, we use Wyn’s arc light, and we can’t see what’s wrong.  Apart from the fact that it’s leaking.  At which point I give up....

On Monday, encouraged by comforting words from Keith, I tackle the plumbing.  Fun or what?  Within an hour I have all the connections, all the bits in between and, what’s more, IT LOOKS LIKE THE PICTURE!  I am very chuffed with myself.  Guy turns up to help and is suitably stunned that it is all done.  However, this is dry plumbing – now I have to take it all apart and glue it together.  Space is limited, and it occurs to me that if I do that, Wyn the Wire won’t be able to wire up the heater or the pump.  I phone Wyn who agrees to come round on Tuesday evening and do the necessary wiring, and then I can glue the plumbing together. On Tuesday I book Wednesday as a half day’s holiday from work in order to glue the plumbing.  But – Wyn can’t come.  I can’t plumb without the electrics being in place, I can’t put the cover over the pool without the plumbing in place, and I can’t (I don’t think) fill it with water without the cover.  Bugger...

Progress!  On Monday night Guy and I put the metal tracks onto the wooden pool surround – this is for the roller cover to roll along.  It fits on beautifully and is screwed on with no problem at all.  We are not used to such an easy life! Then we clear all the debris from inside the pit (that’s a LOT of debris – mostly wood and sawdust) and prepare to put down the felt which will be under the liner.  It gets glued to the floor with spray adhesive, and cut to size.  The spray adhesive is BLUE and it’s like that joke string that kids spray out of cans.  This is FUN!  The felt goes down beautifully, and before long we are standing in our socks on an expanse of thick soft black felt.  Pieces of polystyrene are glued into the corners to round them off, and we’re done for the day – easy or what? Except we do have one problem.  Up until now we’ve had a set of small steps inside the pool walls – climb up steps, swing leg over, stand on base outs...

On Monday I phone Gareth the Wood early to see if he can make the plugs that Dave the Miller has not provided.  The answer is no.  Excellent.  8.15am on a Monday morning and already Tuesday is going pear shaped.  I phone Dave the Miller’s mobile.  Turned off.  I phone Dave the Miller’s office.  Answerphone.  I leave an answer and begin to worry that he has gone on holiday…. But he does phone back and, yes, he can make the plugs as long as I can pick them up in the evening.  No problem, had planned an easy night before picking Guy up from the coach – he comes back TODAY!!!   On my way home from work I go to order a CLOCK.  Not just any old clock, but a HUGE CLOCK which says ‘Waterloo’ on it…. I’ve wanted one ever since I moved to Waterloo but could never think of anywhere to put it – now I have a huge cabin and it needs a clock.  Clock shop shut.  I drive home, oil wood (again), clean Guy’s car, drive my car to Guy’s ...