At the start of the week, we had the makings of a swimming pool (with nearly a foot of water in the deep end) surrounded by heaps of soggy wet red clay.
Fortunately, we didn’t get much rain this week. The violent storms earlier in the month had caused a large oak tree near the front of the house (fortunately far enough away to make for any damage to the house) had shed two large limbs, but the remained suspended forty feet in the air, supported by adjacent trees. Finally, one fell this week, so at the weekend I was out with my chainsaw cutting it up into manageable sized pieces. I never expected to become a lumberjack in my retirement years, but living in the forest does have its challenges.
By the end of the week, we had moved forwards quite a way:
- At the house end of the trench which had been the scene of the great septic accident two weeks back, we have pumps, filters, heaster and all sorts of gubbins installed. Including electric connections.
- The inspector has been to check on the electrics (well, would you want a swimming pool with dodgy electrical connections?). He gave the work a clean bill of health.
- The mounds of clay have been bulldozed into a semblance of order, and TJ (our concreter exrtraordinaire) has visited to start planning the lansdscaping around the pool. He will be back next week.
- Around the top of the pool is a row of tiles (at the waterline-to-be) and a foot-wide surround of paving.
Other pool plans for the next week or two include a stucco coating of the inside of the pool to give a final smooth surface. And with lots of dirt pushing and concrete pouring work by TJ, we reach ever closer to the day when water will start to flow, filling up the pool.
Inside the house, we have had two tours of inspections led by Bill the Builder. As well as being the subject of the magazine articles, our home is turning into a sales tool for Bill’s potential new clients. We are happy to help him, he did do a pretty good job for us. We were starting to worry a bit at not hearing from Designer Dream Homes about the content of the final article, as this is supposed to hit the bookshops in only a month. However, we had a sudden email from them, and there is a teleconference scheduled for next Monday.
On Thursday, we went out on a great shopping expedition. It is surprising how we seem to have stopped going great distances regularly (perhaps there is so much to do in the house – it seems so). Anyway we needed various supplies, so headed out down towards Atlanta to purchase important supplies (like chicken not prepackaged swimming in a chemical goo). We were supposed to meet our mobile fishmonger during the trip to pick up some stocks of salmon and scallops, but had a call from him to say that his van had broken down with an exploding radiator hose. So we had an extra detour to meet him near the breakdown point to make our collection. It seems surprising that we drove more than a hundred miles just to do food shopping!
On Friday, we had more of a day out. Lisa needed to pick up donations of samples for participants at the Master Gardeners’ Conference in Hiawassee, up and over the ridge of the Appalachians to the North of us. It’s a very scenic drive. So off we went, stopping at the Cafe Portofino (not very Italian) overlooking Lake Chatuga. As well as our main errand, we also visited two wineries, Hightower Creek and Paradise Hills. The owners of both are planning to attend a party next week at Cavender Creek winery (our Friday afternoon hangout) to mark the retirement of the owners. We’ve been invited too – it should be a good event.